The Washington State Department of Health is rolling out a survey called the Washington Health Workforce Survey for many of our healthcare providers. The intent is to improve our understanding of Washington's healthcare workforce. When providers are licensed, we gather enough information to verify that they meet credential requirements, but we can't answer questions such as, “Are they working? Where are they working? What's their area of specialty?” Armed with these answers, we'll better understand the composition of Washington's health workforce – where providers are working, their area of practice, and their professional education.
We recognize that healthcare providers are busy, so one of our goals is to make it fast and easy for them to answer the survey. The core survey contains about two dozen questions; however, the majority of them are yes-no or multiple choice answers, so credential holders should move through the survey quickly. For the free-form fields, the lengthiest item requested is the address where the provider practices.
People involved in healthcare have expressed interest in having this data for Washington's health workforce. Collecting this information will help promote the surveyed professions and allow the state to make good health policy decisions, a key part of our foundational public health services. It will allow us to identify potential disparities in access to care by Washingtonians, and then to work with others to promote policy and training initiatives to address those gaps. The department will share de-identified survey responses on the Washington State Open Data Portal. This data is also subject to public disclosure. Survey results are on the Washington State Open Data Portal: Washington Health Workforce Survey Data. Most of our professions have workforce surveys added.
You may easily access the survey through a link in the online renewal process or on our Surveyed Professions webpage.