South Carolina Office for Healthcare Workforce Releases New Reports

The South Carolina Office for Healthcare Workforce has published several new reports and fact sheets in recent months.  The South Carolina Nursing Education Programs:August 2015 – July 2016 report reveals a strong interest in nursing education resulting in qualified students being turned away due to the fact that most of our LPN and RN programs are operating at full capacity. Many existing programs are planning to expand enrollments in the next few years.  The report also includes information about nursing education program faculty characteristics such as vacancy rates, faculty age and racial characteristics, and the program director/dean characteristics. 

Two new data briefs focused on the physician workforce in South Carolina are also available.  These reports examine how that workforce has changed from 2009 to 2015.  The number of established physicians (those who have completed their residency training) practicing in South Carolina grew by 19% overall during that period.  However, due to changes in work patterns related to age, gender and practice setting and ownership, the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) physicians grew at a slower rate (15.7% overall, 13% for those involved in direct patient care). Physicians in specialty fields have been growing at a faster rate than those in primary care fields. Growth rates also vary by region and by urban or rural characteristics of the county.  South Carolina’s most rural counties (those categorized as ‘non-metropolitan’ by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget) have seen an overall decrease in primary care providers that is driven by the loss of family medicine and general internal medicine physicians since 2009.  Find out more in Changes in the PhysicianWorkforce in South Carolina: 2009 – 2015 and Changes in the DemographicCharacteristics of the Physician Workforce in South Carolina: 2009 -2015.

All three reports can be downloaded from the South Carolina Office for Healthcare Workforce website at www.scohw.org.