CHICAGO – The 20th Annual HIMSS Leadership Survey, released at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s annual conference last month showed the economy is having an impact on IT budgets, staffing and projects. However, many respondents completed the survey before the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was signed into law on Feb. 17. Several CIOs who attended the annual HIMSS conference and exhibit last month, said their organizations are continuing to pursue IT projects and the stimulus could create previously unanticipated opportunities to help fund them.

CIOs, like Denni McColm, CIO of Citizens Memorial Hospital in Bolivar, Mo., agreed that the soft economy has pressed executives to focus on the bottom line more than ever. But, the stimulus package, with $19.2 for healthcare IT could change the landscape, they say. Citizens has prepared a bare-bones budget, but it has a “placeholder” for healthcare IT, McColm told a HIMSS audience.

Half of survey respondents indicated their 2009 IT budget would increase over their 2008 budget. The number is fewer than the three-quarters of respondents who reported increases in the 2008 survey.

About 42 percent of respondents indicated their staffing levels would increase over the next 12 months. The figure is down from the two-thirds of respondents who predicted in the 2008 survey that staffing in the IT departments would increase.