Hospital and health system CIOs told Becker's that to make their IT departments more robust, they need more IT workers with specialized skill sets and bigger budgets.
Hospitals and health systems have been facing an ongoing battle of worker shortages, and IT departments are being affected by this every day.
"We are facing many of the same workforce challenges as others across the healthcare industry, including a shortage of talent in cybersecurity, digital, cloud and data," Brad Reimer, CIO of Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Sanford Health, told Becker's. "The demand for these roles is increasing at a pace faster than the rate of new college graduates entering the workforce."
Mr. Reimer said building and expanding the health IT workforce has been a top priority for Sanford Health as its technology workforce continues to multiply, and as the rural healthcare system looks for ways to invest in new care models such as remote patient monitoring, virtual care options and other digital tools.
But recruiting for IT in the healthcare industry is especially hard when the industry is competing with Big Tech companies for a limited number of candidates.
"We're now competing for IT talent with every other company that has a technology need across the globe," Mr. Reimer said.
To combat this, hospitals and health systems are having to train employees they already have in IT departments to develop a set of diverse talents.
"Specialized skills [data analytics/engineering, cybersecurity, informatics] are in high demand, so we frequently need to 'grow our own' and develop talent with existing staff," Brett Mello, CIO of Kingman (Ariz.) Regional Medical Center, told Becker's.
Staffing isn't the only thing CIOs said they needed from their IT departments. Budget was another area of concern. As hospitals and health systems are grappling with slimmer margins, it has been harder to invest in technology.
"Margins for everyone are slim, but we all need to advance our organizations through technology in order to remain competitive, improve quality, and increase productivity and efficiency," Mr. Mello said. "There's just not enough money to go around, so we do what we can and hope for the best."