It Takes Cooperation and Coordination to Build a Healthcare IT Workforce

A  CEO Roundtable on building the health IT workforce, conducted last week on Capitol Hill, made clear that healthcare related technology gains require people skills for the most sought after outcomes, and it will take a concerted effort by the government, healthcare providers, and educators to make this match happen.  

Produced by CCA and TechAmerica, the roundtable forecast a “perfect storm” of challenges facing these groups in building the health IT workforce.   On the healthcare side, the United States is experiencing an increasingly aging population that is putting more demands on the healthcare system and a concomitant gap in the healthcare workforce, due to the retirement of healthcare workers.    On the IT side, speakers  indicated a shortage of IT workers in the aftermath of the IT bubble bursting a decade ago.  Then there’s the economy that continues to bleed jobs rather than generate new ones. 

Still, it is not all bad news.   In fact, according to the most current Bureau of Labor Statistics projections, healthcare and IT professions make up 15 of the 20 fastest growing occupations and three of every ten new jobs that will be created.   Roundtable participants indicated that a fully implemented healthcare IT system would improve quality, provide wider access, and reduce costs of healthcare, and this view is   shared by most American adults according to a poll released at the event.   One estimate of the cost savings of a fully implemented healthcare IT system is $88 billion over the next ten years.

The roundtable brought together representatives of the executive and legislative branches of the federal government as well as CEOs of healthcare provider systems, educational institutions, and healthcare information technology-focused associations.   Claire Shipman, Senior National Correspondent for ABC News, facilitated the event.  Featured speakers were:     Aneesh Chopra, Assistant to the President and Chief Technology Officer, Executive Office of the President; W. Stephen Love, CEO, Dallas Fort Worth Hospital Council; Linda Kloss, CEO, American Health Information Management Society; JoAnn Klinedinst, VP, Health Information and Management Systems Society; Harris Miller, President and CEO, CCA; Phil Bond, President, TechAmerica; Art Keiser, Chancellor, Keiser University; Duncan Anderson, President and CEO, Education Affiliates; and Geoffrey Brown, CIO, Inova Health Systems.

Putting into perspective the key role of a skilled healthcare IT workforce to the achievement of the healthcare IT revolution, Harris Miller, CEO and President of CCA recited a remark made former Representative Connie Morella (R-MD) when asked how things had changed since she no longer served in the U.S. Congress:   “Now I sit in the back of the car and it doesn’t go anywhere.” “Having technology without a workforce is like sitting in the back of the car, you don’t go where you need to go,” said Miller.  There was a consensus that promotion of innovations in healthcare IT has to go hand-in-hand with efforts to attract the necessary number of people and to develop appropriate training and education programs.

Progress is being made.   Chopra said that the Administration is committed to harnessing technology to develop strategies to promote data exchange and other innovations in healthcare delivery, including provision of an adequate workforce.  The other panelists provided illustrations of this, such as creation of regional extension centers, incentives for innovation, and convening a healthcare IT standards committee focused on promoting the idea of “meaningful use” of technology rather than simply its acquisition.  Without meaningful use, technology serves as a paperweight, Chopra said, recalling a popular cell phone commercial. 

The Roundtable also include remarks by Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA), who introduced the E-prescription legislation, and said congressional action will not stop there.    It is well understood, Representative Schwartz added that the current healthcare system is fragmented and not as effective as it should be and to make it more effective through healthcare IT, it will take a workforce made up of different levels from those who design the software to those who implement it.   Incentives,  she said, are needed to make this happen.  Part of the stimulus package Congress appropriated includes $19 billion for healthcare information technology. 

One panelist described health IT as having three dimensions: an adequate specialized HIT workforce of persons skilled in using and managing healthcare information technology, IT competency for all health care provides, and IT literacy of healthcare consumers but stressed that building a specialized healthcare IT workforce is pivotal. There were many aspects of building a healthcare IT workforce that were discussed, such as making people aware that there is a need for an HIT workforce, and that there are a variety of jobs available with which the public may not be familiar. The government has a role to play by providing incentives through programs such as the Work Investment Act program, which enables state and local officials to establish broad-based labor market systems using federal job training funds for adults, dislocated workers and youth.   Healthcare providers and schools must also do their part in getting the message out.

Several concerns also were voiced about barriers to building the workforce, such as protectionist policies of certain healthcare professional groups that limit the number of new entrants into the profession as well as new programs and state-based licensing policies.   There seemed to be consensus, however, that these concerns should not stifle or impede what Chopra referred to as the movement to capture the imagination about the use of technology. 

CCA and TechAmerica will be conducting a second CEO Roundtable focused on healthcare IT in Austin, Texas on November 17.