January 5, 2007

Technology Could Help With Health Care Workforce

While parts of health care have experienced a need for more health care professionals, health information technology should be part of the solution.

• Shortages of doctors and nurses and others have occurred in certain rural and urban areas around the country.  Several recent reports highlight the need for nurses.
   
• Yet, HIT can and should be a key part of the solution to delivery of quality health care service and keeping nurses on the job.

Studies indicate a growing need for nurses, but not enough replacements are in the pipeline.

• U.S. hospitals claim a national vacancy rate of 8.5 percent for hospital nurses, or 118,000 registered nurse positions that are unfilled.  One study found the average registered nurse turnover rate approaching 14 percent.
   
• The Health Resources and Services Administration estimates the nation will need an extra 1 million nurses by 2020. While projections of specific occupation trends and needs over any span of time have proven highly inaccurate, the trend is usually a pretty good indicator of direction.
   
• A big part of the problem is not enough nursing school faculty.  Nearly three-fourths of nursing schools report faculty shortages as why they didn't accept qualified applicants.
   
• U.S. nursing schools turned away 41,683 nursing applicants in 2004.  There aren't enough faculty, classroom seats and clinical sites to accommodate the would-be students.

More widespread adoption of health information technology can alleviate the situation for nurses and other practitioners.

• Falling nurse staffing levels can become a self-fulfilling prophecy as the situation becomes direr. Fewer nurses at a hospital or clinic means those who remain must handle a bigger and bigger workload. When nurses become responsible for more patients than they ought to care for, they face stress and exhaustion. That can lead someone to leave nursing early.
   
• But HIT can make nurses' jobs easier and more rewarding. This amounts to a form of mechanization and innovation.  This should be a win-win for nurses and other providers, as well as for patients.
   
• Industries advance by developing labor-saving devices. That's called progress.  The result is fewer people (who are more skilled and better compensated) being more productive and accomplishing more with less effort. Think plowing a field or picking fruit by hand versus planting and harvesting by machine.
   
• By investing more in HIT and using technology as productivity enhancers, American health care can improve provider recruitment and retention.  HIT has proven a cost- and labor-saving means of increasing quality of care, ensuring patient safety and achieving greater efficiency in health care operations and delivery.  Its usage needs to spread far and wide and apply to relieving workforce strains.

If America is to have an adequate supply of nurses and other providers over coming decades as baby boomers move into retirement, health information technology must be part of the solution. The time to address this perceived need is sooner than later. Encouraging the adoption of HIT throughout the health care system must occur now. This will improve recruitment and retention of health care workers, enhance their skills and productivity, and ensure quality and safety for patients.