The rural health care workforce implications of practice guideline implementation.
BACKGROUND
Rural health care workforce forecasting has not included adjustments for predictable changes in practice patterns, such as the introduction of practice guidelines.


OBJECTIVE
To estimate the impact of a practice guideline for a single health condition on the needs of a rural health professional workforce.


METHODS
The current care of a cohort of rural Medicare recipients with diabetes mellitus was compared with the care recommended by a diabetes practice guideline. The additional tests and visits that were needed to comply with the guideline were translated into additional hours of physician services and total physician full-time equivalents.


RESULTS
The implementation of a practice guideline for Medicare recipients with diabetes in rural Minnesota would require over 30,000 additional hours of primary care physician services and over 5,000 additional hours of eye care professionals' time per year. This additional need represents a 1.3% to 2.4% increase in the number of primary care physicians and a 1.0% to 6.6% increase in the number of eye-care clinicians in a state in which the rural medical provider to population ratios already meet some recommended workforce projections.


CONCLUSIONS
The implementation of practice guidelines could result in an increased need for rural health care physicians or other providers. That increase, caused by guideline implementation, should be accounted for in future rural health care workforce predictions.
Yawn
B P
BP
Rural Health Research Center, University of Minnesota, University Health Associates Building, Minneapolis, USA. yawnx002@gold.tc.umn.edu
Casey
M
M
Hebert
P
P
D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D005194:Family Practice / Q000639:trends; D005544:Forecasting; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D006278:Medicare / Q000592:standards; D008910:Minnesota / Q000453:epidemiology; D009885:Ophthalmology / Q000639:trends; D009907:Optometry / Q000639:trends; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D015995:Prevalence; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D014481:United States; D000078329:Workforce; D016526:Workload