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Community Health Workers: Roles and Opportunities in Health Care Delivery System Reform

Year:
2016
State:
NatDoc: National Document
Website Link:
Publicly Available:
Yes
Billing and Reimbursement:
Certification:
Training and training programs
Evidence Generation:
Documentation of how CHWs can work within care teams, Surveys and assessment tools to define and develop workforce
Policy:
MCO contract language and reimbursement models
Sustainable Financing:​
CMS and CDC engagement from a national level, How to engage and work with Medicaid
Workforce Development:

Summary

A number of states have adopted certification programs for community health workers (CHWs) to improve recognition of CHWs as members of health care teams, increase oversight, and to provide sustainable funding. There has been little research into the impact of state CHW certification on the diffusion and adoption of CHWs into existing health care systems. This study examined the impact of state CHW certification on the perceptions of team climate among registered nurses (RNs) who work with CHWs in states with and without CHW certification programs. The study recruited RNs using a purposeful sampling method and used an online survey, which included the Team Climate Inventory (TCI), and compared the perceptions of team climate between the two groups. The study found no significant differences in the overall mean TCI score or TCI subscale scores between RNs who work in states with CHW certification programs (n = 81) and those who work in states without CHW certification programs (n = 115). There was a statistically significant difference on one survey question regarding whether RNs believe state certification of CHWs improved the ability of their health care team to deliver quality care.
More research is needed to assess impact of state certification of CHWs and other factors that influence the diffusion and adoption of CHWs into the current health care system.
Keywords State certification, Community health worker, Diffusion, Registered nurses, Team climate