HIT jobs take longer to fill

Health informatics positions stay open longer than the national average posting, according to a study from Burning Glass Technologies, a Boston-based workforce technology and consulting firm.

On average, health informatics positions stay open for 35 days which is two days longer than the national average posting duration of 33 days. New and emerging health informatics positions stay open twice as long as the ones they are replacing, according to the report. For example, postings for medical records clerks, an older position, stay open for 18 days on average, compared to 38 days for its newer successor, clinical analyst. 

One reason for the longer duration is that technology is changing the field so rapidly. The position of clinical software applications specialist, for example, involves managing applications that track medical data, and did not exist 20 years ago. Other changes, including payment reforms, privacy requirements, and conversion to ICD-10, are making these emerging health informatics positions more complex, according to the report.

Another reason is that many of the new jobs are hybrids, requiring skill sets from different disciplines that are not typically trained together. That means that people trained in any one required area of expertise are unlikely to have some of the other skills demanded in these new jobs. The role of clinical analyst assists clinical staff with IT systems, interprets data and manages patient records. That requires some of the skills both of a registered nurse and of an IT technician which is not a common combination. As a result, clinical analyst positions stay open 15 percent longer than the national average.

The report recommends that training providers focus on aligning programs with the challenging certification regimens rqeuired to work in the field in order to increase the passing rates for their students. Institutions should develop closer ties between their clinical and IT programs, to produce more of the hybrid skill combinations in demand. Students and job seekers should acquire a series of credentials that are trusted by a broad swath of employers and “stackable”--credentials that build on existing qualifications and enable workers to move up progressively to more advanced, higher-paying jobs. Students interested in either healthcare or IT fields should consider cross-training in order to remain flexible and adjust to the core role informatics will play in healthcare.