Journal of Investment and Management

| Peer-Reviewed |

Development of a Health Workeforce Monitoring System in Greece

Received: 22 July 2015    Accepted: 08 August 2015    Published: 14 August 2015
Views:       Downloads:

Share This Article

Abstract

Background: Recent Greek economic crisis has had a mayor impact on healthcare system. A complete absence of planning human resources leeds to a need for healthcare workforce management tools, among them a re-distribution at a national and regional level following international indicators. Objectives: Aim of the study was to collect data on the current and future demand for and supply of human resources in the Greek health system, to map these data and finally to propose a model for future projections or actions. Methods: Data collected from various sources mainly of Ministry of Education for the supply and Ministry of Health for the demand. These data were aggregated in order tables to be standardized for future standard collection by these Ministries and the National Statistical Authority. The proposed model constitutes a combination between a stock-and-flow model and a workforce-to-population ratio approach. Results: Greece insists to an obvious oversupply of health professionals (over 7.000 annually), while demand can not absorb over 20-25% of these staff. Due to economic crisis, there is an urgent need for reinforcing especially public sector in terms of new hires mainly of nursing and midwifery staff, and re-distribution of all. Conclusions: The main results indicate that health policy makers could reach an optimal matching between future supply of and demand for healthcare workforce by adjusting the flexible supply components. This presupposes an accurate and stable system of data collection. On the demand side, it is also important to collect demographics and other related data that are more indicative of health needs

DOI 10.11648/j.jim.20150405.27
Published in Journal of Investment and Management (Volume 4, Issue 5, October 2015)
Page(s) 256-263
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Human Resources, Education, Health, Demand, Supply, Planning, Indicators, Projections

References
[1] Eurostat (2014) Disaggregated data for the healthcare sector.
[2] Alcimed (2010) Study on Healthcare Services, Sectors and Products in Europe for the European Commission. Final Report February 2010.
[3] European Commission (2010) Conclusions of the 3053rd EPSCO Council meeting. Brussels, 7 December 2010. Investing in Europe's health workforce of tomorrow: Scope for innovation and collaboration.
[4] European Commission (2011) Proposal for a Health for Growth Programme 2014-2020, COM (2011) 709 final of 9.11.2011.
[5] European Commission (2012) RN4CAST Report. Nurse forecasting: Human resources planning in nursing. 12 European countries (Belgium, UK, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Netherlands) and also USA, China, Botswana and South Africa.
[6] Maier, CB. et al. (2011) Cross-country analysis of health professional mobility in Europe: the results. In Wismar M et al., eds. Health professional mobility and health systems. Evidence from 17 European countries. Copenhagen,
[7] World Health Organization (2011) Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen: Study by M. Wismar, C. B. Maier, I. A. Glinos, G. Dussault and J. Figueras (eds., 2011), Health professional mobility and health systems. Evidence from 17 European countries, Observatory Study Series No. 23, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.WHO Regional Office for Europe on behalf of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.
[8] Jelfs, E. (2012) Workforce issues in European Union health policy. Health Service Management Research, 25:48-49.
[9] O’Brian-Pallas, L., Baumann, A., Donner, G., Murphy, G., Lochhaas-Gerlach, J. and Luba, M. (2001) Forecasting models for human resources in health care. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 33(1):120-129.
[10] Ono, T., Lafortune, G. and Schoenstein, M. (2013) Health workforce planning in OECD countries: a review of 26 projection models from 18 countries. Paris, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD Health Working Paper 62).
[11] Stuckler, D. et al. (2011) Effects of the 2008 recession on health: a first look at European data. Lancet, 378:124–125.
[12] Buchan, J., O’May, F. and Dussault, G. (2013) The nursing workforce and the global economic crisis. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 45(3):298-307.
[13] Joyce, C. and McNeil, J. (2006) Participation in the workforce by Australian medical graduates. Medical Education, 40(4):333-339.
[14] Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2009) Making an Impact, A Preferred Framework and Indicators to Measure Returns on Investment in Health Research. FullReport.pdf
[15] World Health Organization (2001) Toolkit for Planning, Training and Management. Projecting Workforce Requirements: Planning with the WHO Scenario Models. World Health Organization: Geneva.
[16] World Health Organization (2010) Policy Brief How to create an attractive and supportive working environment for health professionals, Health Evidence Network and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.
[17] World Health Organization (2010) Models and tools for health workforce planning and projections. World Health Organization: Geneva.
[18] European Federation of Nurses Associations (2012) Caring in crisis: the impact of the financial crisis on nurses and nursing. A comparative overview of 34 European countries. Brussels, European Federation of Nurses Associations.
[19] Laurant, M., Reeves, D., Hermens, R., Braspenning, J., Grol, R. and Sibbald, B. (2004) Substitution of doctors by nurses in primary care. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.: Chichester, UK.
[20] Staiger, D., Auerbach, D. and Buerhaus, P. (2012) Registered nurse labor supply and the recession: are we in a bubble? New England Journal of Medicine, 366:1463-1465.
[21] World Health Organization (2013) The health workforce: advances in responding to shortages and migration, and in preparing for emerging needs. Geneva, World Health Organization (Report by the Secretariat for the Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly, Provisional Agenda Item 17.4) (http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA66/A66_25-en.pdf).
[22] OECD (2011) Health at a glance 2011: OECD indicators. Paris, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
[23] OECD (2012) Health at a glance: Europe 2012. Paris, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
[24] Sullivan, L. and Michel, I. (2004) Core Competencies in Public Health: Literature Review. Ontario Public Health Association, March 4, 2004. Accessed from http://www.opha.on.ca/corecompetencies/index.html June 2004.
[25] Polyzos, N., Karakolias, S., Mavridoglou, G., Gkorezis, P., Zilidis, C., (2015) Current and future insight into human resources in Greece. Open Journal of Social Sciences, v.3 (n.5): 5-14.
[26] Dreesch, N., Dolea, C., Dal Poz, M., Goubarev, A., Adams, O., Aregawi, M., Bergstrom, K., Fogstad, H., Sheratt, D., Linkins, J., Scherpbier, R. and Youssef-Fox, M. (2005) An approach to estimating human resource requirements to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Health Policy and Planning, 20(5):267-276.
[27] World Health Organization (2004) World Report on Knowledge for Better Health: Strengthening Health systems. World Health Organization: Geneva.
Author Information
  • Department of Medical Laboratories, Technological University (TEI) of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece

  • Department of Businesses’ and Organizations’ Administration, Technological University (TEI) of Peloponnese, Kalamata, Greece

  • Department of Social Administration and Political Sciences, Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH), Komotini, Greece

  • Department of Political Sciences and Public Administration, National (Capodestrian) University of Athens (EKPA), Athens, Greece

Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Christos Zilidis, Catherine Kastanioti, Nikos Polyzos, John Yfantopoulos. (2015). Development of a Health Workeforce Monitoring System in Greece. Journal of Investment and Management, 4(5), 256-263. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jim.20150405.27

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Christos Zilidis; Catherine Kastanioti; Nikos Polyzos; John Yfantopoulos. Development of a Health Workeforce Monitoring System in Greece. J. Invest. Manag. 2015, 4(5), 256-263. doi: 10.11648/j.jim.20150405.27

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Christos Zilidis, Catherine Kastanioti, Nikos Polyzos, John Yfantopoulos. Development of a Health Workeforce Monitoring System in Greece. J Invest Manag. 2015;4(5):256-263. doi: 10.11648/j.jim.20150405.27

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.jim.20150405.27,
      author = {Christos Zilidis and Catherine Kastanioti and Nikos Polyzos and John Yfantopoulos},
      title = {Development of a Health Workeforce Monitoring System in Greece},
      journal = {Journal of Investment and Management},
      volume = {4},
      number = {5},
      pages = {256-263},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jim.20150405.27},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jim.20150405.27},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jim.20150405.27},
      abstract = {Background: Recent Greek economic crisis has had a mayor impact on healthcare system. A complete absence of planning human resources leeds to a need for healthcare workforce management tools, among them a re-distribution at a national and regional level following international indicators. Objectives: Aim of the study was to collect data on the current and future demand for and supply of human resources in the Greek health system, to map these data and finally to propose a model for future projections or actions. Methods: Data collected from various sources mainly of Ministry of Education for the supply and Ministry of Health for the demand. These data were aggregated in order tables to be standardized for future standard collection by these Ministries and the National Statistical Authority. The proposed model constitutes a combination between a stock-and-flow model and a workforce-to-population ratio approach. Results: Greece insists to an obvious oversupply of health professionals (over 7.000 annually), while demand can not absorb over 20-25% of these staff. Due to economic crisis, there is an urgent need for reinforcing especially public sector in terms of new hires mainly of nursing and midwifery staff, and re-distribution of all. Conclusions: The main results indicate that health policy makers could reach an optimal matching between future supply of and demand for healthcare workforce by adjusting the flexible supply components. This presupposes an accurate and stable system of data collection. On the demand side, it is also important to collect demographics and other related data that are more indicative of health needs},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Development of a Health Workeforce Monitoring System in Greece
    AU  - Christos Zilidis
    AU  - Catherine Kastanioti
    AU  - Nikos Polyzos
    AU  - John Yfantopoulos
    Y1  - 2015/08/14
    PY  - 2015
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jim.20150405.27
    DO  - 10.11648/j.jim.20150405.27
    T2  - Journal of Investment and Management
    JF  - Journal of Investment and Management
    JO  - Journal of Investment and Management
    SP  - 256
    EP  - 263
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-7721
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jim.20150405.27
    AB  - Background: Recent Greek economic crisis has had a mayor impact on healthcare system. A complete absence of planning human resources leeds to a need for healthcare workforce management tools, among them a re-distribution at a national and regional level following international indicators. Objectives: Aim of the study was to collect data on the current and future demand for and supply of human resources in the Greek health system, to map these data and finally to propose a model for future projections or actions. Methods: Data collected from various sources mainly of Ministry of Education for the supply and Ministry of Health for the demand. These data were aggregated in order tables to be standardized for future standard collection by these Ministries and the National Statistical Authority. The proposed model constitutes a combination between a stock-and-flow model and a workforce-to-population ratio approach. Results: Greece insists to an obvious oversupply of health professionals (over 7.000 annually), while demand can not absorb over 20-25% of these staff. Due to economic crisis, there is an urgent need for reinforcing especially public sector in terms of new hires mainly of nursing and midwifery staff, and re-distribution of all. Conclusions: The main results indicate that health policy makers could reach an optimal matching between future supply of and demand for healthcare workforce by adjusting the flexible supply components. This presupposes an accurate and stable system of data collection. On the demand side, it is also important to collect demographics and other related data that are more indicative of health needs
    VL  - 4
    IS  - 5
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

  • Sections