Preparing for an IT Talent Squeeze

The federal government's tight time frame for computerization, along with a steep implementation curve, will require more bodies-soon, and in the thousands at least, they say. The federal stimulus bill, which earmarked $19 billion for incentives related to computerization at hospitals and physician practices, also included financial penalties beginning in 2015. Just 9 percent of hospitals use electronic records on even a limited basis, according to a recent study. The debate seems to be less about the likelihood of a hiring surge and more about how many jobs it will fuel and how soon that surge will happen.

Job projections range widely, from at least 41,000 positions to more than 200,000, depending upon the analysis cited. The 41,000 figure is likely on the low end, says Dr. William Hersh, one of the researchers involved. "That data is probably an understatement-it looked mainly at hospitals," says Hersh, who chairs the Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology at Oregon Health & Science University.

Once hiring starts, likely by early 2010, watch out, says Walt Zywiak, a principal researcher for Computer Sciences Corp.'s Healthcare Group, based in Falls Church, Virginia. Zywiak was among those who predicted that talented IT employees, including systems administrators, database engineers and security architects, will be recruited from other industries.

A hiring frenzy may seem more like a mirage now, given that many IT employees have been sidelined by the recession. IT unemployment can be difficult to track, given that positions fall across a number of job categories as characterized by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But a recent analysis of second-quarter data by Information Security Media Group, a publisher, found that unemployment across a range of IT professional jobs had reached an annualized rate of 4.1 percent. That may sound low, compared with unemployment overall, but for IT, it's the highest figure in at least five years.

Hospitals and physician practices that achieve meaningful use of their electronic health records can reap financial incentives starting in 2011. The term "meaningful use" is still being defined, but for those who don't make the grade, reductions in Medicare reimbursements begin in 2015.

Just 1.5 percent of hospitals have a comprehensive electronic records system, and an additional 7.6 percent have implemented a system in at least one unit, according to a New England Journal of Medicine study published this year.

Nationally, Zywiak predicts that two primary tech groups will be in high demand: people who can install systems and those who can troubleshoot, forming a bridge between clinicians and tech experts in resolving workflow problems and other implementation challenges.

Security architects and other related specialists also will be hot commodities, given the inherent privacy concerns involved with storing and sharing personal medical data across large hospital systems or even regional networks, says Kurt Roemer, chief security strategist at Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Citrix Systems. For similar reasons, technologists who specialize in cloud computing-storing vast quantities of information over the Internet rather than on individual servers-will likely find numerous health-related employment opportunities, he says.

Source: Workforce Management Online, Charlotte Huff, 10/2009