Return on Investment From Employment of Community Health Workers

Abstract: Community Health Workers (CHWs) are gaining acceptance in the US health care system, but have been subject to challenges as to their “cost-effectiveness.” This situation is shifting, with a growing body of published evidence as to the effectiveness of CHWs, but much of the evidence of cost savings from employing CHWs is still unpublished. […]

Using Job Analysis Techniques to Understand Training Needs for Promotores de Salud

Despite the value of community health worker programs, such as Promotores de Salud, for addressing health disparities in the Latino community, little consensus has been reached to formally define the unique roles and duties associated with the job, thereby creating unique job training challenges. Understanding the job tasks and worker attributes central to this work […]

Social Return on Investment (SROI) methodology to account for value for money of public health interventions: a systematic review

Background: Increased scarcity of public resources has led to a concomitant drive to account for value-for-money of interventions. Traditionally, cost-effectiveness, cost-utility and cost-benefit analyses have been used to assess value-for-money of public health interventions. The social return on investment (SROI) methodology has capacity to measure broader socio-economic outcomes, analysing and computing views of multiple stakeholders […]

Benchmarks for Reducing Emergency Department Visits and Hospitalizations Through Community Health Workers Integrated Into Primary Care

Background: Uncertainty about the financial costs and benefits of community health worker (CHW) programs remains a barrier to their adoption. Objectives: To determine how much CHWs would need to reduce emergency department (ED) visits and associated hospitalizations among their assigned patients to be cost-neutral from a payer’s perspective. Research Design: Using a microsimulation of patient […]

Building a Framework for Community Health Worker Skills Proficiency Assessment to Support Ongoing Professional Development

Abstract: Although community health workers (CHWs) continue to gain credibility and recognition in the health care and public health sectors, there is still a need to expand workforce identity and development efforts, including identifying best practices for assessing CHW skill proficiencies. During this qualitative study, we interviewed 32 CHWs, trainers, and supervisors to understand current […]