About the Data Guide
Overview
Persistent maldistribution of the health care workforce within New York State has led to access to care issues and, consequently, poor health outcomes for many New Yorkers, especially vulnerable populations, such as Medicaid recipients and underinsured individuals. Understanding the supply and distribution of the health care workforce is important; however, it is only the first step in understanding health care demand. There is also a need to understand population characteristics, such as age, and health care behaviors and outcomes, such as cancer rates, prevalence of smoking, or the prevalence of diabetes. Information on both the distribution of the workforce and the health of the population helps define care need and access to care. Ultimately, improving access to care is facilitated by having the appropriate workforce where it is needed.
Using the Data Guide
This data guide is designed to inform stakeholder groups, including health care providers, educators, and policy makers, who collaboratively plan health workforce development. The information presented in this data guide can be used to enhance the policy dialogue at the state and local levels to assist New York in having the right health care professionals in the right places.
This data guide provides information on population demographics, health behaviors, health outcomes, as well as the health care system and workforce. To better assess potential geographic differences in the population’s health care needs and the health care delivery system, data are presented for the entire state, as well as downstate (New York City and Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland and Westchester counties), upstate (all remaining counties), all 11 state regions, and for each of the state’s 62 counties. The regions used in the data guide are the New York State Department of Health Population Health Improvement Program (PHIP) regions. The interactivity of the data guide, however, allows users to tailor the information to their individual requirements and understand the data on multiple levels. The detailed, county-level data in the data guide can be downloaded and aggregated into different geographic region based on user needs.
Data Guide Funding
Funding for the development of the Health Workforce Data Planning Guide was provided by the State University of New York (SUNY). The data for this data guide was compiled and analyzed by the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the School of Public Health, SUNY Albany. The staff who contributed to the guide include: Lauren Boyd, Jingya Gao, Nafin Harun, Leanne Keough, Yuhao Liu, Robert Martiniano, and Shen Wang. The web site was developed by New York State Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology at Stony Brook University. The staff who contributed to the web site development include: Zachary Lerman, Tianyun Ling and Rong Zhao.
