How to get a job in healthcare IT
Sky-high demand for tech staff means extra open doorways for IT execs who don’t have prior expertise within the healthcare {industry}.
Gerd Altmann
(CC0)
Wes Cronkite’s firm, CPSI, makes software program for the healthcare {industry}, and he has seen each well being tech corporations like his personal and healthcare establishments develop their tech groups lately. That progress has created extra jobs, demand for a broader spectrum of abilities, and extra locations to work.
Roles on this area vary from entry-level assist desk positions to person expertise designers to well being informatics specialists at medical facilities, doctor practices, startup healthcare ventures, and vendor corporations.
CPSI
Wes Cronkite, chief innovation officer, CPSI
“There has been tremendous growth in healthcare IT, with work moving beyond supporting legacy systems and just keeping systems up and running. There has been a lot of innovation, and as a result, there is a lot of opportunity for talented [tech workers],” says Cronkite, CPSI’s chief innovation officer.
For hiring managers, such progress has made the laborious activity of discovering certified technologists even more durable. But it has created extra alternatives for tech execs trying to enter or advance their careers by shifting into healthcare IT.
“We’re in an absolute staffing crisis when it comes to technology workers, particularly in healthcare, and we’ll take on great talent today even if they don’t have healthcare experience,” Cronkite says.
[ 5 ways COVID-19 has changed healthcare IT ]
Job statistics centered particularly on the total vary of positions that make up healthcare IT aren’t available. However, figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics present some perspective. The BLS, which teams medical information and well being info specialists collectively, places job progress on this sector at 9% from 2020 to 2030. It predicts a median of 34,300 job openings yearly for the last decade, a lot of it resulting from staff leaving the sector as they retire or switch into different areas. The bureau additionally expects the sector’s 416,400 positions in 2020 so as to add 37,100 new positions over the last decade, for a complete of 453,500 by 2030.
Statistics associated to job progress in healthcare IT from Emsi Burning Glass, a labor market analytics agency, additionally present insights into the sector. The agency discovered that information engineer positions on this {industry} grew 122% from 2019 to 2022, information scientist positions grew 108% in these three years, internet designer jobs grew 107%, cellular app developer jobs grew 73%, and person interface/person expertise positions grew 52%. All of these figures are increased than the expansion seen in these positions in different industries, in response to agency researchers.
Robert Half
Thomas Vick, regional director, Robert Half
“All of healthcare is hiring,” says Thomas Vick, regional director for human sources consulting agency Robert Half. “And the open positions are really all-encompassing. All the facilities are hiring, research is hiring, and with the pandemic and more money being put into developing healthcare technologies, the product companies are hiring as well.”
Growing variety of alternatives
The rising variety of alternatives in healthcare IT is just not a brand new development.
The occupation began to quickly increase after the 2009 passage of the federal Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. Better referred to as the HITECH Act, this regulation inspired healthcare suppliers to display “meaningful use” of digital medical information (EMRs), also referred to as digital well being information (EHRs). The regulation kicked off vital investments in EMR methods and different laptop applied sciences.
Despite these investments, nonetheless, healthcare lagged different industries in digitalization all through the 2010s.
That modified with the COVID-19 pandemic, which pressured hospitals and different healthcare organizations to quickly improve their expertise stacks, rework their operations, and turn out to be digital at scale. In response, healthcare tech distributors additionally ramped up growth and supply of the applied sciences the {industry} began to hunt en masse.
Direct Recruiters
Frank Myeroff, managing companion, Direct Recruiters
Those traits created not solely extra healthcare IT jobs, however a wider spectrum of roles, says Frank Myeroff, managing companion with Direct Recruiters, the place healthcare IT is considered one of its largest and busiest observe areas.
Medical facilities and hospitals that a number of years in the past have been centered on deploying EMRs and integrating them with different methods have broadened their focus to incorporate safe distant care supply, video connections, cellular capabilities for suppliers and sufferers, extra digital providers, the digitalization of extra medical gear, seamless affected person experiences, and extra innovation total.
“And those all require different skills and different experiences from their technical workers,” Myeroff provides.
This digital transformation has been increasing the abilities sought in healthcare tech staff, in response to healthcare CIOs, recruiters, and {industry} analysts. They say that healthcare IT executives are searching for professionals who can develop digital platforms, who perceive ecommerce, and who can work to safe all of the interactions and methods.
The most in-demand abilities
Most of the roles in healthcare IT are the identical as these present in IT in different industries.
They embody longstanding positions that make up the spine of expertise departments — positions equivalent to programmer, software program developer, mission supervisor, community administrator, methods administrator, safety analyst, and database administrator.
Like organizations in different industries, healthcare entities are additionally trying to rent technologists for more moderen additions to the IT division lineup, together with cloud architect, information scientist, and person expertise designer.
TEKsystems
Matt Ehrlich, govt director for healthcare providers, TEKsystems
Matt Ehrlich, govt director for healthcare providers at TEKsystems, which offers consulting and managed providers, says he and others are hiring for all these positions in addition to for roles specializing in automation, synthetic intelligence, machine studying, and superior analytics. He says these jobs have gotten more and more necessary within the {industry} as healthcare seeks to make each its enterprise operations and affected person care extra agile, environment friendly, and responsive.
Others say the {industry} can also be hiring tech execs who can design cellular apps and person interfaces, as healthcare continues to construct out its digital platforms connecting sufferers and suppliers.
And they are saying healthcare IT leaders are in search of technologists with robust interpersonal abilities, equivalent to the flexibility to collaborate, lead, and talk. They need staff who’re empathetic, too, a very useful trait in an {industry} constructed on offering care to others.
Prerequisites typically embody “undergraduate, and in some settings, graduate degrees and certifications,” says Donna M. Roach, CIO at University of Utah Health (U of U Health). “These degrees can come from a variety of specialties, focusing on analytical skills and clinical backgrounds. In addition, some EHRs require builder certifications to develop within the system. Of course, a strong background in customer service and good communication skills are key attributes for new IT members.”
Niche wants
The healthcare sector does have some distinctive IT positions, equivalent to these inside healthcare informatics and those that work with EMR and scientific methods. For instance, healthcare establishments with analysis divisions, pharmaceutical corporations, and biotech companies want technologists who can work on laboratory info administration methods (LIMS).
“There’s a lot of niche needs out there,” Ehrlich says.
Consequently, healthcare IT leaders have usually sought to rent candidates with expertise in healthcare IT itself, Ehrlich and others say.
Emsi Burning Glass
Will Markow, vp of utilized analysis for expertise, Emsi Burning Glass
“Healthcare is fairly unique in how it’s recruiting for IT workers: In other areas they tend to look for tech skills and then domain expertise. In healthcare they need folks who have tech skills, but they’re more commonly looking for that domain-specific experience, the healthcare expertise,” says Will Markow, vp of utilized analysis for expertise at Emsi Burning Glass.
Markow says the {industry} values expertise as a result of healthcare itself is such a novel area; its mission and its values differ from these in most different industries, whereas the foundations and laws governing it are sometimes not like these governing different entities.
Healthcare executives need IT staff expert and skilled in particular domains equivalent to EMRs, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and medical coding for insurance coverage reimbursement, Markow says. They additionally typically require IT staff to have earned healthcare IT-related certifications, equivalent to these supplied by healthcare software program distributors or by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). And additionally they need technologists “to have a cursory understanding of the patient care experience so they can create solutions that enhance that experience,” Markow says.
“For those seeking a position in healthcare IT, it takes a combination of education, skillsets, and a desire to work in a fast-paced environment that is built on teamwork,” says JoAnn Klinedinst, HIMSS’ vp for skilled growth.
Given all that, Ehrlich says it’s not unusual for hiring managers to get very particular concerning the expertise they need. Clinical analysis organizations, for instance, have very particular laws to comply with as they undergo drug discovery after which search approval for brand new therapeutics from the US Food and Drug Administration. They typically use area of interest methods to help these processes, in order that they search staff skilled within the applied sciences getting used — and generally even in supporting work in particular phases of the drug discovery and approval course of.
Candidate-driven market
Demand for such expertise continues to exceed provide, in response to {industry} insiders. (For reference, unemployment for IT professionals is lower than 2%.)
University of Utah Health
Donna M. Roach, CIO, University of Utah Health
“The state of the healthcare IT market is even tighter than the regular IT market,” U of U Health’s Roach says.
She cites a couple of causes, together with healthcare organizations’ “inability to compete at the higher wages that can be provided by for-profit companies and other technology sectors that can offer stock options and generally higher wages.” She herself has skilled that dynamic, saying that a number of analysts and technical employees have been recruited away by corporations providing a number of 1000’s of {dollars} extra in annual salaries with further advantages that she couldn’t beat with counteroffers.
Roach says the {industry} had additionally been sluggish to supply distant work choices, though “mobility and flexibility are the new norm for the healthcare technology workforce.”
Healthcare IT additionally competes with different divisions inside healthcare, she provides. “Professional positions also leverage clinical backgrounds — i.e., nursing, physicians, and pharmacists — as subject matter experts, clinical builders, trainers, etc.,” she says. “With the increasing demand for these clinical positions, these individuals are being recruited back to their clinical positions, leaving a deficit in a much-needed area.”
Those elements have opened doorways for tech professionals and different candidates trying to enter healthcare IT, consultants say.
“When we work with [clients to recruit workers], the question comes up whether healthcare IT experience is required. They used to always say yes, but now they say it’s preferred,” Myeroff says. “They’re being forced to hire less experienced people than they like. And that has opened up opportunities for people coming into the field. In the past when I was a CIO, I wouldn’t hire anyone who didn’t have healthcare experience. But it’s different today. They hire for skills and teach healthcare [industry specifics].”
Markow additionally sees this development. “Employers are recognizing that those who have all the tech and domain experience they want don’t grow on trees,” he says. “They need IT workers who have both tech knowledge and healthcare knowledge, but they’re willing to sacrifice one or the other to get people in seats.”
Research from Emsi Burning Glass confirms that development, exhibiting that healthcare employers are nearly twice as more likely to rent somebody with out a bachelor’s diploma for an IT job than different industries: 26% of well being IT jobs are open to somebody with out a bachelor’s vs. 14% within the broader economic system. And 28% of well being IT jobs are open to entry-level staff vs. 21% within the broader economic system.
“They’re willing to help workers grow,” Markow provides.
HIMSS
JoAnn Klinedinst, vp for skilled growth, HIMSS
Klinedinst says entry-level positions in healthcare IT mirror these in different industries and embody analyst, specialist, purposes help, database administrator, and mission assistant. (HIMSS maintains a listing of well being info and expertise job descriptions.)
“Highly desirable skillsets like those involving cybersecurity, supply chain, data analysis, change management, ERP, and specific application certifications like Salesforce, Microsoft, Cisco, or others are highly desirable in health IT,” she provides.
Although healthcare IT leaders at this time are extra open to hiring tech staff with out industry-specific expertise for entry-level positions and normal IT roles, Klinedinst and others say expertise and industry-specific tech certifications stay essential for touchdown senior and extra specialised roles within the {industry}.
“At higher-level positions within healthcare IT, it does become a little bit more niche,” says Vick from Robert Half.
Even so, he and others say healthcare entities are extra keen to put money into getting technologists the coaching they should advance and construct their careers on this area, making it an opportune time for candidates curious about healthcare IT to hunt out these positions.
“It’s a candidate-driven market,” Vick says, “and so this is a good time to look at those opportunities.”