Survey: HIEs encounter staffing challenges

Staffing challenges abound at health information exchanges (HIE), but salaries continue to edge upwards, according to a joint online survey conducted by the American Health Information Management Association and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

HIEs report challenges in hiring health IT staff due to noncompetitive salaries and benefits and finding individuals with experience that match the job requirements, according to the survey.

HIEs range from having 1.5 to 47 full-time-equivalent employees, and staff that handle connectivity, data integrity and data integrity issues all have higher salaries than reported in 2012.

Connectivity workers like application architects, database administrators and HIE integration managers earned between $75,000 to $119,999, the survey found. Data integrity workers—such as data analytics, healthcare database administrators and HIE implementation managers—earned below $75,000 while data integration workers, or interface engineers, earned between $75,000 and $89,999, according to the survey.

Education levels among HIE staff varied, with 78 percent of connectivity workers having earned a bachelor’s degree and 22 percent earning a master’s degree, the survey also found.

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