More Support Urged for Health IT Training in Rural Areas

The White House announced a Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services that could help increase workforce training for Health Information Technology professionals in rural hospitals and clinics.  The MOU outlines five specific objectives:

1. Increase the number of trained health IT and health information management professionals.


2. Diversify programs to meet wider range of training needs


3. Reach out to potential workers and employers to inform them about career pathways in health information management and technology.


4. Support employers in educating potential health IT workers, which would include current staff that need training and newly recruited staff.


5. Support employers in staffing health IT positions.

Rural America could benefit greatly from the adoption of health IT by medical providers – both through better healthcare services as well as potential job growth.  The economic impact of health IT in rural communities has significant potential.  According to the MOU, “Health IT is a new and emerging field that has the potential to continue developing as a key employment sector.  This opportunity may be particularly critical in rural areas where there is great need for expanding the health IT workforce to help rural healthcare providers as they adopt electronic health records and other health IT applications.”

As we have reported previously, there has been some hesitancy by small and medium sized medical providers (including those in rural communities) to adopt electronic health records.  One of the ways to increase adoption is by providing additional avenues for training of health IT professionals.  This MOU will help provide this training and expand the workforce.  According to the MOU, “the number of available jobs in health IT is expected to grow nearly 20 percent by 2016.”  This presents a significant opportunity for the IT industry and the healthcare industry.

CompTIA has its own certification for IT professionals interested in joining the health IT workforce.  The CompTIA Healthcare IT Technician certification gives IT technicians a background in HIT standards, regulations and workflows, so they can understand the healthcare environment.

We will continue to advocate for a number of important tools to increase adoption of health IT and help grow the economy.  Elevating the importance of workforce training to rural America is a positive step forward.