Job seekers must change search habits to get in the health IT game

March 10, 2011 | Molly Merrill, Associate Editor

Suggested Content

MARYSVILLE, WA – Job candidates with IT experience or interest are not broadening their searches to include jobs in the healthcare IT field, even though experts say it is ripe with opportunity, according to MedZilla.com.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that healthcare jobs increased by 34,000 in February – more than three times as many jobs created in January. And although layoffs were reported to be up in February, only 1,337 were in healthcare, according to outplacement consulting organization Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

"Healthcare remains a consistent growth industry in the U.S.," said John Burkhardt, managing director of MedZilla.com, a website for professionals and employers in pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical sales, biotechnology, science and medicine.

"It's not just doctors and nurses, though, that are benefiting. As the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – health care reform – comes closer to its final effective date in 2014, information technology roles will continue to grow in both scope and number," he said.

"People who never thought they'd be getting jobs in healthcare might someday be reporting to hospitals or medical technology firms," Burkhardt added.

February's candidate search numbers from MedZilla.com speak to Burkhardt's point – companies seeking qualified applicants increased their search activities by 2.5 percent in February. Companies who increased candidate searches in general were mostly located in California (up four percent) and New Jersey (3.1 percent); however, numbers dropped significantly in North Carolina and Texas – both down 3.3 percent. Job postings by employers and job searches by applicants remained fairly even, month-to-month, with only New Jersey showing a significant change – up 1.3 percent in postings and 1.2 percent in searches.

"We haven't seen corresponding changes – in New Jersey or anywhere else – with technology-minded applicants looking for jobs in healthcare information technology," said Del Johnston, MedZilla's manager of Client Relations. "Our numbers for the past few months haven't shifted much one way or the other. It's still very possible to scoop everyone else and try to get in on the ground floor with health care IT."

Reader Comments (7)Login to Post a Comment

MaineHIT says: ONC certification but no opportunities

March 14, 2011 | 10:54AM GMT

I am in the first class scheduled to complete a 6 month HIT certification program later this month. The class was offered through my local community college and used lectures and tests prepared by the ONC.

David Blumenthal recently bragged about the 3,400 students that were scheduled to complete the first "workforce preparation" program.

I jumped into this class with the hopes that my technical background would be enhanced by a HIT certification and would open the door to the lucrative HIT field.

Unfortunately I find that the 50,000 new jobs that Blumenthal predicted for the field have failed to materialize and that there are no entry points for the newly certified students who have some HIT knowledge but lack clinical experience.

Where is the industry starting point? Banks hire new graduates and put them through training programs to prepare them for various banking jobs. Lots of companies use interim or apprenticeship programs as the entry point for their field. So, where does one get a start in HIT?

I would like to suggest that the REC's be tasked with employing free/cheap labor consisting of recently certified HIT students giving them the valuable EHR/CPOE/meaningful use experience that will lead to jobs.

FLPoggio says: HIT job seekers

March 10, 2011 | 5:04PM GMT

The first thing an IT person new to health care needs to understand is that health organizations are not set up like IBM, or GE or Apple. Very few understand this coming in and they get frustrated fast as some comments above show.

Hospitals are not run by the CEO, they are run by a ‘committee’ of the Board, Administration and the Medical staff. So decision making and change do not happen fast.

It’s kind of like running a business where the person who determines what is to be done (production) is also the lead R&D person, and is also the key marketing/sales person. If he /she doesn’t like the way things are going, they will take the ‘customers’ (patients) elsewhere. Very few 'customers' will tell their doctor, 'I do not want to go to Hospital X', and if they do, the doc will give them 10 medical resons why they should.

Frank Poggio
The Kelzon Group

hobie18 says: Job Seekers

March 10, 2011 | 4:22PM GMT

In the rush to achieve meaningful use and grab ARRA money I think employers are looking specifically for health care experience. Employers certainly frequently list industry experience or specific system experience in job descriptions.

CBones says: Denial?

March 10, 2011 | 3:53PM GMT

Speaking as a recent new hire. The editors have either little information on the culture clash or denial of a clash between IT and clinical folks. I am amazed at the lack of IT infrastructure, adherence to software industry standards, or general knowledge of a process that revolved around the customer (patient). This lesson didn't begin with getting hired but applying to master's level health care IT programs that clearly were composed of IT courses, but "required" a clinical background.

... and my IT buddies deem joining health care is ... "great work digging a ditch with a toothpick if you don't mind denying the fact there are shovels out there." Someday maybe we'll realize that we're all in this boat together and that teams are made up of people with very different skill sets. Heck ... us IT folks can't be that bad .. look at the open infrastructure we've created in the last 10 years...lol

Kathrynw says: Job Seekers may be self screening themselves from Health IT jobs

March 10, 2011 | 3:02PM GMT

Absolutely. I think that many job seekers in the non-healthcare IT World may be self screening themselves from Health IT jobs. They fail to search for Healthcare IT jobs because employers tend to ask for Healthcare IT experience. But, with more jobs than experienced workers -- employers will have to start letting experienced IT professionals without Healthcare experience in the door and not at "entry level" postions. It is inevitable.

droberts80 says: It's all well and good taking

March 10, 2011 | 12:59PM GMT

It's all well and good taking labor stats and saying that the number of health IT jobs increased by X and IT professionals are not broadening their job searches but the problem I have found is that even with the IT experience the majority of employers hiring want healthcare experience in addition to IT experience. That may be in the form of clinical experience or health IT experience. For instance, I spoke to a consulting company who specializes in health IT and was told that their average consultant had 11 years of IT experience and 14 years of healthcare experience. Some are willing to hire experienced IT people at entry level HIT jobs but if you are at a certain place in your career and life you may not be able to take a large pay cut in order to take the job.

Maybe, hopefully, this will change in the coming months and years when the need for IT folks is greater than the available people with both IT and healthcare experience.

tknoob says: I agree with droberts80. I

March 11, 2011 | 12:20PM GMT

I agree with droberts80. I think hospitals and medical groups would be missing out on some top-notch IT people by focusing solely on one's healthcare experience. While healthcare may be a specialized industry, you can say that about other industries as well.