This polygon shapefile contains primary health care professional shortage areas (HPSAs) in California. On January 26, 2004, the California Healthcare Workforce Policy Commission (Commission) formally adopted a means to create the PCSA map. The process for identifying PCSAs uses the rule base listed below. In March, 2015, the OSHPD staff presented the Commission with information suggesting an update to the map to include current data on (1) physicians, (2) poverty and (3) population. Percent below Poverty Level (100%) Value Range Weighted Score 5.0 or Less 0 5.1 - 10.0 1 10.1 - 15.0 2 15.1 - 20.0 3 20.1 - 25.0 4 25.1 or Greater 5 (maximum) Physician-to-Population Ratio Value Range Weighted Score Lower than 1:1,000 0 1:1,000 to 1:1,500 1 1:1,500 to 1:2,000 2 1:2,000 to 1:2,500 3 1:2,500 to 1:3,000 4 Higher than 1:3,000 5 (maximum) * Any MSSA with a score of 5 or greater is defined as a PCSA. PCSAs are used as a means to help the Commission rank applications based on the number of program graduates and training sites inside areas of unmet need. PCSAs are the only consistently applied rule base to defining shortages of physicians, as the other designations are applicant based and require prior knowledge that a shortage might exist. This data is aggregated by Medical Service Study Area (MSSA) to obtain a count of primary care physicians by MSSA. Primary Care Shortage Areas are updated Annually and are used in the Song-Brown Grant Program for Family Medicine, Family Nurse Practitioner-Physician Assistant and Primary Care Residency programs. This update to data for the PCSA was approved by the California Healthcare Workforce Policy Commission on March 4, 2015. This layer is part of the Healthcare Atlas of California. This data for Primary Care Shortage Area (PCSA) was developed by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development's (OSHPD) Healthcare Workforce Development Division (HWDD). The data is used to support the following programatic areas:
1) encourage demographically underrepresented groups to pursue healthcare careers
2) identifies geographic areas of unmet need, and
3) encourages primary care physicians and non-physician practitioners to provide healthcare in medically underserved areas in California. 1. The recipient will not distribute copies of the data or make the DATA available to a third party. The recipient may transmit to a third party colleague in hard copy or electronically, minimal amounts of the California Healthcare Workforce Catalog (CWHC) data for scholarly, educational, or scientific research or professional use bit in no case for re-sale. In addition, the recipient has the right to use, with appropriate credit, maps, figures, tables and excerpts derived from the CHWC in the recipients own scientific, scholarly and educational works. 2. The recipient will not resell the data or portions of the data 3. Maps, figures, tables and data from the CHWC should be appropriately attributed trough the use of the following citation: California Healthcare Workforce Catalog (CWHC). April 2005. California Health and Human Services Agency, Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, Healthcare Workforce and Development Division, Sacramento CA. 4. Whenever, HWDD has knowledge or reason to believe that the recipient has failed to observe the terms and conditions of this agreement, HWDD will notify the recipient of the concerns. The recipient is required to provide adequate documentation or information to establish HWDD's satisfaction that the concerns are without merit, or to remedy the situation within 30 days or within a reasonable timeframe agreed to by both parties. Use Constraints: The State of California, the California Health and Human Services Agency and the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy of data or maps. The user will not seek to hold the State, the Agency or the Office liable under any circumstances for any damages with respect to any claim by the user or any third party on account of or arising from the use of data or maps. The user will cite the California Health and Human Services Agency and/or the Office as the original source of the data, but will clearly denote cases where the original data have been updated, modified, or in any way altered from the original condition. This layer is presented in the WGS84 coordinate system for web display purposes. Downloadable data are provided in native coordinate system or projection.
