Workforce

Patient Centered Medical Home initiative follows patient home

David Blumenthal, MD, the national coordinator for health information technology, announced his departure from the ONC just 17 days before the HIMSS11 conference began on Feb. 19 in Orlando, Fla. Blumenthal came onboard just two weeks prior to HIMSS09.

Salaries jump 30 percent in six years

The charter tenants for Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center (Cleveland MMCC) were introduced this past Friday, at a groundbreaking held in front of more than 600 business, civic, community, and political leaders.

"This year, significant strides were made in health information technology," David Blumenthal, MD, the national health IT coordinator, wrote in his blog detailing health IT achievements for 2010.

Optimism is prevalent in the healthcare IT sector, where 77 percent of venture capitalists expect investment to increase, according to results of the 2011 Venture View predictions survey, conducted by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and Dow Jones VentureSource.

In West Texas, where unemployment is at 2 percent, the popular chain Chili's had to close some of its restaurants because there were not enough employees to fill the jobs. Imagine what it's like for a healthcare system in that part of the country to recruit IT staff, says Gary L. Barnes, CIO of Medical Center Health System in Odessa, Tex.


Catholic Health Initiatives, a Denver-based healthcare system, announced in June it would hire more than 200 high-tech workers to help roll out its new clinical system across the country.

In March, with Detroit feeling the acute pain of the Great Recession even worse than many cities, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan tried a novel approach to staffing it hoped would help.

Quality Partners of Rhode Island, whose focus is on healthcare quality improvement, has been selected to serve on the Health Information Technology Competency Taskforce, funded through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.