Industry Spotlight: MEDITECH Customers Experience First-Hand the Laws of Supply and Demand

By:  Donna Carroll, VP, Business Development & Recruitment - Systems Personnel

As a professional search consultant in the Health Care Information Systems (HCIS) field, I converse with hospital Directors of Information Technology and CIOs on a daily basis. They may come from different sized facilities and from various locations across the U.S., but they all have the same question on their mind: What can we do to attract qualified MEDITECH candidates to our facility?

MEDITECH is currently the number one healthcare vendor in the United States (with roughly 25% of the market share) and continues to grow nationally. While MEDITECH sales may be better than ever, those hospitals installing or currently using their systems are struggling to keep up with staffing demands.

Why the Shortage?

If more hospitals are using MEDITECH systems, one might argue that there should be more skilled MEDITECH professionals available in the marketplace. So, what’s to blame for the shortage of skilled MEDITECH professionals? There are several reasons:

1. Patient safety initiatives
2. U.S. Nursing shortage
3. Remote or rural location
4. High cost-of-living
5. Thriving employment market

Patient Safety Initiatives

Rapidly increasing numbers of healthcare providers are engaging in patient safety initiatives. Most patient safety initiatives today would not be possible without the implementation of advanced clinical applications for use by clinical staff (nurses, physicians, allied health professionals). Advanced clinical applications can help to streamline nurse workloads and incorporate clinical decision support tools that ensure safety, creating a quality environment for patients.

As a result of advanced clinical application implementations, the need for qualified MEDITECH professionals is growing as healthcare providers recognize the need for candidates with the specific software knowledge as well as a clinical background. We all know the critical role Nurses perform in the delivery of quality care to patients. But, it’s equally important to understand the role that a Nursing Systems Analyst can play as a team member in patient safety initiatives.

Let’s consider the typical profile of a Nursing Systems Analyst (also referred to as Clinical Systems Analyst, Nursing or Clinical Informatics Specialist). In general terms, a Nursing Systems Analyst is responsible for performing workflow analysis, implementation, application building, user training and support, and maintenance of clinical software applications for a healthcare provider (hospital, medical practice, or clinic). Typically, the Nursing Systems Analyst will have a Nursing background themselves and will have begun their MEDITECH experience as a ‘Super-User’ from one of the Nursing departments.

An estimated 80% of Nursing Systems Analyst positions require a Nursing background. Many hiring managers believe that only someone with first-hand experience in the delivery of patient care is able to fully understand the role of the Nurse and the clinical workflows involved. In addition, having a Nursing background enables the Nursing Systems Analyst to establish immediate credibility with their user community.

U.S. Nursing Shortage

As healthcare organizations contend with clinical staff shortages, nurses are expected to treat an increasing number of patients more efficiently, all while maintaining the highest safety standards. These increasing demands upon their time make it very difficult to participate in projects beyond their primary responsibility of patient care.

Most organizations agree that direct input from the Nursing staff during an application design and build process is critical to the success of clinical application projects. So, the Nursing shortage can be a real problem for the IT Department as well.

The Nursing shortage in the U.S. also has a major impact on how Nurses are recruited and compensated. Hospitals across the country are having to become more creative in their recruitment efforts for nurses. Some of these strategies include offering substantial sign-on bonuses, sponsoring internships with local colleges, offering unique educational opportunities, and paying retention bonuses over a period of time.

The IT Department seeking qualified Nursing professionals with MEDITECH experience can learn something from the Nurse recruitment strategies employed by many hospitals today. They should try partnering with their Nursing and/or Human Resource departments to co-sponsor some of the internships and educational programs offered. They could co-employ some candidates who might like to work 50% of their time as a Systems Analyst and the other 50% as a Nurse. They could offer retention bonuses which are paid out at a certain percentage upon completion of 6 months, 1 year, 18 months, and 2 years. They could create a trainee program which rotates clinical professionals through the IT department for 6 months at a time. There are many ways to attract and retain qualified candidates, if you just get a little creative.

The Rural Hospital Conundrum

Rural hospitals are at a particular disadvantage because, in many cases, they are the only hospital within their county or even a 100-mile radius. When seeking very specific skills, such as MEDITECH, the rural hospital often has no choice but to recruit from outside the area and to relocate individuals. Rural hospitals report that filling vacancies can take up to 60% longer than in urban hospitals. There can be several reasons for this difficulty:

• Wages are often less than in urban facilities
• There may be limited opportunities for advancement within the facility
• Candidates relocating from an urban area will experience a lifestyle change in everything from community values to shopping and entertainment
• Less or limited opportunities for spousal employment

However, it should be pointed out that rural hospitals also have a lot to offer employees which cannot be found at larger, urban facilities. The important point is that everyone involved in staffing at these facilities needs to know their selling points, be able to articulate them to candidates early and often during the interview process, provide information and resources about the community, and make candidates feel welcome.

Bigger Isn’t Always Better

The difficulty in finding and hiring qualified MEDITECH professionals, however, is not isolated to smaller, rural hospitals. Even many larger, urban facilities experience some difficulty, but for different reasons:

• Higher cost-of-living and tight housing market
• Reluctance of candidates to move to inner city locations, and reluctance to commute very far from the suburbs
• More competition for candidates due to other facilities in the immediate area
• Higher compensation requirements of candidates
• Higher turnover rate due to employees moving to competing facilities

Again, there are also a lot of advantages to working in these environments and it should be the responsibility of everyone involved in the hiring process to emphasize these advantages to candidates whenever possible.

Thriving Employment Market

There is no doubt about it: the employment market in the U.S. today is strong. The healthcare industry ranks the highest in their demand for qualified staff. When you combine this ever-increasing demand with the need for a highly specialized skill, such as MEDITECH, there’s no wonder hospitals are experiencing staffing difficulties.

With a shortage of Nurses, an increasing demand for MEDITECH knowledge, and plenty of positions available, the MEDITECH professional can really choose their own opportunity. If someone is more money-motivated, they may choose to be a Consultant where their earnings potential is significantly higher than that of their in-house counterparts.

With a number of other opportunities available, you always run the risk of losing good employees to other facilities. It’s much easier to reward current employees than to train new employees, yet many organizations don’t have any programs in place for this purpose. Retention strategies are extremely important in a thriving employment market.

Seeking Solutions

So, how do hospitals cope with supporting their system users (physicians, nurses, allied health, and business office staff) if they cannot attract the skilled MEDITECH professionals they critically need? Many rely upon the use of Consultants to provide support on a contractual basis, or they bring in Consultants to supplement their in-house staff during special projects.

Other hospitals have made the strategic decision to outsource their IT Department operations to national Healthcare IT firms such as First Consulting Group (FCG), Healthlink (an IBM company), ACS Healthcare, Perot Systems, and CTG Healthcare Solutions. This takes the staffing responsibility off the hospital’s shoulders and places it onto the outsourcer who may have better access to a larger pool of candidates.

Some facilities are recruiting candidates across borders as well. While most U.S. organizations may prefer to hire a U.S. citizen or permanent resident whenever possible, sometimes they simply have no choice but to look to other countries for the talent they need. MEDITECH currently has over 40% of the Canadian market share and is in its third decade of supplying information systems to hospitals across Canada. MEDITECH’s leadership status north of the border makes Canada a fruitful market from which to recruit qualified candidates.

Professional search firms can also be a good source for qualified candidates. Whenever possible, try to find an agent who understands your industry, knows the marketplace, and can demonstrate a record of success in recruiting MEDITECH professionals. Above all, make sure that both you and the agent work together as partners in the recruitment process, drawing upon each other’s expertise and providing prompt and detailed feedback to one another.

The most important point to remember is that there is no one solution to solving the MEDITECH professional shortage. Hospitals today, both small and large, should be staffing their IT departments through a combination of tried and true methods, outside assistance from consulting and professional search firms, and creative recruitment strategies. And, if you ask around, you’ll learn that some of the most successful hospital IT Directors remain well-staffed despite the MEDITECH shortage because they never stop recruiting -- both for future as well as their current employees!