Healthcare CIO: Final Report

Nearly 60 percent of healthcare IT executives in this survey predicted that the number of FTEs in their IT departments will increase in the next twelve months, compared with 56 percent in last year's survey. However, the changes will be relatively small—65 percent of those respondents indicating that their staff would increase projected an increase of less than 10 percent. As with 2003, only eight percent of this year's respondents report that the size of their staff is going to decrease.

Despite the fact that network and architecture support continues to be the area in which respondents are most likely to report staffing needs, the number of respondents selecting this option has steadily declined in the past three years. In 2004, 34 percent of respondents reported this was a top area, and in 2003, only 31 percent of respondents reported this as a top priority. Respondents also identify a need for staff in the IT department to address clinical issues. Clinical transformation (25 percent), clinical champions (24 percent) and clinical informaticists (24 percent) round out the top four responses.

Staffing needs in several areas showed substantial declines between 2003 and 2004.

• Internet/Intranet (12 percent in 2004 compared to 23 percent in 2003)
• Application support/development (19 percent in 2004 compared to 29 percent in 2003)
• PC/Server support (16 percent in 2004 compared to 26 percent in 2003)
• User training (13 percent in 2004 compared to 21 percent in 2003)
• Regulatory, reimbursement and accreditation issues (5 percent in 2004 compared to 14 percent in 2003)

The only area in which an increased number of IT executives identified a staffing need in 2004 was data security, which showed a one-percent increase to 21 percent. Six percent of respondents indicated there were no areas in which they had a staffing need.

IT executives responding to the 2004 survey were slightly more likely to report their budget would increase (72 percent), compared to those responding to the 2003 survey (68 percent). Among those predicting an increase, 25 percent reported a probable increase, and 47 percent reported a definite increase. Only ten percent of respondents indicated their budget would decrease in 2004, compared to 12 percent in 2003.

Not only do more respondents identify a budget increase, the projected amount of the increase is larger. Nearly 60 percent of respondents indicate that their budget will increase by at least six percent, compared to 51 percent in 2003.

The top three reasons for a budget increase are overall growth in the number of systems and technologies (78 percent), overall budget increases (44 percent) and an increase in the long-term IT or organizational strategic plan (43 percent).

Only ten percent of respondents projected a decline in their IT budget. Among those respondents, 43 percent expected the decrease to be five percent or less. Nearly 80 percent of respondents attribute the projected budget decrease to overall organizational budget decreases.