EHR Workforce Shortage – REC Manager was Weatherman

I’m not sure if I should be disturbed by this, proud that Mike made the career shift, amazed that there’s such an EHR workforce shortage that they hired a weatherman or wonder if Mike is friends with someone at the Kansas REC and that’s how he got the job. I know I’m definitely amazed that the Kansas REC would list their HITREC Manager’s profile as a weatherman and pharmaceutical sales rep. Here’s the profile from the website:

Mike Rohleder
HITREC Manager

Mike Rohleder, BS in Atmospheric Science from the University of Kansas. Prior to joining KFMC, Mike worked for 5 years in pharmaceutical sales and for 5 years in broadcast media as a meteorologist.

I have a feeling there are a bunch of newly trained EHR folks coming out of the community college programs that won’t be too happy about this since they can’t find jobs working with EHR and yet a weatherman can.

I don’t know the Kansas REC or Mike Rohleder at all. Maybe he’s a fantastic manager and this was a great hire. Maybe it’s just the idea of a weatherman turned REC Manager just feels odd.

I think I’ll lean towards the idea that there’s a shortage of really qualified EHR talent. Plus, with EHR vendors and clinics competing for the talent, I have a feeling RECs can’t offer comparable salaries.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

7 Comments

  • One of REC’s role being to convince physicians to adopt Meaningful Use, his direct dealings with physicians as pharmaceutical sales rep may have been the factor of being hired. But as Manager(???), I guess it was more of a “whom you know” advantage.

    As a product of ONC’s community college program, with extensive IT experience and passing the HIT Pro competency exam, I have not yet received a reply from my job applications of several months, even with HITEC (NJs REC). My thinking was we were born ahead of ONC’s anticipated workforce demand. With your revealing article, I now think otherwise. This is frustrating!

  • BobbyG,
    You do have a good point. Mostly because I know you know your stuff about EHR. Granted, your resume reads more than just guitar player. The above mentioned weatherman’s reads as pharma sales rep and weatherman.

  • I am a product of the community college program and I passed my HIT Pro compentency exam. I am very grateful for my REC (HealthInsight of Nevada) hiring me and for being able to have Bobby G. mentor me! It has been a great journey working with awesome people. I would hope more RECs take advantage of this new, emerging workforce. I personally have a military and civilian medical background, some of my fellow students had extensive IT experience, some have both.

  • Kevin,
    You’re right that you’re lucky to work with someone like Bobby G. He’s a smart guy. Maybe we’ll have to do lunch all together some time. Represent Las Vegas in the EMR world.

  • I’m surprised he could get the position without being an RN. Most clinical side EHR positions I’ve looked at won’t get past my not being an RN. Never mind I’ve literally written the book, well – training guides, on an entire medical management EHR product line, not an RN, sorry. Maybe I’m in the wrong line of work to get an EHR position… Meterology you say?

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