According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the IT job market added 62,500 jobs in 2012, a good start, but not yet a number that returns the sector to its pre-recession highs.

But for those of us staffing IT professionals for the healthcare indsutry, we have seen an exceptionally  robust demand for IT talent over the last three/four years .  In 2012, IT jobs in healthcare and healthcare insurance lead the way as the fastest growing segments of the IT marketplace.  2013 is shaping up to look the same.

Part of the reason for healthcare-related IT growth is driven by an overall growth in healthcare services  in general – the growing patient population fueled by our aging baby boomers.  Overall healthcare employment rose by 338,000 jobs in 2012, and is expected to surpass that number in 2013.  According to the Center for Health Workforce Studies one in nine Americans will be working in a healthcare related job by the year 2020. 

IT growth is also being fueled by changes directly impact the healthcare industry.  Two of the primary drivers of growth in healthcare IT have been  the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the 2010 Affordable Care Act, (ObamaCare). The Recovery Act set new technology standards for medical providers, requiring that hospitals, clinics and insurers adapt standardized electronic systems for storing and sharing patient health records.  The new ICD-10 billing and coding standards are being implemented now.

In similar fashion, the Affordable Care Act has created a whole new set of IT jobs  stemming from the  state-based online health insurance marketplaces that must be operable by January, 2014.

By all counts, the basic infrastructure that needs to be in place just to meet the new service needs of the millions of new patients/consumers who will be entering the healthcare marketplace between 2013 and 2020,  ensures strong growth in the IT job market for several years to come.

As healthcare providers have been turning more and more to new forms of virtual care as a way to lower their operating costs, IT professionals have been expanding the quantity and quality of ways patients and providers can interface virtually.  In the last two years, those interfaces have had to accommodate an increasingly mobile population of healthcare customers, requiring constant changes in mobile friendly interfaces.

Other IT projects have been focused on improving clinical data searches, business intelligence,  and the development of systems to allow various software, apps, databases and clinical hardware to share and exchange information.  Big data has definitely been a trend alive and well in healthcare IT.

With some variation between surveys, IT salaries have been slated to grow somewhere between 1-5% over the next 12 months, with the bulk of the higher percentage increases being earned by the IT professionals who are involved with healthcare.

For more information about jobs in IT, healthcare, insurance and financial markets in particular, contact infodesk@pacestaffing.com – please include IT jobs in the subject line.

The seasonally adjusted employment data released on Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a miniscule change in the number of temporary and contract jobs from August to September (down 2,000, or 0.1%).

In a year-to-year comparison, contingent jobs are 8.2% higher than September 2011.

Over the previous 12 months, the staffing industry has added an average of 20,000 jobs to the economy per month, while the economy at large has averaged 146,000 new jobs per month; this is a decrease compared to the 153,000/month we experienced in 2011. 

Employment growth was mostly driven by new job creation within healthcare (44,000), transportation and warehousing (13,000), and financial activity (13,000) sectors.

Employment declines were noted in the manufacturing sector (–16,000), with most of the manufacturing losses concentrated in computer and electronic products (–6,000).

The overall unemployment rate dropped 0.3% to 7.8% from last month’s 8.1%.

For anyone who wants to predict what sector of the economy will have the fastest growth, the field of healthcare stands above the rest as one that is poised for a strong and prosperous future.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a report in 2012 outlining occupations that it expects to see the strongest growth. By the Bureau’s estimate, all occupations within healthcare will see a 14.3% increase, or approximately 20.5 million more jobs, overall. Those numbers by any understanding are strong.  When looking at individual job functions on the list, it’s easy to pick out the ones related to healthcare; when you look at the list as a whole, it is astonishing to see exactly how prominent a role that healthcare will play for the jobs of the future.

You might ask what is causing healthcare to become a leading industry for job creation. Some of it stems from legislation, such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, which mandates changes in healthcare and its associated industries. Advances in medical technology and information technology are another factor, with entire new fields of research and technology being created overnight. And then, there are the demographic shifts that will lead to more retirements among current healthcare staff, and more patients, especially among baby boomers, who will require care. Fewer workers and more patients equal a higher demand for qualified workers.

Some of the associated salaries for these fast-growing occupations are equally strong. Take the job occupation of registered nurse, for example. It is already a well-paid occupation, with an average salary of $64,690. That is expected to see a 26 percent growth, adding over 700,000 registered nurses to the healthcare economy. Physicians and surgeons, who appear at 29 on the list, have an average salary of over $111,000 – a very rewarding salary. For positions like home health aides and personal care aides will see about a 70 percent increase. Other occupations documented in this report include nursing aides and orderlies, medical secretaries, licensed practical nurses, physicians and surgeons, and medical assistants.

As a special note for Job seekers: qualifications for many healthcare roles require specialized skills and certifications that cannot be obtained overnight. Work toward that training now and get in on the ground floor of these emerging growth occupations.

Navigate the changes in healthcare staffing and placement with PACE Staffing Network. We bring a deep knowledge of the entire healthcare playing field to the table and make it work for you and your business.

Washington State has become the first state in the nation to adopt specific workplace safety rules to protect healthcare workers who are potentially exposed to cancer treatment drugs and other hazardous medications.

One of the long-standing ironies in the health industry has been that chemotherapy drugs that treat cancer can harm the medical providers caring for them.

The same properties that enable chemotherapy drugs to kill cancer cells can also damage normal cells in healthy workers. Without precautions being taken, such as proper ventilation or protective equipment, the preparation, administration, even the disposal of these drugs exposes hundreds of thousands of workers to potentially harmful levels of the chemicals involved.

Washington state’s law, issued earlier this month by Washington’s Department of Labor & Industries, stems from legislation passed in April 2011 and signed into law by Governor Chris Gregoire. The rule applies to healthcare facilities in which employees are “reasonably anticipated” to have “occupational exposure to one or more hazardous drugs.”

The CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) published a list of about 150 agents that meet their hazardous drug definition. NIOSH estimates that about 5.5 million healthcare workers—-from nurses and pharmacists to housekeepers and veterninary care staff—are potentially exposed to these hazardous agents.

Under the rule, which will take effect beginning in 2014, healthcare facilities with employees who are reasonably anticipated to have exposure to hazardous drugs will be required to develop a hazardous drugs control program. Components of the program include a written inventory of hazardous drugs in the workplace; a hazard assessment; and policies and procedures such as engineering controls, safe handling practices, personal protective equipment, spill control and waste handling.

Healthcare workers’ exposure to chemotherapeutic agents is projected to swell in the years ahead as the US population ages. And chemo drugs themselves have found wider application—in the treatment of arthritis, multiple sclerosis and other diseases—which puts them in a wider array of physicians’ offices. Also, veterinarians are now increasingly using these drugs to treat animals, putting those who work in vet’s offices in contact with chemo.”

The new Washington State workplace safety rule is designed to protect pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, physicians and physician assistants, nurses and patient care assistants, home health care workers, veterinarians and vet techs, housekeeping, laundry, and waste disposal staff in health care facilities, and employees in health care facilities who ship, or receive hazardous drugs from the manufacturer or distributor.

Federal OSHA does not have a specific regulations to address this hazard. In April 2011, about the same time the Washington State legislature was passing the bill to address healthcare workers’ exposure to hazardous medications, OSHA, NIOSH and the accrediting organization The Joint Commission sent a letter to thousands of health care organizations reminding them of this workplace hazard.

Want to know more about the healthcare laws that will affect your business? Contact the experts at PACE Staffing Network today!