The American health care system is witnessing an explosion of interest in finding new and better ways to deliver care — particularly those innovations that promise to improve access while advancing quality and controlling costs.

In addition to an overview of workforce innovation initiatives taking place in California and elsewhere, this issue brief provides a detailed look at the California Health Workforce Pilot Project (HWPP) administered by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. The project offers the opportunity to safely assess new approaches to the delivery of care, including programs that allow health care workers to develop new skills, teach new roles to people with no health care training, and develop new health care job categories or speed training in existing ones.

The authors propose possible avenues to further California's explorations of workforce innovation by drawing on HWPP's three decades of experience, and spotlight a particular project involving dental hygienists.

The complete issue brief is available under Document Downloads.