Summit’s Goal: To leverage the veteran workforce living in rural and underserved communities to fill the existing and future demands in the areas of HIM/IT.
This summit for invited stakeholders — held June 5th and 6th at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC — addresses two significant problems facing America:
- the shortage of an educated and trained HIM/IT workforce in rural and underserved communities, and
- the need to provide employment opportunities for veterans transitioning from military service to the civilian workforce.
According to the HIT Workforce Shortage Report, there is a need to increase the HIM/IT workforce by 38% in order to meet provider demands. Furthermore, 67% of hospital executives noted current shortages of HIM/IT staff. For healthcare providers in rural areas, this is one of the top ten issues for healthcare reform. Of the 22 million veterans in the US today, approximately 6.1 million live in rural areas. This summit will bring together key stakeholders to:
- Map skills attained while in service to the country to skills needed for HIM/IT positions and identify educational gaps to be filled
- Identify how veterans can fill existing workforce gaps in HIM/IT employment in rural areas
- Create a plan of action for future stakeholder meetings that will bring employers in rural and underserved areas together with veterans.
This conference is intended to establish an ongoing dialog with this being the first in a series of summits that will link rural healthcare providers, vendors, government agencies focused on training and developing the veterans in rural areas to assume healthcare information management and technology positions.