DEVELOPMENT OF AN ANALYTICAL MODEL FOR DETERMINING PROFESSIONAL HEALTH MANPOWER REQUIREMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY MEDICAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIO

The failure of governmental agencies to use valid and reliable data to determine work force requirements has been a critical issue. The U.S. Army has been criticized by the Government Accounting Office for its inability to quantify manpower needs in relation to work load so that managers can evaluate performance and make accurate projections of required manpower and related dollar needs. The Army's current manpower survey approach reviews organization work load, tasks, and functions, then decides the manpower needed to perform the organization's mission. This approach does not use staffing standards or models for determining the health professional manpower requirements for the Army Medical Research and Development Organization, e.g., the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Department of Rickettsial Disease. The manpower required for this type of organization must be developed by capability desired rather than by delineation of tasks.;The objective of this study was to develop an analytical functional manpower staffing model for determining appropriate health professionals needed to maintain research and development capability. The major research question answered was: How do we determine the appropriate health professionals needed to maintain the Army medical research and development organization capability?;Interviews were conducted with medical research department chiefs, and structured questionnaires were mailed to a Delphi Panel of experts representing a cross section of research specialties in the medical research and development field. The statistical analysis used was the Fisher Exact Test. Fourteen statistically significant standards were identified. The qualifications model, a major component of the analytical functional manpower staffing model, incorporated these standards so that their consideration would be key to determining manpower requirements. A retrospective evaluation of health professionals currently employed as either Principal Investigators or Chief Technicians demonstrated that some of the characteristics of interest were descriptive of the population. This research demonstrates the need for a systematic methodology to facilitate accurate and appropriate decision making in determining manpower requirements.