I wrote about the dire predictions of the healthcare IT talent shortage just a short nine months ago. My - how things have changed. And I do mean changed! You know the story. America was about to see huge chunks of its human capital wiped out by 72M baby boomers retiring at the rate of 16K people a day for years. Hey - that’s a lot of boomers!
I’m only guessing those metrics have changed and changed dramatically over the course of the past few months. We are hearing from candidates (like all or most of Americans) that are making drastic changes to the way they spend, save and yes – look at retirement given what has transpired in our economy, cities, neighborhoods and 401K accounts. In some cases, and depending on the age and other financial details from some candidates, retirement in the near term is completely out of the question.
However, there IS a silver lining here if you look hard enough. Let me provide some positive upside in all of this craziness:
- Healthcare was one of the very few industries that added jobs in 2008 – to the tune of over 300,000 new jobs! That’s huge!
- HCIT will get a big boost by the news of the economic stimulus bill that passed today!
- EMR may finally get major traction across the healthcare sector as a result of the new stimulus package.
- Many new jobs will be created to fill the demand in HCIT on the vendor side and in the CIO’s shop.
- Like it or not – this new bill will continue to move the needle on healthcare spending as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product here in the US. Good and bad – right?
- We have the potential to create newer and better EMR and other technologies as private equity and venture capital companies invest more in the healthcare IT space.
- If you are reading this blog – your services will probably be in high demand for as long as you want to stay in the workforce.
Now… did someone mention a storm?
