In the last week we have had more cries regarding the critical shortage of Health Informatics professionals around the world and comments emphasising just how important such people will be to the hopefully expanding e-Health agenda around the world.
First we have:
AHIMA: Action Needed on HIM Ills
HDM Breaking News, August 4, 2008
A growing shortage of qualified health information management professionals imperils the benefits that electronic health records, health information exchanges and other technologies can bring to help improve the quality, safety and efficiency of care, according to the Chicago-based American Health Information Management Association. The member organization issued a detailed policy statement on the challenges facing medical records departments and the need for industry and government action. What follows is the complete policy statement:
AHIMA regards the adoption and maintenance of electronic health records (EHRs), personal health records (PHRs), and the formation and utilization of health information exchange (HIE) networks as imperative to lasting improvements in the overall standard of quality healthcare delivered in the United States.
But achieving an effective electronic information infrastructure for healthcare delivery is more than a matter of technology deployment and growing the technology work force. Our future information infrastructure will indeed require technology, as well as staff who focus on information technology.
But there is a distinct need for a qualified workforce focusing on the underlying information management issues that are critical to the effective application of technology to sound information management and documentation principles.
HIM professionals possess the knowledge and skill sets to facilitate effective integration of technology in a way that meets care delivery needs as well as compliance, legal, public health, research, administrative, and policy needs.
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Recommendations
AHIMA calls on decision makers in industry, government, and higher education to acknowledge the unique contribution of HIM professionals to EHR and HIE implementation and the need for an expanded HIM work force by:
* Funding the educational and academic needs of the profession that facilitate:
* recruitment, preparation, and retention of educators in the HIM field,
* ongoing evolution of curriculum, including continued changes in HIM and informatics,
* expansion of HIM programs for master’s and doctorate-level education, and
* provision of loans and scholarships to students who enter the HIM field and to current practitioners who want to further their education to advance the transformation of the profession.
*Providing support for the continued education of HIM practitioners engaged in managing the healthcare industry’s transition from a paper to electronic environment.
*Creating a specific occupational category for HIM professionals by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, to permit ongoing tracking of national progress in solving this workforce shortage.
*Funding research related to:
* best practices for HIM related to EHR implementation and management,
* information quality assurance methodologies for HIE, and
* the socioeconomic impact on providers, organizations, and consumers related to the use of health information through EHR technologies while identifying the issues that inhibit effective implementations.
The promise of EHRs, HIEs, quality, safety, and improved healthcare delivery, efficiency, and effectiveness will not be realized solely through purchasing hardware and software.
Such an assumption fails to recognize the detail involved in planning, implementing, and integrating HIT into existing healthcare systems and regulations. It also fails to recognize the importance of managing information in a new environment of dispersed records and the increased need for management of data integrity, completeness, uniformity, security, confidentiality and analysis within an array of technologies, terminologies, and classifications.
This is the role of today’s HIM professional. Without an adequate HIM workforce, HIT adoption, implementation, and use will not achieve the return on investment and goals envisioned for the 21st century.
Much more here:
Secondly we have had CSC release a short report on their concerns about being able to find enough Health IT professionals.
Report Studies I.T. Work Force Issues
HDM Breaking News, August 4, 2008
A new report from Computer Sciences Corp. examines challenges that health care CIOs face with a multi-generational workforce.
The information technology department in a health care organization can have employees from four generations--born before 1946, between 1946-1964, between 1965-1980 and after 1980--each with different needs and expectations.
And some of those expectations are changing, according to the report from Falls Church, Va.-based CSC, an I.T. services and consulting firm serving multiple industries. For instance, working flexible hours or from home traditionally has appealed to younger workers, but now is becoming attractive to older ones who want to postpone full retirement.
The report highlights numerous programs to attract and retain I.T. talent. These include enabling employees to customize benefit packages based on age, family status, special needs and other factors; or offering hospital-arranged car pools or “gas cards” to reduce employee transportation costs, among other programs.
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For a copy of the report, “The Multi-Generational Healthcare I.T. Workforce,” click here.
More here:
There is no doubt that our capacity to implement e-Health approaches will be compromised just as badly in Australia as is expected in the US with our lack of courses as well as assured career paths once trained.
Time to act on this is now – to be ready to be moving a year or two hence!
David.
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