How We Found Healthcare Workforce Initiatives

​

Our database of healthcare workforce development initiatives includes information such as who the initiative impacts, key partners involved in the work, and funding sources. The goal is to help healthcare workforce stakeholders find existing solutions. Expediting the search process helps reduce duplication of effort while creating opportunities to foster relationships and scale successful projects. MHC completed the following steps to create the database:

 

Step 1.
Define criteria for inclusion. The initiative must meet at least one of the following criteria: 

1. Recruitment: The initiative has the goal of developing more healthcare professionals.

2. Improvement: The initiative has the goal of improving the quality of healthcare professionals and the services they provide to patients.

3. Retention: The initiative has the goal of retaining the current healthcare workforce.

 

Step 2.
Develop plan to search for healthcare workforce initiatives in Michigan by organization type. Organization types included health systems, professional associations, public health departments, and skilled nursing facilities among others.

 

Step 3.
Collect standard information across all initiatives. Standard information includes: name of initiative, healthcare organizations involved, geographic scope, healthcare professions impacted, ZIP code, Prosperity Region, funding source, goal/purpose, and description of intervention. 

 

Step 4.
Implement plan to search for healthcare workforce initiatives in Michigan. Our initial search was primarily Internet-based, reviewing government websites and using statewide health associations to direct us to initiative information from specific healthcare organizations. To supplement our online initiative search, we consulted members of MHC’s Employer Council to catalog workforce development activities in their networks. We plan to update the Hub on a regular basis. 

​

Step 5.
Advertise the database of initiatives and encourage its use as a resource. The current data is available online at www.mhc.org/hub and allows users to search for initiatives based on health workforce outcomes (described in step 1), funding organization, or on regional geography. The Hub is presented in tandem with the Michigan Healthcare Workforce Index – a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive index that assesses the “health” of 36 healthcare occupations in Michigan. Health is determined through a composite score evaluating each occupation’s growth, shortage, wage growth, and turnover. The Index is available online at www.mhc.org/index.