Mike Miliard, Managing Editor
Mike Miliard is Managing Editor at Healthcare IT News. Mike covers topics such as health information exchange, privacy and security, analytics and ICD-10. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeMiliardHITN.
EMR jobs going gangbusters
NEW YORK | September 21, 2012
In August, more than 15,000 jobs were advertised online for healthcare professionals that have experience with electronic medical records in the United States, and the market is growing 31 percent year-over-year, according to market researcher WANTED Analytics.
The HITECH Act provides funding for health providers to convert patient records into electronic files, causing more medical organizations to employ this technology and recruit professionals with knowledge of these systems. The number of job ads increased 31 percent compared to August of 2011 and 88 percent since August 2010, and is currently the most commonly required skill in healthcare job ads, say WANTED analysts.
Among the most commonly advertised job openings for healthcare professionals with EMR or EHR:
- Registered Nurse
- Nurse Practitioner
- Family Practice Physician
- Physician Internal Medicine
- Physician Assistant
- Hospitalist
- Medical Billing Coding
- Nurse II Inpatient Nursing
- Physician
- Family Medicine Physician
The metropolitan areas with the highest volume of listings in August were Minneapolis, New York, Chicago, Phoenix and Boston, according to the research. While healthcare employers in Minneapolis placed the highest number of job ads for this talent pool, one of the highest year-over-year growth areas was seen in New York, where demand grew more than 245 percent in August 2012 compared to August 2011. The second highest growth was seen in Phoenix, up 127 percent compared to last year.
The hiring demand is likely to continue as more employers shift their medical records to electronic systems. Currently, the limited talent supply of potential candidates with EMR or EHR experience will create challenges for employers, officials say.
WANTED Analytics finds that employers across the United States spend an average of six weeks advertising jobs and sourcing candidates for positions that require electronic skills. Each location will, however, experience a varying degree of difficulty when sourcing. Companies in Fairbanks, Alaska are currently experiencing some of the most challenging overall recruiting conditions, as more employers are looking to fill jobs in these areas than the local talent supply can support. Job ads in this area remain online for an average of 7.5 weeks.
By contrast, the locations experiencing the least difficulties recruiting this talent are Rochester, N.Y. and Chicago, the research shows. Larger talent supply in these metro areas, means that recruiters are likely to fill open healthcare positions that require EMR or EHR skills faster than average.
Showing 6 Comments
Jennifer Ginn say: EMR Jobs
October 04, 2012 | 15:06 PM GMT
I find it amusing that so many people think it is not a prerequisite in Healthcare IT to be first and foremost a clinician. Now I can see why so many EHR vendors have flawed products. Programmers always think in logic, when the human condition is anything but logical. Patients are more than numbers on a spreadsheet, they are more than a data mining source. For a vendor to use clinicans in a useful manner, equal respect and consideration needs to be given to these clinicians instead of a programmer that thinks they "own" the system and it is "working as designed".
Celeste H say: I agree these are not IT jobs
October 01, 2012 | 18:02 PM GMT
My experience with the provider side of HIM and EHR is that they are NOT seeking specialized IT folks to work/assist from an direct employer standpoint, but are wanting to retrain their existing Medical staff in HIM/EHR. In my opinion, one of the major factors in adding this job responsibility onto existing medical staff job responsibilities is costs. On the provider side, people wear multiple hats, unlike in IT, where you specialize. In addition, the wage difference is significant. From what I see advertised in the Dallas, TX area, and IT person with healthcare IT experience with the big payers (Wellpoint, CVS Caremark, BCBS) can make close to double what their medical counterparts on the provide side make. In addition, the providers initially find it cheaper to hire third party vendors that specialize in HIM/EHR software to do the implementations, than to hire their own staff.
Again, this is just my personal opinion, and it is based on what I am seeing in my local area, which may not apply to the entire US.
Joan B say: EHR Jobs
September 25, 2012 | 12:26 PM GMT
I think the two people who have commented have completely nailed it. If a job candidate has tons of experience with a particular vendor AND is a nurse, PA or MD there are plenty of jobs. It appears that the people getting those jobs are changing jobs on a regular basis.
There are still thousands with the required skills who cannot find work.
Diana Strong say: workforce training for EHR
September 22, 2012 | 10:31 AM GMT
Although there are many job postings for jobs with ehr skills, employers are not hiring graduates of the ONC Health Information Technology program that was created to help fill the demand for skilled workers. Even passing the competency exam does not make a job applicant more employable as evidenced on the discussion boards on LinkedIn. Employers continue to demand applicants have specific system certification. Many experienced IT workers have failed to break the barrier of required healthcare experience imposed by the healthcare providers and vendors. Many of us are walking around with information and knowledge of the goals of the 2009 HITECH act with no where to apply it. Maybe Healthcare It News should do a report on whether the workforce training is being utilized by the employers.
pjcasey75 say: Not necessarily new jobs
September 21, 2012 | 13:04 PM GMT
The headline for this article "EMR jobs going gangbusters" might give the impression that the 15K job postings for EHR/EMR experienced professionals were for newly created positions since the growth of this technology has increased. However, the article discloses that the need is still defined primarily by job types such as "Family Practice Physician" and "Registered Nurse" indicating that experience with EHRs is becoming just one more additional requirement for existing professions rather than an additional profession in and of itself. In other words, the need isn't for an additional headcount with EHR skills, but rather, the provider we want now has to have another skill we wouldn't have required of a provider 2 years ago. So the 31% growth rate is in a requirement, not a 31% growth rate in "EMR jobs".
The take away is still valuable - healthcare providers who want to be marketable need to know this skill is increasingly important for getting hired. But in the current economic environment which makes us all so hungry for good news about job growth, this isn't the encouraging job growth story we might wish it was.
The jobs listed also belie another fact - that EHR training such as associates or masters degree in Healthcare Informatics and the like, without an underlying core education and certification in healthcare such as an RN or MD/DO may not actually open the door wide into a healthcare IT career. All the jobs listed in the article are for healthcare professionals with IT skills, not for IT professionals with some familiarity with healthcare. Those jobs may indeed be out there and in high demand, but that is not what this study tells me.
J Atkinson say: You Need IT skills in the clinical informatics industry
Sorry, Jen. I have been in specifically in the clinical informatics business a really long time, and I am getting weary of clinical staff who come into the informatics industry lacking basic IT skills, expecting the world to turn on a dime for them.
I have completely lost count of the number of spreadsheets and clinical databases which I have seen that have been utterly destroyed by clinical staff with the inability to even sort a spreadsheet, filter out the bad data, develop consistent naming conventions, and those who cannot handle basic Microsoft Outlook, Visio, MS Project, and struggle with keyboard skills. It is unbelievable. Those are the easy pieces, and yet, year after year, I find myself working long hours to correct mishandled and deformed databases which even the high-priced clinical consultants mess up.
It is far easier to explain a clinical workflow to a technical person, than it is to bring a clinical person up to technical speed. Give me a techie and I can - and do - bring them up to speed in a matter of weeks in the clinical environment.