Techie Gap or EHR Abyss?

Health care IT executives are worried that they won't be able to implement electronic health records because of the looming shortage of qualified IT staff, according to a new survey of health care chief information officers.

More than half of 182 CIOs who responded to the survey by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) predict that the workforce gap will likely hurt their implementation efforts. Another 10 percent said staffing shortages will definitely be a problem. IT workforce shortages could delay implementation of electronic health records systems, jeopardizing federal stimulus funding, executives predict.

The tightest chokepoint is in implementing clinical records software, according to a CHIME news release. More than 70 percent of respondents say they don't have IT workers qualified to implement clinical applications. Reported shortages include project managers, application coordinators, analysts, trainers and report and technical writers.

Overall, 59 percent of the CIOs say they already have IT staff shortages. Academic medical centers report the most trouble in attracting and retaining IT workers. Smaller community hospitals fared better than larger and multicampus hospitals.

Almost 45 percent of respondents have openings in infrastructure, business software implementation and support staff. About one-third of the executives have shortages in end-user services, including help desk analysts and desktop technicians. Other shortages are in the areas of backup IT staff and management.

The paucity of well-trained techies could be a boon for health IT contractors and existing IT personnel seeking career advancement. More than one third of CIOs say they will consider hiring third-party consultants to help close the workforce gap. Another 18 percent say they would retrain internal candidates, and 11 percent are likely to rely on help from health IT vendors.

"Providers and vendors alike will be scrambling to identify those who can fill these positions or be quickly trained, so that EHRs can be put into widespread use," said Gary Barnes, CIO for Medical Center Health System in Odessa, Texas, and a member of the CHIME board.

Whatever happens, health care CIOs don't expect to have much extra money to throw at staffing problems. About 50 percent of executives say they will request budget increases; the other half expects little to no increases in funding.