Workforce Acceleration

Priorities/Recommendations: Workforce Development

Goal: Accelerate development of HIT skill sets in the LTPAC workforce

Rationale & Background:
Foundational to advancing HIT adoption in the LTPAC setting is the development of a workforce possessing the skills necessary to implement and advance health information technology and achieve its’ meaningful use. LTPAC has deployed and used financial and MDS/OASIS systems for many years however, research shows that providers typically utilize only 30% of software capabilities. (Howard Degenholtz, University of PIttsburg, 2011) With healthcare moving towards interoperable EHRs, health information exchange, and service delivery and payment reforms supported by health IT, LTPAC organizations must have enlightened leadership and skilled staff with advanced HIT skills to fully adopt and use technology to remain viable in the future.

Advancing HIT in LTPAC requires a workforce with the following expertise:

• Leadership
• Information system and IT project management
• EHR management and informatics
• Nursing informatics
• Data analytics

Efforts to build a LTPAC workforce with these requisite skills can be accelerated by leveraging the ONC Workforce Development initiative. The ONC initiative identifies six key roles for supporting health IT and provides specific curriculum and competency exams for each of the following roles:

• Practice Workflow & Information Management Redesign Specialist
• Clinician/ Practitioner Consultant
• Implementation Support Specialist
• Implementation Manager
• Technical/ Software Support Staff
• Trainer

Objectives:

1. Promote provider awareness of the need for and engagement/employment of trained HIT professionals
2. Promote LTPAC specific HIT training curriculum
3. Identify and evaluate the costs/benefits of LTPAC HIT certification/credential that recognizes HIT expertise

Strategies:

1. Promote provider awareness of workforce skill sets required for adoption and meaningful use of EHRs and participation in health information exchange
2. Launch a Collaborative Workforce Strategy Workgroup to advance Workforce Development objectives.

• Attract trained HIT professionals to LTPAC
• Outreach to existing participants in ONC workforce development programs
• Outreach to students at higher education institutions offering information technology and informatics programs (e.g. community colleges, colleges, universities)
• Advocate for internship/mentoring programs in LTPAC provider settings
• Build awareness of LTPAC workforce needs with academic institutions, professional assiciations, and certification/credentialing bodies
• Monitor ONC and QIO initiatives impacting HIT workforce development and promote inclusion of LTPAC needs in such initiatives

• Identify core skills necessary for adoption and meaningful use of EHRs in LTPAC (e.g. IT leadership, workflow re-design, project management, data analytics and use of data for decision making)
• Identify core skills necessary for LTPAC participation in health information exchange
• Facilitate development of HIT educational programs that are targeted to an LTPAC audience
• Identify and develop staffing roles and models that support implementation and meaningful use of HIT in LTPAC settings
• Develop career ladders for LTPAC HIT workforce members
• Develop model job descriptions that incorporate HIT skill sets (e.g. retool job description of facility HIM and administrative nursing staff)
• Develop LTPAC HIT certification/credential that recognizes HIT expertise and leadership skills