Health Information Technology definitions and Research Overview

2. Preview • Health Information Technology definitions and Research Overview • Key findings from the research and what they mean for the Community Colleges • Next Steps for the Health Information Technology Research

3. What is Health Information Technology?

4. Health Information Technology (Health IT) is a term used to encompass the collection, transmission, analysis, and storage of medical information. This information includes; • Electronic medical records (EMR), • Insurance and billing details, • Diagnostic test results, and • Many other technical patient data. Health IT is essentially customized IT for the healthcare sector.

5. Research Objectives • How is Health IT changing the demand for the healthcare workforce? • What are the key job skills and functions that are arising out of the increased adoption of Health IT? • Profile the healthcare employers that are most likely to have already adopted Health IT technologies, those that are considering it and those that are not likely to adopt in the near future.

6. Methodology • 300 telephone surveys were completed with healthcare employers in the Bay Area. (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, San Mateo, Solano, and Sonoma Counties) • The margin of error for the study was +/- 5.51% given a 95% level of confidence with those questions that were answered by all respondents. • Survey Fielded November 13 – December 13, 2010

7. Healthcare Industries Sampled • General Medical & Surgical Hospitals (622110) • Offices of Physicians (621111), except mental health specialists • Outpatient Care Centers (6214), include; • Community Clinics and Family Planning Centers, and • Surgical centers that are not part of a hospital

8. Employer Profile by Industry

9. Employer Profile By 5 Year Growth Expectations * (Bay Area) * Source: EMSI, December 2010.

10. Employer Profile By 12 Month Growth Expectations ** (Bay Area) This represent’s 3.4% employment growth or about 5,500 new jobs in the Bay Area in 2011 ** Source: Health IT Survey – Bay Area, December 2010.

11. What did we learn from employers about Health IT?

12. Employer Profile by Industry

13. Employers most likely to already be using Health IT application included larger Employers (50+ employees) and Hospitals. Outpatient Care Centers were the most likely to consider adopting Health IT in the near futures.

14. Proportion of Workforce*** Supporting or Installing Health IT This represents approximately 14,000 Bay Area healthcare employees who spend at least half of their time supporting or installing Health IT applications *** Percentages are taken from those employers that are currently using Health IT or the expectations of those considering it for the near future.

15. More than two out of five employers (43%) indicate at least some difficulty finding or developing applicants who can use Health IT applications and over a quarter of employers (28%) have outsourced some aspect of their Health IT work in the last 12 months.

16. Key Health IT Job Functions

17. Clinician’s focused on information technology, technical staff supporting Health IT applications and Health IT supervisors providing on-site management were the most important Health IT job functions that we evaluated.

18. Proportion of the Workforce*** that require at least one of the Health IT Skills Of Healthcare employers that are already using Health IT, or are considering adopting it in the near future, just over half of employees need to have at least one of the six health IT job functions identified *** Percentages are taken from those employers that are currently using Health IT or the expectations of those considering it for the near future.

19. Healthcare workers that require at least one of the Health IT job functions, are expected to grow at twice the rate (7 to 9%) of all healthcare jobs in the next 12 months.

20. Occupational Titles for Health IT Job Functions

21. Employers were more likely to identify the six Health IT job functions with general occupational roles (management and administrators or support staff) and less likely to identify specific occupational titles

22. Most Important Skills for Health IT Workers

23. Finding Health IT Workers Health IT is changing how healthcare employers typically find non-entry level employees. Healthcare employers are typically more likely to promote from within for their general workforce.

24. What does the research findings mean for the Community Colleges?

25. 1 Health IT will change the skills sets that healthcare employers require when hiring new employees. While clinical requirements will remain important, the technical skills associated with using and understanding new information technologies will become increasingly important and should be reflected in the overall curriculum for training and preparing new healthcare workers.

26. 2 While Employers have still not settled on the key occupations that are most connected to Health IT, most employment is expected to be found in three categories; 1. Clinicians and practitioners 2. Managers and administrators 3. Technical support staff

27. 3 Larger Healthcare employers (more than 10 employees) are more likely to have adopted Health IT and are more likely to face difficulty finding or developing Health IT workers (>50%).

28. What are the next steps for the Health IT: Labor Market Research?

29. Next Steps for the Health Information Technology Research 1. Complete a similar research study in Greater Sacramento & Northern California 2. Compare results from the Greater Bay Area and Northern California as it relates to use and demand for the Health IT workforce 3. Develop a deeper dataset to describe and differentiate universal and regional trends in Health IT workforce demand.