California Health Manpower

Based primarily on review of health manpower literature and interviews with state officials, researchers, and providers of health services, this report is an overview of state activities that influence health manpower supply and distribution. To maintain an adequate supply of health manpower, the state is not only concerned with the output of training institutions and retaining health professionals educated in the state, but also with inmigration from other states and countries. Responsibility for decisions and action to determine and achieve manpower objectives is now fragmented among many state agencies, providers of health care, and public and private training institutions. An important question for the state is how to develop institutional arrangements that will provide a framework for continuously determining its health manpower goals and coordinating policies to achieve them. A key element in such a system is the development of analytic capability and data that will permit examination of alternative manpower goals and policies.