The HIT Labor Force: Leading Trends From the Year That Was

A new survey, conducted over recent months by Healthcare Innovation, and inclusive of 120 senior healthcare and healthcare IT executives, has revealed a collection of insights into industry professionals’ salary trends, compensation satisfaction levels, feelings on job security, and more.

The researchers included responses from various titles in the healthcare executive space, including chief information officers (CIOs), chief executive officers (CEOs), chief medical officers (CMOs), clinical informatics directors, directors of health information management (HIM), and more. The publication has conducted this survey going back several years; the findings revealed the following year-over-year average salary trends, broken down by position.

Looking at other salary trends, 65 percent of respondents reported that their base salary has increased over the last 12 months, 32 percent said that it has remained the same, while 3 percent noted that their base salary has gone down. Of those who said their base salary had increased, 72 percent reported that the cause of that surge was due to job performance. These salary trend figures remained essentially stagnant year-over-year.

What’s more, 56 percent of folks said they would either agree or strongly agree that they are satisfied with their overall compensation, with the average annual salary of the “pleased” respondents being $137,000. Twenty-six percent of respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the notion that they were satisfied with their compensation, and this sample’s average salary came in at just over $111,000 annually.

Meanwhile, 33 percent of individuals said that they do anticipate receiving a bonus as part of this year’s compensation, while 55 percent said they do not expect one, and 13 percent said they were unsure if they will get one.

Hillary Ross, managing partner and leader of executive search firm WittKieffer’s information technology practice, who focuses on identifying CIOs, CISOs, chief digital officers and other IT leaders for all kinds of healthcare organizations, notes that her practice has seen the value of CIOs’ compensation, as well as their direct reports, expand in recent years as these respective roles have continued to evolve.

“Historically, the CIO, sometimes known as the vice president of technology or CTO, was looked to just ‘keep the lights on.’ As technology has become critical to the strategic business goals of the organization, and literally touching on virtually all aspects of the healthcare organization, the role of the CIO and his or her direct reports have been elevated along with their compensation,” Ross notes. “Also, we are seeing physicians in CMIO positions transition to the CIO role and bring unique value given their clinical backgrounds, thus, affecting compensation,” she adds.

Job security, role, and top challenges  

Broken down by organization type, 68 percent of survey respondents work in either a local/multi-state integrated delivery network (IDN), or a standalone hospital, while 10 percent work for a group practice.

Drilling down into specific job functions and responsibilities—particularly as it relates to their involvement in selecting vendors, and buying products and services—half of respondents said they evaluate the vendor options that can provide the solution, while 40 percent said that they determine the business need and recommend specific brands or products.

Notably, 31 percent of those surveyed revealed that their organization will be looking to replace or upgrade their electronic health record (EHR) system in the next year. About one in four (27 percent) said they won’t be looking to replace or improve any product or service in that same timeframe.

In terms of how long respondents have worked in healthcare or healthcare IT in their current organizations, nearly half (48 percent) have been there at least 10 years, with one in six having worked at their respective company for more than 25 years. Irrespective of their current organization, 83 percent of respondents have been working in the industry for at least 10 years.

Almost half of surveyed folks (49 percent) said they feel very secure in their current role, while another 39 percent said they feel somewhat secure. About 12 percent of respondents reported that they feel insecure in their current position.

Moving forward, when asked what their most pressing challenge is for the year ahead, 34 percent reported cost cutting as a top issue, while 33 percent said EHR implementation and/or compliance and growth was a primary challenge. One in four respondents noted data analytics/management and data security as a top challenge, while one in five noted interoperability. Folks were able to choose more than one issue for this question.