Clinical IT professionals hard to find

January 24, 2011 | Bernie Monegain, Editor

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PHILADELPHIA – New clinical informatics positions at hospitals are proving difficult to fill, according to a new study from Hay Group. Forty-seven percent of healthcare organizations reported challenges with recruitment, retention or both.

Eighty-two percent of respondents said the positions are designed to be filled by full-time employees, rather than by consultants, and many healthcare organizations indicated the positions originated with temporary agreements.

[For another point of view, see Health IT consultants in demand.]

"These positions are so new and so specialized that it's not surprising to see these professionals capitalizing on the market demand for their services," said Dan Mayfield, a healthcare consultant with Hay Group. "Retention will be tough until more talent develops in the market. Also, programmers tend to enjoy the design and implementation project phases, rather than the maintenance and utilization of systems. We see this difference in IT positions across all industries."

A surge in interest regarding clinical informatics positions was created in response to the American Recovery Act's push to implement electronic medical record systems to create efficiencies in healthcare, but also to create jobs. [See: War on talent about to begin in healthcare IT.] Nearly all respondents (96 percent) have begun to create these positions and structure the departments; 32 percent report they are one year to two years into the process - the largest segment currently in the timeline.

Organizations that reported having completed the process of building EMR capabilities and have staffed the departments accordingly, said it took an average of 44 months.

"Nearly every healthcare client I have recently spoken with has clinical informatics positions, and seemed to have created them without much direction or structure," said Mayfield. "Due to the lack of benchmark data and an understanding of best practices, there has been a lot of improvising. Having a resource available to better understand the market for clinical informatics positions will help our clients greatly as they adapt and adjust going forward."

Responding to market needs, Hay Group is one of the first management consultancies to produce an analysis of newly formed clinical informatics positions in hospitals and health systems. The resulting report features information and statistics regarding recruitment, retention and rewards for these newly formed IT positions.

Clinical informatics positions have been added to Hay Group's 2011 Healthcare Compensation Survey, which is now open for submissions. Data from that survey will be available in July 2011.

Hay Group's clinical informatics data is derived from a survey sent to large complex hospitals and health systems in November 2010, when 65 organizations supplied data (50 were integrated health systems with an average of 12 hospitals, the rest were stand-alone hospitals). Typical respondents to the survey include compensation professionals in the Human Resources departments. Hay Group's core compensation database represents compensation practices for almost 3,000 companies and over 6 million employees.

Reader Comments (5)Login to Post a Comment

CBones says: Adversarial cultures clash

March 24, 2011 | 2:18PM GMT

The reason for the shortage is an Adversarial cultures clash. Jobs continue to require BSN with x number of years of IT functionality or hands on experience in a clinical environment. When a non clincial person mention items like data goverance and adherence to software standards it's like one just made up these concepts and they don't apply .. and never mention a patient workflow or you might end up at the unemployment office.

Kathrynw says: Wake Up Call.

March 10, 2011 | 4:11PM GMT

When employers are unable to fill their open postions because either:
a) They won't hire an IT professional without healthcare industry and/or clinical experience, OR
b) They won't hire a clinician because they don't have enough IT experience, then
they will have to make some decisions about how to fill the positions. And those with both both clinical background and healthcare IT should be paid accordingly.

Melissa_N says: Jobs.

February 11, 2011 | 9:53AM GMT

I have been an RN for 10+ years and our Systems Manager for 8 of those years. Being involved in the creation, implementation and upkeep of our EMR... but guess what, still waiting for my BSN (4 more courses); The jobs that are available definitely want you to be proficient in more than one platform or program (which is almost impossible now days); The employers need to realize that we are intelligent I.T. professionals who are willing to learn another program in order to effectively provide implementation services. It reminds me of when I first came out of nursing school -- we couldn't find jobs because we didn't have experience. How in the world are we supposed to gain experience -- especially in the I.T. specialities arena?

Csa198932 says: I agree with the other post.

February 08, 2011 | 4:12PM GMT

I agree with the other post. The shortage is of people with the imaginary qualifications made up by employers. I too spent fifteen years in a clinical role, have obtained a degree in IT, and am finishing another degree in Health Information Management. I can't even get employers to return a phone call, because I don't have x number of years of experience on platform y.

There aren't the numbers of applicants with the experience that facilities are specifying. They will need to think outside the box a little bit. What's the point of starting dozens of educational programs if the employers won't hire people with the training provided?

cbarton says: Healthcare IT shortage

January 31, 2011 | 4:00PM GMT

Hospitals, vendors and others need to realize that they might not find the ideal candidate with 2-5 years experience implementing systems or 2 years IT and 5 years clinical, etc, etc. I am in graduate school and have almost completed my nursing informatics courses-a year and a semester worth, and can't for the life of me find a job. I also have 26 years experience as a critical care and ED nurse. So---