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2025 AOM Annual Meeting

HCM

Session: 25472: Workforce Strategies for Seamless Care Coordination

13999: What is the Influence of Market Characteristics on the Use of Enabling Workers in FQHCs? (session 25472)

Monday, July 28, 2025
10:15 - 11:45 CEST (GMT+2)
Location: Bella Center: Hall B- B4-m1
Session Type: Paper Session
Shareable link: https://cdmcd.co/JQ9Mv3
For many individuals, achieving and maintaining health extends beyond clinical care, requiring ongoing support to manage daily health challenges. Enabling services, such as health education provided by education specialists, community health workers, and outreach workers, are essential for increasing access to care, promoting preventive services, and improving health outcomes. Given the vulnerable populations served by Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), it is critical to examine how resources, like enabling worker staffing, are utilized to address patient needs and how market characteristics influence staffing decisions. This study aimed to explore whether resource availability and demand drive the use and magnitude of enabling worker staffing among FQHCs. A cross-sectional, quantitative analysis of 450 FQHCs using 2022 Uniform Data System (UDS) data was conducted with logistic and linear regressions to explore these relationships. The logistic regression revealed that enabling worker presence was not significantly related to resource availability or demand. However, the linear regression indicated that the extent of enabling worker use was partially driven by resource demand. These findings suggest that FQHC staffing strategies for enabling workers may not be fully aligned with community needs, highlighting the importance of further research to optimize resource allocation in vulnerable populations.

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