Health IT Grads Seek Work

The first graduates of a federally funded health IT training program are finding that the job market is as tough for them as it is for everyone else. According to a spot check conducted by a Connecticut newspaper, only four of 33 people who completed the program had found a new health IT job within the first few weeks after graduation.

Jo-Ann Leventhal, the program coordinator at Capital Community College in Hartford, speculates that health-care providers don't yet know that they need health IT workers. Hiring should pick up significantly, she predicted in comments published by the Hartford Business Journal.

Hospital officials suggest, however, that the problem is more fundamental. They have plenty of openings for experienced health IT, they told the newspaper, but relatively few for entry-level workers.

"There is a steep learning curve," said Kimberly Kalajainen, chief information officer at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London, Conn., which hired an outside firm to recruit the technicians it needs to implement a $22 million electronic health record system.

"We are not looking for entry-level positions," she told the newspaper.

The president of Saint Francis HealthCare Partners, which serves 200 medical practices, said the best candidates understand the business and workflow of a medical practice as well as its use of IT.

Todd Park, chief technology officer of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, acknowledged that health IT training programs "are having a tougher time connecting graduates to actual jobs. I'm sure it's solvable. I know it's not a demand-side issue."

John Brady, chief financial officer of the Connecticut Hospital Association, noted that new health IT workers will have employment opportunities with health IT vendors as well as with health-care providers.