The marching orders are in. The National Coordinator for Health IT, Dr. David Blumenthal has stated the need for an estimated 50,000 additional healthcare information technology workers. Federal money is being offered to fund higher education to train the new HIT work force. This is exciting news! I have some thoughts on where these highly skilled healthcare IT workers might come from and some of the challenges they may face.
One of the rewards for being an executive recruiter in healthcare information technology is being able to meet and talk to outstanding individuals with amazing backgrounds. The question I will often ask is “What led you to choose a career in healthcare IT?” What I have learned is always fascinating, many CIOs, CMIOs, clinical IT and other senior leaders have found their way to healthcare IT roles through various paths. They may have started out in other areas such as consulting, working for vendors, in the military, engineering, sales or government. Many have acquired MBAs and have business knowledge and acumen from other industries.
Interestingly, most individuals mentioned that they came into healthcare IT not necessarily for the money, but for the mission and the desire to use IT to improve patient care. Some even fell into healthcare IT by accident, being drafted or offered a position and then decided to stay. Where these IT leaders came from, I believe, can give us insight on where to look for the next wave of healthcare IT professionals.
Here are some of my ideas on where to find some of these 50,000 workers:
- Inside health systems, many departments using or implementing the electronic medical record (EMR) have “super users” and techno savvy individuals that with some coaching, training and mentoring could become our next IT stars
- Clinicians and other clinical specialists who move over to IT: physicians, nurses, pharmacists, medical technologists, radiologists, biomedical engineers, health information management and other clinical ancillary professionals.
- Non-clinicians project managers with specific EMR vendor product experience.
- Healthcare industry consultants and vendors with operational EMR experience.
- Outside of healthcare, those individuals with people, project and/or change management skills, technical expertise or IT security knowledge.
I realize some key challenges facing outsiders will be the need to understand the clinicians’ role in the health system and willingness to learn our many acronyms, terminologies, applications and secret codes. Some suggestions to help CIOs recruiting talent outside of healthcare are:
- Set up internship programs with the local community colleges, technical institutes and universities.
- Teach classes or workshops in health IT and informatics. Push for more programs in your area.
- Look for the strong transferable soft skills like communication and interpersonal skills and mentor and guide.
- Seek hard skills such as technical expertise common to all industries and certain certifications such as project management (PMP certification) and in IT Security (CISSP and CSM certification).
Clinicians have faced resistance and barriers moving into IT, such as peer pressure and gaining credibility in IT, but their knowledge of clinical workflow and direct patient care make them valuable assets to the IT team. There are sure to be other barriers to overcome as we march forward.
I’m looking forward to welcoming all the new fresh faces in healthcare IT. This should be an interesting change year for all of us. Welcome to 2010 everyone!
Related articles:
HHS Announces Plans to Make $80 Million Available to Support Health IT Workforce
Health IT effort to create thousands of new jobs, says Blumenthal | Healthcare IT News
Anthony Guerra says
Thanks for this post Bonnie. You are addressing what is obviously a huge issue. I interviewed David Muntz recently from Baylor and he also talked about recruiting IT talent from within the hospital clinician population. There is, however, a thorny issue that can come up — sometimes this is resented on the clinical side of the house as “poaching.”
We know there is a shortage of trained HIT professionals, but we also know there is a shortage of nurses. I know this for a fact, as my wife was a floor nurse who got burned out from having to cover too many patients. After 10 years, she got her NP degree and left for ambulatory care.
My point is that CIOs need to be careful about the internal political implications of recruiting in-house. Your suggestion of importing from other industries may be a easier path to take.
Bonnie R. Siegel, FHIMSS says
Thanks, Anthony, your point is well taken. In many cases, CIOs can offer growth and a career path for internal clinical talent, but political pressures may be too hard to overcome and recruiting talent from the outside (not necessarily from other industries) may be the best route.
Glad your wife survived the burn out!
Marc Holland says
Bonnie:
I concur with many of your points, but whether the number is 50,000, 40,000 or 60,000, it is highly unlikely that the industry will be successful in identifying, training and deploying enough to achieve the goals set forth by DHHS within the window allowed under ARRA. But there are more hurdles to overcome than simply that. An army of 50,000 footsoldiers and NCOs will require a substantial complement of “officers”, so to speak. And the most critical of those — and the ones is shortest supply — have MD or RN after their name. If we are to achieve pervasive and “meaningful” usage (every pun intended) of clinical systems, particularly CPOE, we need those efforts to be led by well-trained leaders with clinical credentials. After all, this transformation everyone is anticipating is much more about change management then it is technology management.
What are your thoughts?
Beth Friedman says
Bonnie:
I agree that we will find the new workers we need among the ranks of other clinical specialties, particularly those who have purused additional eductation or experience within IT.
Another ancillary professional with both clinical knowledge and technology skills is the clinical documentation specialists (formerly known as medical transcriptionist / editor). These trained and credentialled professionals have skills to ensure accurate and complete clinical documentation in today’s hybrid world and tomorrow’s electronic environment. They not only possess an in-depth clinical knowledge but also have a clear grasp on legal documentation requirements and technology.
Perhaps it is time for CIOs to take a closer look at AHDI or MTIA (professional associations for clinical documentation) and see what new partnerships can be created to fuel the workforce of tomorrow.
Bonnie R. Siegel, FHIMSS says
Thanks for your comments, Marc and Beth. Training the “officers” will be key to successfully leading the 50,000+, I agree. Where the clinicians get their training will be very important. In fact, I was surprised to learn my local community college is offering a health informatics course and they are looking to add more adjunct professors.
Another example is the University of Illinois-Chicago, their enrollments have grown substantially over the last several years for their online Masters of Health Informatics and certificate programs in health informatics, attracting clinicians, HIM professionals and others outside of healthcare. Other universities and colleges seem to be adding more informatics courses too.
I have also seen clients hire non-clinicians as “officers” in clinical implementations and transformation roles if they are knowledge experts in the EMR/CPOE vendor products and can be effective change agents.
Beth, thank you for mentioning the clinical documentation associations–AHDI and MTIA, I did know about them, great resource.
Thanks for sharing!