Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Workforce Demographics topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
HCAI shows new veterinary workforce dashboard; finds Hispanic and Black veterinarians underrepresented statewide
Summary
Department of Health Care Access and Information staff demonstrated a dashboard built from license-renewal survey data that covers race, ethnicity, age and geographic distribution of California veterinary licensees; presenters said 76.5% of veterinary licensees provided survey data and flagged underrepresentation of Black and Hispanic groups.
At a meeting of the California Veterinary Medical Board, staff from the Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) demonstrated an interactive dashboard built from demographic questions added to license renewal forms and said the data will support workforce planning.
Elise Ram, workforce researcher at HCAI, told board members the dashboard draws on voluntary demographic and practice‑activity responses collected at renewal and includes race, ethnicity, language, education, practice location and reported activities and full‑time‑equivalent hours. "We were able to collect survey data from 76.5% of all of our veterinary licenses across the state," Ram said, adding that the dataset represents nearly 22,000 surveys and a decline‑to‑state rate of about 12.1% or less depending on the question.
HCAI explained the data collection was created after state legislation directed boards that license healing‑arts professionals to request workforce information at renewal. Eric Neuhauser, an HCAI workforce researcher who introduced the presentation, said the law that prompted the work was discussed as AB 1 33 and that the change modified Business and Professions Code section 502; presenters also cited Health and Safety Code 1128051 as part of the statutory framework described in the presentation.
Ram said the dashboard includes concordance metrics that compare the demographic composition of licensees to county and statewide populations and features maps, age‑group breakdowns and response‑rate reports. She highlighted two major findings: Hispanic and Black or African American licensees are among the most underrepresented groups in the statewide veterinary workforce, and those underrepresentations are visible across most counties that have licensees identifying in those groups.
The dashboard demo showed filters by region and license type, county‑level concordance values (a value closer to 1 indicates closer similarity between licensee demographics and the general population), and an age breakdown that Ram said was largely stable across most cohorts. Ram also said the team will provide additional dashboards for language and education pathways, and that HCAI supplied the dashboard and an accompanying data table to the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) for publication on DCA's open data site.
Board members asked whether the veterinary workforce data could be compared to comparable human‑health license datasets; Ram said HCAI can perform cross‑license comparisons if the board specifies which comparisons it wants. Neuhauser said HCAI will follow up with DCA on the expected publication date for the dashboard and the open‑data table.
Board members applauded the presentation and asked staff to provide additional demos and materials as the board digests the results. HCAI staff asked board members to contact them with follow‑up questions and offered to run focused demos for regions or specific license types.
The board opened the item for public comment; no callers or remote participants requested to speak.
The HCAI presenters said the dashboards are intended to inform workforce planning and to make licensee demographic data available for researchers via DCA's open data portal.
