Brush Up On Your EHR Skills to Land the Job

The widespread adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) will create one of the most significant IT challenges in coming years. Concerns about big data storage, information security, and effective collaboration will be paramount. Institutions both large and small are turning to experienced IT professionals to help the transition to EHRs run as smoothly as possible. If you are a tech professional looking for a job, mastering the skills necessary to manage EHRs immediately puts you in the upper echelon of applicants. Even if you do not plan to work in a healthcare field, the implications of EHRs will be so widely felt that they may bleed over into your area of expertise. Prepare for this coming change–here are six EHR skills to land the job.

Workflow Analysis

Realizing the benefits of EHRs depends on integrating them into existing workflows. Creating and storing the records themselves is less of a challenge than synching them with broader IT infrastructures. Professionals that understand how to analyze system-wide workflows and build IT tools around them will be in high demand.

Project Management

Implementing EHRs requires the careful coordination of technical and nontechnical staff, multiple departments, and varying software and hardware solutions. In order to make the process run smoothly, organizations will be looking for professionals with demonstrated project management experience.

Data Storage

Much of the discussion around “big data” lately has been a result of EHRs. When tens of millions of health records suddenly go digital, it creates massive new sources of data. Storing this data effectively while keeping it accessible will depend on dedicated IT experts.

Information Security

With the exception of financial data, no data is more sensitive than personal health records. As these files become electronic, they become vulnerable to viruses, hackers, and other malicious threats. Maintaining ironclad security measures will be key if the system is going to succeed.

IT Training

The transition to EHRs affects nurses, doctors, and administrators as much as it affects IT professionals. Training this nontechnical staff in the best practices of using EHRs will fall to IT trainers, and the number of staff to be trained is huge.

Vendor Relations

New software solutions for managing EHRs are being developed everyday. In order to identify the right solutions, the right prices, and the right licensing terms, healthcare stakeholders will rely on IT professionals with experience working with vendors. These professionals need to be as business savvy as they are computer savvy.

Public and private institutions are scrambling to beef up their IT staff as EHRs increasingly become the standard. IT professionals with foresight realize what a tremendous affect this will have on the industry as a whole, and they are preparing themselves now. Make yourself indefensible to future employers by learning as much as you can about EHRs. Find out more about the changing face of IT employment by consulting the resources available from INSPYR Solutions.