Improving Alignment of PA Program Growth and Healthcare Needs in Cleveland

Physician assistants (PAs) represent an essential provider workforce helping to meet growing primary care needs across Ohio. Current trends project a major undersupply of PAs in coming years – the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a 37% increase in Ohio‘s PA workforce will be needed between 2020 and 2030. This reflects an additional 2,200 PA jobs, driven largely by population growth, an aging population with complex healthcare needs, and physician shortages limiting patient access.

With a strong presence of high-quality PA training programs, the Cleveland area represents a hub for expanding primary care capacity via new graduates. However, most established programs still struggle to meet rising enrollment demand. Meanwhile, health systems project shortages of over 17,000 primary care practitioners in Northeast Ohio alone by 2030 unless PA and NP supply grows.

This dynamic illustrates a need for higher education institutions and policymakers to coordinate expansion of PA programs with broader public health priorities around primary care access. Through data-informed planning and reform, programs can evolve using best practices that align graduate numbers and competencies with community benefit.

Key Challenges and Opportunities in Program Reform

While interest in PA programs is surging, applications across Ohio rose 30% in 2021-2022 alone, outdated standards and capacity issues pose barriers to aligning supply of newly trained PAs with growing health system demand.

Ursuline College, for example, saw applicants increase 63% from 2020 to 2021. However, stringent admission requirements including 1,000 hours of direct patient care experience capped first-year enrollment at under 30 students. Expanding evidence-based remedies like credit for medical scribes or simulations would enable more applicants to qualify.

Though smaller cohort targets allow for personalized training, most Cleveland programs range from admitting around 20 to 60 graduate students annually. Kent State University receives over 550 applications annually, admitting fewer than 5% of applicants.

Collectively, area programs graduate approximately 300 new PAs each year. If current graduate output remains steady, Northeast Ohio alone will experience a shortage of over 1,300 primary care PAs by 2030.

Boosting PA Program Capacity and Innovation to Align Workforce Growth

While provider shortages threaten healthcare access for thousands of Ohioans, PA programs are well-poised to deliver innovative reforms and help produce more homegrown providers.

As higher education reform experts advise, increasing public university enrollment and developing consortium models that leverage community college and university partnerships can expand program capacity. Legislature-backed funding, public-private partnerships, and scholarships encouraging PA program entry will also prove critical.

Further innovations showing promise nationally include accelerated tracks compressing credits for bachelor‘s degree holders, interprofessional training building team-based skills alongside medical, pharmacy and nursing students, community-based clinical rotations addressing local shortages, and apprenticeship models allowing on-the-job training.

Passing a bill recently proposed in Ohio offering loan forgiveness for PA graduates entering primary care and serving undeserved areas also holds promise for steering more expertise to areas of need most acutely experiencing shortages.

Top-Ranked PA Programs Leading the Way

The highly ranked programs profiled here incorporating dimensions like specialized primary care training, ample clinical experience, competitive hiring rates and strong PANCE exam performance showcase models primed for wider adoption and expansion.

Collectively they demonstrate that excellent PA education with proven outcomes meeting communities‘ health priorities can be delivered. Broadening reform efforts to transfer such programming through cost-effective mechanisms to maximize access represents an urgent priority requiring cooperation amongst policymakers, educational institutions and health systems.

Ultimately through such efforts Northeast Ohio can offer a template for aligning PA program growth with public priorities around building primary care capacity – delivering quality healthcare access to the population at large.