2008 Colorado Rural Dentist Survey

Many Coloradans living in rural areas of the state have difficulty getting access to oral health care because of an overall shortage of practicing dentists. To obtain an accurate and current picture of the state's rural dentist workforce, including training and practice issues related to recruiting dentists to work in rural areas, the Colorado Health Institute (CHI) was asked by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Oral Health Program to survey Colorado's rural dentists.

In July 2008, CHI sent a survey questionnaire to 365 individuals holding an active dentist license and practicing in rural areas of Colorado.

Findings from the survey were released in late fall 2008.

2008-09 Colorado Household Survey (COHS)
The survey focused on health insurance coverage, access to health care services, and affordability of coverage and health care. It was the first health insurance survey done in Colorado since 2001 and has recently been updated in 2011 through The Colorado Trust’s Colorado Health Access Survey.

The 2008-09 survey provides state policymakers and researchers with baseline information about health insurance and health insurance coverage in Colorado at the regional level.

CHI conducted the survey under a contract with HCPF which received a grant from The Colorado Trust. In turn, CHI contracted with SRSS, a national survey research firm, to conduct the random digit-dialing telephone survey which included a target of 10,000 Colorado households. The sampling design included 21 regions of the state to ensure that rural communities were adequately represented in the survey.

2009 Colorado Rural Physician Survey

With funding from The Colorado Trust, in June 2009 CHI surveyed Colorado’s 1,362 rural physicians to gather information about themselves, their practices and the unique issues of working in rural areas. The information is being used to inform legislators, providers, communities, the Colorado Area Health Education Centers, the Colorado medical Society, COPIC Insurance, the Health Resources and Services Administration Region 8 Office and the Colorado University Denver School of Medicine about the challenges of recruiting and retaining physicians in rural Colorado.

2009 Colorado Urban Dentist Survey

Many Coloradans have difficulty getting access to the oral health care they need, not only in rural areas but also in urban locations. In order to address this problem, policymakers at both the state and local levels need a better understanding of the training, practice and reimbursement issues related to recruiting and retaining dentists throughout Colorado’s urban communities.

The Colorado Health Institute (CHI) was asked by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Oral Health Program to survey Colorado’s non-rural dentists to provide a more comprehensive picture of the state’s dental workforce. The survey was mailed in July 2009 to a stratified random sample of 887 dentists in urban and suburban areas of the state.

2010 Colorado Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) Workforce Survey
Advanced practice nurses (APNs) are one group of providers having the potential to provide primary care in Colorado. In 2010, CHI surveyed APNs registered in the state to better understand their characteristics as health care providers. This report looks at Colorado’s APN workforce demographics, work settings, practice challenges and retention and supply issues and highlights key findings as they relate to current workforce policy discussions.

2011 CHAS

The 2011 Colorado Health Access Survey (CHAS) is an extensive, random sample telephone survey of 10,352 Colorado households that assesses issues in Colorado relating to health care coverage, access and utilization. CHAS is the first follow-up to the Colorado Household Survey; its baseline data were released in 2009.  

Information from the survey will inform discussions and decisions about health care access, coverage and utilization by policymakers, community and business leaders, health care providers and other decision-makers.  

Data collection and analyses for CHAS are managed by the Colorado Health Institute.

A program of The Colorado Trust, CHAS provides information to help policymakers, as well as health care, business and community leaders, more fully understand health challenges and advance shared solutions to improve health coverage and care for Coloradans.

American Community Survey (ACS)
The ACS is designed to provide general, social, economic and housing characteristics such as disability, poverty and employment status of communities.

Area Resource File
The Area Resource File (ARF) is collection of national and county-level health data from more than 50 sources. The ARF database contains statistics on the following categories of health resources: health professions, health training programs, health facilities, utilization and expenditures. It also contains geographic codes and descriptors and information on economic activity and socioeconomic and enviromental characteristics.