title: Health Center Professional Programs and Primary Care Workforce.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Current policy promotes health center professional training and pipeline programs as solutions to bolster primary care workforce in shortage areas, despite the paucity of evidence.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed data from US health centers we surveyed from March to June 2010, merged with federal health center data, to estimate associations between health center training and pipeline programs and provider recruitment and retention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 976 surveyed, 391 health centers responded. Health centers with career ladder programs compared to those without had higher adjusted rates of no/minimal difficulty in recruitment of primary care providers. (17.6% vs. 10.6%; p=.01) and close to double the adjusted rates of reporting no/minimal difficulty in retention of primary care providers (39.4% vs. 21.2%; p=.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There remains a need for further evaluation of health professional programs in order to expand models, such as career ladder programs, that demonstrate effectiveness in improving the primary care workforce in shortage areas.
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, USA; Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, USA; Division of General Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, USA.
authors.forename: Jaya
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aysola
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Care, National Association of Community Health Centers, USA.
authors.forename: DaShawn
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Groves
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, USA; Division of Hospital Medicine, University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center, USA; Department of Medicine, Christiana Care Health Care System, USA.
authors.forename: LeRoi S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Hicks
keywords: Access to care; Health care reform; Primary care; Safety net; Workforce