WASHINGTON – As the nation’s healthcare system moves toward automation, the need for healthcare information technology professionals in the workforce is growing. The need is deemed to be at almost 40 percent more –  or 40,000 additional IT employees at U.S. hospitals, according to a new study.

The report is based on an analysis of the HIMSS Analytics Database, which contains information from about 5,000 U.S. hospitals.

William Hersh, MD, professor and chairman of the Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology at Oregon Health & Science University, presented the findings at a recent meeting of the Steering Committee on Telehealth and Healthcare Informatics on Capitol Hill.

U.S. Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.) moderated the meeting. Wu authored a bill (H.R. 1467) addressing the need to train more healthcare IT professionals, which the House passed recently. The bill is awaiting Senate action.

“I commend Dr. Hersh for his research on healthcare IT workforce issues,” said Wu. “His findings further justify the need for my 10,000 Trained by 2010 Act, which provides funds for healthcare IT education. A workforce trained in healthcare IT is essential to bringing greater quality and efficiency to the healthcare industry. “

“The need for IT professionals in health information technology (HIT) settings is large and will increase as more advanced systems are implemented,” Hersh and co-author Adam Wright concluded in their report. Wright is senior medical informatician in the Clinical Informatics Research & Development Group at Partners HealthCare in Boston.

“If our data represent a correct sampling of the entire U.S. , then the current IT staff workforce is about 108,390 FTE (full-time equivalents),” the report said.“However, if the U.S. HIT agenda is fulfilled and hospitals move to higher levels of adoption, an additional 40,784 FTE will be required.”

Hersh called for additional education and training for healthcare IT professionals.