Often, one bill may include several different provisions that impact various health professions. House Bill (HB) 1358, which was heard and passed with amendments by the House Public Health Committee on January 20, is one of those bills. Let’s take a closer look.
Rural Graduate Medical Education
HB 1358 seeks to address medical education through provisions that would require students from Indiana medical schools to complete a rural health rotation before completing their degree program.
This bill intersects with the work of the Indiana Health Workforce Council (HWC). The Bowen Center has provided technical assistance to the HWC since its inception in 2024. A recent report summarizes the yearlong work of the HWC’s obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN) focus group to assess and develop recommendations to strengthen Indiana’s OB/GYN workforce. Through research, stakeholder engagement, and Bowen Center-supported analyses, the subcommittee identified several actionable strategies to improve maternal health workforce capacity.
One of these recommendations is to expand the rural training received by medical students and medical residents at these rotations, meaningfully increasing the likelihood that physicians will ultimately practice in rural areas. This makes them a potential tool addressing maternity care challenges in rural Indiana.
Trauma Registry
Apart from integrating rural rotations into medical education, HB 1358 would also establish a trauma registry in Indiana statute. Trauma registries collect information about traumatic injuries across a state to evaluate the delivery of care and support prevention. The Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) has created administrative rules for Indiana’s trauma registry, but there is no binding state statute. However, that may change. If implemented as state law, HB 1358 would formalize Indiana’s trauma registry in statute and void the administrative rules currently governing the registry.
One of the Bowen Center’s active projects is supporting IDOH’s Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) work. IDOH is responsible for the development and implementation of a statewide comprehensive trauma care system. As part of this responsibility, IDOH regularly assesses the state’s TBI system of care and develops a TBI State Plan. The Bowen Center is currently conducting an evaluation of the health workforce providing TBI services to support future state initiatives.
This work included a review of state statutes from Indiana’s contiguous states and several others to identify areas of opportunity to enhance the TBI system of care. One notable finding is that several states have trauma registries, including Indiana. The Bowen Center is set to release findings from this work this spring.
From rural rotations to trauma registries, HB 1358 demonstrates how legislation can address multiple dimensions of healthcare workforce challenges simultaneously. The Bowen Center will continue to monitor this bill’s progress and provide data-driven insights on Indiana’s health workforce landscape. Check out the full HWC report to learn more about opportunities to support the maternal care workforce and subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed about the trauma care findings this spring.