title: Veterans' Location in Health Professional Shortage Areas: Implications for Access to Care and Workforce Supply.
abstract: To describe the distribution of Veterans in areas of the United States where there are potentially inadequate supplies of health professionals, and to explore opportunities suggested by this distribution for fostering health workforce flexibility.
  
  
  
  County-level data from the 2015-2016 Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA's) Area Health Resources Files (AHRF) were used to estimate Veteran populations in HRSA-designated health professional shortage areas (HPSAs). This information was then linked to 2015 VA health facility information from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
  
  
  
  Potential Veteran populations living in Shortage Area Counties with no VHA facilities were estimated, and the composition of these populations was explored by Census division and state.
  
  
  
  Nationwide, approximately 24 percent of all Veterans and 23 percent of Veterans enrolled in VHA health care live in Shortage Area Counties. These estimates mask considerable variation across states.
  
  
  
  An examination of Veterans residing in Shortage Area Counties suggests extensive maldistribution of health services across the United States and the continued need to find ways to improve health care access for all Veterans. Effective avenues for doing so may include increasing health workforce flexibility through expansion of nurse practitioner scopes of practice.
authors.affiliation: Office of Extramural Research, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.|National Center for Health Workforce Analysis, Health Resources and Services Administration, Rockville, MD.
authors.forename: Jamie Mihoko
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Doyle
authors.affiliation: National Center for Health Workforce Analysis, Health Resources and Services Administration, Rockville, MD.
authors.forename: Robin A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Streeter
mesh_terms: D005843:Geography; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006306:Health Surveys; D006280:Health Workforce / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006772:Hospitals, Military / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014728:Veterans / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: Veterans; access; community-based care; geographic analysis; rural health care