EHR Expert Jobs, Healthcare Social Media, MU Attestation Data


I guess Cleveland Clinic doesn’t think the government trained EHR workforce. I know a lot of them that can’t get a job in any EHR position.


This story is a crazy one and spiral out of control is the right term. Although, this post by Amanda Blum is the best look at the issues from my point of view. Dr. Nick is right that you do have to be careful. In fact, the case above wasn’t even something that happened on social media. It was something that happened in person at a conference and then social media blew it up. So, I’d actually argue that it’s more important than ever for you to be involved in social media. That way if something does blow up, you see it and can deal with the situation before it spins out of control.

What I do hate most about the story is the lack of civility and not giving people the benefit of the doubt. I hate that part of the way society is heading. Communication can solve a lot of issues if people would just use it. Instead, we assume the worst in people. That’s unfortunate.


Evan’s opening line to the blog post says, “CMS just released the December 2012 attestation data, and one thing is abundantly clear—many EHR vendors will not be around to see Stage 2.” I don’t agree with his conclusion. I expect we’ll have nearly as many in meaningful use stage 2 as we did in stage 1. Meaningful Use stage 3 is likely where we’re going to see fallout. Although, it does beg the question of how many EHR vendors will stay in business without EHR incentive money?

I’ve often said that it’s surprising how good of a business you can run with just a few thousand doctors.

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.

6 Comments

  • While it is true that it will take until Stage 3 for some vendors to succumb, many will not have the necessary resources to meet the Stage 2 requirements. It is April, and only 3 vendors (out of 472) have been able to achieve complete certification because of the significant development efforts that are required. Some have already folded their tents, and more are sure to follow this year. Regardless of your position on the value and/or future of the meaningful use program, certification will continue to be a base criteria for EHR purchases by physicians.

  • I guess I better look at the EHR certification timeline again. There are so many meaningful use, EHR certification, etc dates that it’s hard to keep track.

    It’s interesting to think about EHR certification post-MU. I’ll have to think about this some more and talk to some people to see how it’s going to play out. I remember the pre-MU EHR certification days and they weren’t pretty.

  • EHR certification is an incredibly byzantine and costly process (for both EHR vendors and medical providers when the costs get passed down), and the more you look at it, which I have, it just gets crazier. I sympathize with Evan’s position. Although it is true that physicians will look at certification as a sole criterion for MU incentives, the process has left a significant group of physicians (independent practices) out in the dust regarding EHR adoption. http://searchhealthit.techtarget.com/feature/Private-practice-wanes-physician-employment-shifts-due-to-MU-rules

    I’m still waging a physician education campaign to offer a viable alternative (my open-source, community based project), especially those that have no where to go to. I know it’s a hard road given all the money being pushed to prop up the MU incentives program and certification that really only benefits the largest EHR vendors. But if we can bring physicians into the 21st century, a grassroots effort along with a truly usable EHR, is really the best way to go rather than an expensive, draconian model such as the MU incentives program.

  • Ah, my favorite topic – EHR experts hard to find. Hmm. I’ll ignore the ONC training programs that train IT pros to have a wee bit of knowledge of things medical, or clinicians a tiny exposure to the IT world. And that neither group actually gets more then a couple hours of EHR exposure, and that neither group gets little things like internships.

    No, I’ll just remind everyone that sure, there are not enough EHR people, SO HealthIT management needs to reach out to the huge surplus (due to the financial collapse) of Financial IT professionals who know all about privacy rules, large data, project management and far more. Sure, they’d have to invest in some EHR specific training, which added to a revamped ONC training program (I’m not holding my breath for that, though) could fairly quickly and completely take care of their self imposed shortage. I say self imposed because most HealthIT management won’t look at us, thus cutting out a major source of nearly ready to go staffing.

    Ron

  • EHR Experts hard to find?

    There are people who have a Master’s in Medical Informatics AND an HIT degree AND the ONC Training. They’ve done coding, worked with several EHR systems and understand workflows, billing, pathophysiology, pharmacology, medical terminology, clinical decision support, HIT Integration etc. Even with all that have trouble finding work. The reason is the requirement of 3 years implementing EHRs. Where can recent graduates gain experience?

    There are thousands (or more) with the degrees that need a “shot” or “foot in the door”.

  • Joan is right. I have been in Medicaid/Medicare Managed Care for more than 10 years, I produce national population health grid maps at the 20 mile area level, engage in regular meaningful use work, and know that the availability of the knowledge base for HIT has always been there. There is this naivete many companies have about HIT in general. We are seriously behind in this technology now and cannot manage the Big Data finally available at the patient or small area level, except in non GIS ways. My HIT associates and students have been around for more than a decade, but I suspect are ignored due to the poor knowledge base most health care administrators and management have had about what HIT can and should do. We need individuals in the field who know the field, not just experts in managing who don’t know what they’re managing, just whom they’re managing.

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