Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30509285›Full record

ArticleHuman resources for health2018

A labor requirements function for sizing the health workforce.

Sofia Cruz-Gomes, Mário Amorim-Lopes, Bernardo Almada-Lobo

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Human resources for health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Equity and trends in the allocation of health human resources in China from 2012 to 2021.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2024
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Sofia Cruz-GomesINESC TEC and Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal. scruzgomes@fe.up.pt.ORCID 0000-0003-4339-3310
Mário Amorim-LopesINESC TEC and Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
Bernardo Almada-LoboINESC TEC and Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundEnsuring healthcare delivery is dependent both on the prediction of the future demand for healthcare services and on the estimation and planning for the Health Human Resources needed to properly deliver these services. Although the Health Human Resources planning is a fascinating and widely researched topic, and despite the number of methodologies that have been used, no consensus on the best way of planning the future workforce requirements has been reported in the literature. This paper aims to contribute to the extension and diversity of the range of available methods to forecast the demand for Health Human Resources and assist in tackling the challenge of translating healthcare services to workforce requirements.

methodsA method to empirically quantify the relation between healthcare services and Health Human Resources requirements is proposed. For each one of the three groups of specialties identified-Surgical specialties, Medical specialties and Diagnostic specialties (e.g., pathologists)-a Labor Requirements Function relating the number of physicians with a set of specialty-specific workload and capital variables is developed. This approach, which assumes that health managers and decision-makers control the labor levels more easily than they control the amount of healthcare services demanded, is then applied to a panel dataset comprising information on 142 public hospitals, during a 12-year period.

resultsThis method provides interesting insights on healthcare services delivery: the number of physicians required to meet expected variations in the demand for healthcare, the effect of the technological progress on healthcare services delivery, the time spent on each type of care, the impact of Human Resources concentration on productivity, and the possible resource allocations given the opportunity cost of the physicians' labor.

conclusionsThe empirical method proposed is simple and flexible and produces statistically strong models to estimate Health Human Resources requirements. Moreover, it can enable a more informed allocation of the available resources and help to achieve a more efficient delivery of healthcare services.

Indexed as

Delivery of Health CareHealth PlanningHealth ResourcesHealth Services Needs and DemandHealth WorkforceHospitals, PublicPhysiciansDecision MakingEfficiencyForecastingHealth ServicesHumansSpecializationTechnologyWorkloadHealth Human ResourcesLabor productivityLabor requirements functionOpportunity costs

Identifiers

PMID30509285
PMCPMC6278005

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.