Alexandre Lourenço's keynote on "Planning for a modern workforce", at the WHO High-level Regional Meeting on Health and Care Workforce in Europe: 22-23 March 2023, Bucharest, Romania.
HIGH-LEVEL REGIONAL MEETING ON HEALTH AND CARE WORKFORCE IN EUROPE: TIME TO ACT
Thank you.
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www.alexandrelourenco.pt
Editor's Notes
Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here at this landmark event in HRH.
Health workforce planning aims to achieve a proper balance between the supply and demand of health professionals in both the short and longer term.
We know that even the countries using planning models failed to account for current imbalances in the healthcare workforce.
- health expenditure ultimately determines the size of the healthcare workforce, and different expenditure projections significantly impact future workforce demand.
- Some models have focused on healthcare needs rather than utilization, which requires normative judgments and is highly uncertain.
Many models are uni-professional and miss the opportunities for a degree of ‘horizontal’ or ‘vertical’ substitution.
Most models make arbitrary assumptions about changes in productivity, with little evidence to base this on.
A review of twenty six workforce planning models across the OECD (Ono et al., 2013) identified the following issues in the current approaches (see Table 17.1).
While most workforce attrition comes from retirement, workers also drop out of the workforce for other reasons, including abandonment, time taken off to raise children, to care for elderly family members, or to pursue additional training.
Sometimes this break becomes permanent, but many return to the workforce. Like retirement decisions, workforce retention rates are often cyclical with the economy.
Nurse workforce retention rates have also been shown to be sensitive to wage changes. As wages increase, workforce participation rates increase (Buerhau: Auerbach, and Staiger 2007). Modeling attrition from the workforce due to economic factors is difficult because economic conditions cannot be anticipated. To overcome this difficulty, analysts often assume an average attrition rate that evens out boom and bust cycles over the projection period.
Hire new workers
• Increase the amount of time that workers provide patient care
• Retain workers who would have otherwise retired or left the organization
• Develop skills of workers within organization
While most workforce attrition comes from retirement, workers als Irop out of the workforce for other reasons, including death and time take off to raise children, to care for elderly family members, or to pursue add tonal training. Sometimes this break becomes permanent, but many return to the workforce. Like retirement decisions, workforce retention rates ar often cyclical with the economy. For example, nurses tend to stay in the workforce during economic downturns, presumably to offset a decline i earnings by their spouses (Stager, Auerbach, and Buerhaus 2012). Nurse workforce retention rates have also been shown to be sensitive to changes in wages. As wages increase, workforce participation rates increase (Buerhau:
Auerbach, and Staiger 2007). Modeling attrition from the workforce due t economic factors is difficult because economic conditions cannot be antic pated. To overcome this difficulty, analysts often assume an average attritio rate that evens out boom and bust cycles over the projection period.
Hire new workers
• Increase the amount of time that workers provide patient care
• Retain workers who would have otherwise retired or left the organization
• Develop skills of workers within organization
Increased demand for health services as a result of: an aging population, increase in chronic diseases, service backlogs due to the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing legitimate expectations from patients.
Not only increased demand but also demanding more convenience.
While most workforce attrition comes from retirement, workers als Irop out of the workforce for other reasons, including death and time take off to raise children, to care for elderly family members, or to pursue add tonal training. Sometimes this break becomes permanent, but many return to the workforce. Like retirement decisions, workforce retention rates ar often cyclical with the economy. For example, nurses tend to stay in the workforce during economic downturns, presumably to offset a decline i earnings by their spouses (Stager, Auerbach, and Buerhaus 2012). Nurse workforce retention rates have also been shown to be sensitive to changes in wages. As wages increase, workforce participation rates increase (Buerhau:
Auerbach, and Staiger 2007). Modeling attrition from the workforce due t economic factors is difficult because economic conditions cannot be antic pated. To overcome this difficulty, analysts often assume an average attritio rate that evens out boom and bust cycles over the projection period.
Hire new workers
• Increase the amount of time that workers provide patient care
• Retain workers who would have otherwise retired or left the organization
• Develop skills of workers within organization
While most workforce attrition comes from retirement, workers als Irop out of the workforce for other reasons, including death and time take off to raise children, to care for elderly family members, or to pursue add tonal training. Sometimes this break becomes permanent, but many return to the workforce. Like retirement decisions, workforce retention rates ar often cyclical with the economy. For example, nurses tend to stay in the workforce during economic downturns, presumably to offset a decline i earnings by their spouses (Stager, Auerbach, and Buerhaus 2012). Nurse workforce retention rates have also been shown to be sensitive to changes in wages. As wages increase, workforce participation rates increase (Buerhau:
Auerbach, and Staiger 2007). Modeling attrition from the workforce due t economic factors is difficult because economic conditions cannot be antic pated. To overcome this difficulty, analysts often assume an average attritio rate that evens out boom and bust cycles over the projection period.
Hire new workers
• Increase the amount of time that workers provide patient care
• Retain workers who would have otherwise retired or left the organization
• Develop skills of workers within organization
While most workforce attrition comes from retirement, workers als Irop out of the workforce for other reasons, including death and time take off to raise children, to care for elderly family members, or to pursue add tonal training. Sometimes this break becomes permanent, but many return to the workforce. Like retirement decisions, workforce retention rates ar often cyclical with the economy. For example, nurses tend to stay in the workforce during economic downturns, presumably to offset a decline i earnings by their spouses (Stager, Auerbach, and Buerhaus 2012). Nurse workforce retention rates have also been shown to be sensitive to changes in wages. As wages increase, workforce participation rates increase (Buerhau:
Auerbach, and Staiger 2007). Modeling attrition from the workforce due t economic factors is difficult because economic conditions cannot be antic pated. To overcome this difficulty, analysts often assume an average attritio rate that evens out boom and bust cycles over the projection period.
Hire new workers
• Increase the amount of time that workers provide patient care
• Retain workers who would have otherwise retired or left the organization
• Develop skills of workers within organization
While most workforce attrition comes from retirement, workers als Irop out of the workforce for other reasons, including death and time take off to raise children, to care for elderly family members, or to pursue add tonal training. Sometimes this break becomes permanent, but many return to the workforce. Like retirement decisions, workforce retention rates ar often cyclical with the economy. For example, nurses tend to stay in the workforce during economic downturns, presumably to offset a decline i earnings by their spouses (Stager, Auerbach, and Buerhaus 2012). Nurse workforce retention rates have also been shown to be sensitive to changes in wages. As wages increase, workforce participation rates increase (Buerhau:
Auerbach, and Staiger 2007). Modeling attrition from the workforce due t economic factors is difficult because economic conditions cannot be antic pated. To overcome this difficulty, analysts often assume an average attritio rate that evens out boom and bust cycles over the projection period.
Hire new workers
• Increase the amount of time that workers provide patient care
• Retain workers who would have otherwise retired or left the organization
• Develop skills of workers within organization
Health service utilization (or healthcare needs in approaches that use a broader approach to measuring demand) – for example, taking account of different utilization rates by different population groups. 4Different health service delivery models (which may influence workforce requirements in primary care, hospitals and long-term care).
Walshe, Kieran; Walshe, Kieran; Smith, Judith; Smith, Judith. EBOOK: Healthcare Management (UK Higher Education Humanities & Social Sciences Health & Social Welfare) (p. 310). McGraw-Hill Education. Kindle Edition.
The health system is typically dominated by:
healthcare traditional providers: hospitals, primary care centers, clinics, etc
pharma and medical devices industry
These two have been evolving in developing precision medicine and risk-sharing contracts. Hospitals also understand that they need to break their walls and increase proximity to patients and communities. Namely to solve problems in provider-patient transitions.
A third party is emerging. Primarily as technological partners of legacy providers, pharma, and medical devices industry.
New technological players are primarily influencing the previous two.
We see its influence on Bigdata, remote monitoring, decision-support tools, etc. If primarily they rely on conventional providers, they now venture themselves to solo initiatives: remote physical therapy, teleconsultations, etc., disrupting the way care is being provided.
In my opinion, the most significant disruption will come from an alternative player. The individual health providers. The primary technology companies are investing in health prevention. They have the capacity and resources to influence healthcare, as we didn’t see it yet. The ability to detect prediabetes, fever, arrhythmia, and provide meaningful advice.
if care providers can access these decision-support tools, what stops the patients they serve from also accessing them? And if my patients can access these same tools, what do they need me for?
a new world is around the corner
While most workforce attrition comes from retirement, workers als Irop out of the workforce for other reasons, including death and time take off to raise children, to care for elderly family members, or to pursue add tonal training. Sometimes this break becomes permanent, but many return to the workforce. Like retirement decisions, workforce retention rates ar often cyclical with the economy. For example, nurses tend to stay in the workforce during economic downturns, presumably to offset a decline i earnings by their spouses (Stager, Auerbach, and Buerhaus 2012). Nurse workforce retention rates have also been shown to be sensitive to changes in wages. As wages increase, workforce participation rates increase (Buerhau:
Auerbach, and Staiger 2007). Modeling attrition from the workforce due t economic factors is difficult because economic conditions cannot be antic pated. To overcome this difficulty, analysts often assume an average attritio rate that evens out boom and bust cycles over the projection period.
Hire new workers
• Increase the amount of time that workers provide patient care
• Retain workers who would have otherwise retired or left the organization
• Develop skills of workers within organization
Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here at this landmark event in HRH.