Health Human Resources (HHR) Planning

Every staffing decision a health system makes is, ultimately, a health human resources decision. Health human resources (HHR) planning brings method and evidence to those decisions — connecting the workforce you have to the care your population needs, across both the immediate term and the years ahead.

The problem we solve

For decades, health systems have struggled to answer a deceptively simple question: how many of which provider are required, where, and when? Planning has too often been driven by last year's budget, historical staffing ratios, or the loudest current pressure — rather than by a clear-eyed view of supply, demand, and need. The consequences are shortages in some places and roles alongside surpluses in others, recruitment that chases vacancies instead of anticipating them, and strategy that can't see far enough ahead to act in time.

Part of the difficulty is a genuine gap between theory and practice. Published research clearly demonstrates paths toward better health workforce planning, but the practical "how" — the steps, the data, the models — has been far harder to find. HHR planning is where that theory becomes an operational capability.

Our approach

We build HHR planning on three connected foundations. First, stock-flow supply modeling lets decision-makers understand the current composition of their workforce and anticipate future supply based on today's levels and how they change over time — accounting for retirements, new graduates, migration, and shifting work patterns. Second, clinical service utilization analysis measures how, when, and where services are actually used across a population. Third, population needs-based planning connects the two, translating the health needs of a population into the workforce required to meet them.

Because these methods reinforce each other, the result is more than a headcount target. It is a living planning capability that can test assumptions, compare service delivery models, adjust for the characteristics of a specific population, and project needs forward as that population grows, ages, and changes. Crucially, we design this capability to be maintained — with governance, data access, and update cycles that keep it accurate and useful long after the first model is built.

Where HHR planning fits

HHR planning sits upstream of almost every other workforce decision a health system makes. Recruitment targets, training investments, role-redesign proposals, and budget submissions are all stronger when they trace back to a defensible view of supply, demand, and need — and weaker, sometimes indefensibly so, when they don't. Done well, it makes the whole workforce conversation more strategic, because every downstream choice can point to the same shared, evidence-based picture of where the system is heading.

It is equally relevant to a single service line weighing how to staff a new program and to a regional or system-level body setting workforce strategy for an entire population. What changes between those cases is the scope of the analysis and the data available, not the underlying method. Wherever it is applied, the goal is the same: to replace assumption and precedent with evidence.

Typical deliverables

HHR planning engagements are tailored to your system, and often include:

• Stock-flow supply models covering current workforce composition and projected supply.
• Clinical service utilization analysis across access, quality, efficiency, and equity.
• Population needs-based estimates of required workforce by provider type and setting.
• Gap analysis comparing projected supply against projected need.
• Scenario-tested planning options with clearly stated assumptions.
• Governance, data, and update processes to keep the plan current over time.

The outcome is HHR planning that health leaders can actually use: evidence-based, defensible, and adaptive enough to guide recruitment, training, and policy decisions with confidence.