WICHE Publications : Healthcare and behavioral health stakeholders

  • WICHE 2013 Workplan

    WICHE and its 15 member states work to improve access to higher education and ensure student success. Our student exchange programs, regional initiatives, and research and policy work allow us to assist constituents throughout the West and beyond. In fiscal 2013 WICHE's four units - Programs and Services, Policy Analysis and Research, Mental Health Program, and WCET - will strive to assist the West's institutions and students, focusing on five areas: finance; access and success; workforce and society; technology and innovation; and accountability. In the 2013 Workplan, we describe existing activities, as well as initiatives that are new directions or on the horizon, by unit. Along with a brief narrative of each project, we include its focus area/s; priority in terms of WICHE's mission; funding source and amount; staffing level; timeline; organizational partners; and state institutional partners.

    2012 ~ 29pp. ~ PDF ~ 515 kb~ DOWNLOAD

  • Crisis/Opportunity — WICHE 2011 Annual Report
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    In the face of dwindling state support to adequately fund higher education, we know we still need to produce more postsecondary graduates; and because we need to reach deeper into the low-income and minority communities to do so, controlling costs and keeping tuition affordable is critical. Along with challenging economic circumstances (and in some cases because of them), four issues have come to the forefront in the West, in addition to the key issue of productivity: performance funding; governance changes; accountability; and innovation. It is clear that the demands on our higher education systems and our institutions will continue to grow and that state funding levels will not keep pace. Let's hope the last year, challenging though it was for many states, yields more such innovations in the future.

    2011 ~ PDF ~ 949 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • A Closer Look at Healthcare Workforce Needs in the West : Medical Education
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    This report highlights three interrelated workforce issues of importance to physicians and medical schools that prepare individuals for a career in medicine: the shortage of physicians and the planned expansion of medical school enrollment, medical student indebtedness, and primary care physician service with emphasis on care delivery in rural areas. The West’s demographics present unique challenges in educating our future healthcare professionals, and this analysis suggests strategies for how Western states can link their resources to respond, particularly in higher education.

    2008 ~ 16pp. ~ PDF ~ 289 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • A Closer Look at Healthcare Workforce Needs in the West : Oral Healthcare
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    The development of the future oral healthcare workforce is a central focus of WICHE, which has a long history of partnering with states to improve access to dental and other professional training via the Professional Student Exchange Program. This report highlights some of the key trends, issues, and challenges the WICHE region is facing with regard to the oral health care workforce.

    2008 ~ 15pp. ~ PDF ~ 1.47 MB~ DOWNLOAD

  • A Closer Look at Healthcare Workforce Needs in the West : Pharmacy
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    Pharmacy, with more than 230,000 practitioners today, is the third-largest health profession in the United States. Research on the national pharmacist workforce points to a continuing shortage of pharmacists, related to growth in medication use, the aging of the baby boomer generation, and the emergence of more clinical activities within pharmacies. Surveys that track shortage levels showed that there was a slow downward trend in the severity of shortages up until fall 2005, followed by higher shortage levels during the past year. Changes in shortage levels appear to parallel growth in prescription medication usage. WICHE’s Professional Student Exchange Program (PSEP) allows students from states that do not have a public school of pharmacy to pay reduced tuition to a cooperating institution in the West. Sending states determine the number of new students to be supported each year. In 2006-07, 40 students from Alaska, Hawaii, and Nevada attended 16 cooperating pharmacy schools.

    2008 ~ 4pp. ~ PDF ~ 180 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • Higher Education : The Engine of Economic Opportunity - WICHE Workplan 2009
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    In fiscal 2009 WICHE and its four units - Public Policy and Research, Programs and Services, WCET, and Mental Health - will work to build a better education engine via our efforts in our five areas: finance, access and success, workforce and social issues, technology and innovoation, and accountability.

    2008 ~ 19pp. ~ PDF ~ 256 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • Identifying Stakeholders to Pay for Enhanced Depression Treatment in Rural Populations
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    Working Paper

    From the WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research, this study investigates whether two of the multiple stakeholder groups (health plans and employer purchasers) in two delivery systems (rural and urban) economically benefit from improved depression treatment by testing whether depression care management results in: (1) a greater reduction of utilization costs in insured rural patients than their urban counterparts (health plan stakeholders), and (2) a greater reduction in work costs in employed urban patients than their rural counterparts (employer purchaser stakeholders).

    2008 ~ 21pp. ~ PDF ~ 84 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • WICHE Region - Medical School Expansion Activity

    An overview of expansion plans for schools of medicine in the West, highlighted by states, medical schools, first-year student enrollments, expansion activities, and contact information.

    2008 ~ 11pp. ~ PDF ~ 73 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • WICHE Region – Medical School Rural-related Activities

    A summary of rural-related activities at schools of medicine in the West outlined by states, medical schools, student participation, recruitment methods, and contact information.

    2008 ~ 17pp. ~ PDF ~ 95 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • A Closer Look at Healthcare Workforce Needs in the West : Health Information Technology
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    With significant, industrywide advancements in health information technology (IT), institutions of higher education in the West will be called upon to provide a new generation of health IT graduates. New academic programs must be developed, existing programs will need to be retooled, and student recruitment strategies will be required to meet the health IT workforce demands of the future.

    2007 ~ 6pp. ~ PDF ~ 902 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • Identifying At-risk Rural Areas for Targeting Enhanced Schizophrenia Treatment
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    Policy Brief

    From the WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research, this policy brief summarizes nationally representative data on community-level risk factors associated with schizophrenia hospitalizations. It examines how socio-economic factors and the makeup of local health care systems affect the rate of schizophrenia hospitalizations. It identifies geographic areas with elevated rates. It also presents a discussion about the findings. It should be of interest to government and private health plan administrators, as well as those responsible for designing mental health delivery systems – anyone interested in creating outpatient treatment programs that may prevent costly hospitalizations.

    2007 ~ 2pp. ~ PDF ~ 88 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • Preventing Hospitalization in Depressed Rural Patients

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    Policy Brief

    From the WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research, this study examines whether depressed rural primary care patients are more likely than urban patients to be hospitalized; it investigates whether differences in hospitalization rates can be explained by differences in the utilization of specialty outpatient care; and it looks at whether rural patients face more “insurance barriers” to outpatient care. This study should be of interest to policy makers and administrators seeking to develop better delivery systems for rural mental health services. It should also be of interest to insurers, self-insured employers and other payers seeking the most effective use of health care expenditures.

    2007 ~ 2pp. ~ PDF ~ 100 KB~ DOWNLOAD

    • ADDITIONAL DETAILS, LINKS, AND DOWNLOADS +
      Executive summary

      1p ~ PDF ~ 9 KB ~ DOWNLOAD

  • State Inventory of Rural Health Practice Incentives in the Western WICHE States
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    Attracting health, oral health, and behavioral health professionals to rural and underserved areas continues to be an enormous challenge. Lower salaries, high educational debt load, professional isolation, and urban-centric policy barriers in underserved and rural areas are deterrents for professionals. WICHE and its 15 member states want to develop a comprehensive strategy for the regional health care workforce to help recruit, train, and retain professionals to serve the rural areas of the West.

    2007 ~ 94pp. ~ PDF ~ 545 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • Community Level Risk Factors for Depression Hospitalizations
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    Working Paper

    From the WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research, this study is the first to identify community-level risk factors for depression hospitalizations in urban and rural counties. It also identifies rural and urban areas with elevated hospitalization rates, which should be of interest to government officials, health plans and self-insured employers/payers seeking to control costs by preventing unnecessary hospitalizations.

    2005 ~ 21pp. ~ PDF ~ 334 KB~ DOWNLOAD

    • ADDITIONAL DETAILS, LINKS, AND DOWNLOADS +
      Policy Brief

      91 KB ~ DOWNLOAD

      Executive Summary

      9 KB ~ DOWNLOAD

  • Differential Effectiveness of Enhanced Depression Treatment for Rural and Urban Primary Care Patients
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    Working Paper

    From the WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research, this study explores whether enhanced depression care has comparable impact on clinical outcomes over two years for patients treated in rural and urban primary care practices and whether differences are mediated by receiving evidence-based care (pharmacotherapy and specialty care counseling).

    2005 ~ 14pp. ~ PDF ~ 84 KB~ DOWNLOAD

    • ADDITIONAL DETAILS, LINKS, AND DOWNLOADS +
      Executive Summary

      1p. ~ PDF ~ 9 KB ~ DOWNLOAD