Direct-care occupation data featured on website

State-by-state wage, employment and demographic data on nursing home, home health and personal health aides are now available at a recently updated website.

New features of the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI) State Data Center:

• Downloadable and shareable charts about workforce size, projected employment growth, wage trends, health insurance coverage rates and reliance on public assistance.
• Descriptions of training standards for each of the three aforementioned direct-care occupations, including information on required training hours for home health aides and nursing aides and state-level training standards for Medicaid-funded personal care aides.

The Web-based data tool also contains information on workforce-related legislative and regulatory developments as well as state-based initiatives, employer best practices andresources. Information iscompiled and analyzed from the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s/Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey and the labor statistics bureau’s Occupational Employment Statistics and Employment Projections programs.

“Enhanced features of PHI’s Web-based tool make essential state-by-state information about our nation’s direct care workforce more accessible and easier to share with others,” said Bruce Chernof, MD, president and chief executive officer of the SCAN Foundation. “These workers are an increasingly important element of the healthcare team that helps people to age with dignity and independence.”

A grant from the SCAN Foundation helped support the development of the PHI State Data Center and its update. Additional support came from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and its National Direct Service Workforce Resource Center.

Lois Bowers

Lois A. Bowers was senior editor of I Advance Senior Care / Long-Term Living from 2013-2015.