Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., said UNMC fully supports Steven Wartman, M.D., Ph.D., president and CEO of the Association of Academic Health Centers, and the testimony he presented last week on behalf of the AAHC in front of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee.
Dr. Wartman’s testimony came during a hearing titled “Workforce Issues in Health Care Reform: Assessing the Present and Preparing for the Future.”
He presented the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the AAHC’s groundbreaking report, “Out of Order, Out of Time: The State of the Nation’s Health Workforce,” and he emphasized the critical relationship of health workforce issues to health system reform.
The AAHC, Dr. Wartman said, urges policymakers to incorporate a new, integrated and coordinated approach to national workforce policy as health system reform is considered. The AAHC also recommends the creation of a national health workforce planning body as the focal point of health workforce reform, he said.
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“As a member of the Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC), UNMC believes the nation must change how it makes and implements health workforce policy at the same time we reform the health care system, or the promise of health reform will be seriously undermined,” Dr. Maurer said. “Our current health workforce policy framework, established in a different era, has resulted in a patchwork of policies that are on the verge of being overwhelmed by powerful social and economic forces.”
Dr. Wartman’s message is consistent with work being done at the UNMC College of Public Health, where a study is underway to help the Nebraska confront the shortage of health care workers in the state, Dr. Maurer said.
“The nation is running out of time to establish a comprehensive, coordinated national health workforce policy that is capable of withstanding and meeting the challenge,” Dr. Maurer said. “UNMC supports the AAHC recommendation that the health workforce become a national priority policy issue, and that a new, collaborative, multi-stakeholder health workforce planning body be created with a mission to develop and implement comprehensive and coordinated national health workforce policy.”
The AAHC is a national non-profit association dedicated to advancing the nation’s health and well-being through leadership in health professions education, patient care and research.