One of the major goals of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is to stimulate the economy by creating jobs. The HITECH Act has certainly done its part and is the most visible part of ARRA that is creating jobs because of the federal incentives for adopting EHRs.
A lot of reports and stories are coming out about the need for skilled healthcare IT workers to help implement and maintain the EMRs and EHRs that hospitals, health systems and physician groups are deploying.
Hospitals in the Cincinnati area say they need as much as 100 healthcare IT workers, and the TriHealth system, which covers Good Samaritan and Bethesda North hospitals, says it needs 30 new full-time IT workers for its $100 million implementation over the next two years. Officials say the majority of new hires will be local but they expect to have to go outside of the local market to round out their needs. The whole process was described as "challenging."
The question that I have is with this "supply down and demand up" environment, for the time being until people finish the workforce training and community college programs, is what's the quality of healthcare IT people being hired today? I recall during the economic boom times how many industries were hiring second-tier professionals at high rates because they were desperate to get their projects completed. While it may seem like a similar scenario, perhaps it's not the same, given the gravity of implementing and maintaining systems that deal with patient safety and their health outcomes. One hopes that those hiring are making good decisions.
On a similar vein, who are these people who are getting these degrees and certificates through the workforce training and community college programs? If you're in such a program, let us know how it's running and what the competency levels are for the people in the programs. What led you to these programs? It would be interesting to find out.
If you are a healthcare provider executive thinking about your needs, share with us what your concerns are with regard to the human resources needed to get your organization to meaningful use of EHRs. As you wait for graduates of these federally funded programs, are you seeing an adequate talent level sufficient to get the job done?
Photo by funkblast courtesy of Creative Commons license.
