About 40,000 additional health IT professionals -- or almost 40% more than U.S. hospitals currently employ -- will be needed as the country's health care system moves toward wider IT adoption, according to a new study presented to the House Steering Committee on Telehealth and Healthcare Informatics on Thursday, Healthcare IT News reports.
The study states that the current IT staff work force is about 108,390 full-time employees. However, it notes, "if the U.S. [health IT] agenda is fulfilled and hospitals move to higher levels of adoption, an additional 40,784" full-time health IT professionals will be necessary.
The study's authors -- William Hersh, chair of the Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology at Oregon Health & Science University, and Adam Wright, a senior medical informatician at the Clinical Informatics Research & Development Group at Partners HealthCare in Boston -- concluded, "The need for IT professionals in health information technology settings is large and will increase as more advanced systems are implemented."
The study was based on an analysis of the HIMSS Analytics Database, which includes information from about 5,000 U.S. hospitals.
Legislation
Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.) said the study's findings "further justify the need for my 10,000 Trained by 2010 Act, which provides funds for health care IT education." He added, "A work force trained in health care IT is essential to bringing greater quality and efficiency to the health care industry."
The House recently approved Wu's bill (H.R. 1467), and it is awaiting action in the Senate (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 4/18).
The study is available online (.pdf).