Nora BelcherExecutive Director, Texas e-Health Alliance

nora@txeha.org

andLeanne H. Field, Ph.D.

Director, Health IT Programsfield@austin.utexas.edu

Challenges & Initiatives Surrounding Workforce Development in Health IT

About the Texas e-Health Alliance

• The Texas e-Health Alliance is the state's leading advocate, from local communities to the national level, for the use of information technology to improve the health care system for patients.

• The Alliance was founded in 2009, and represents the e-health industry's interest in promoting improved health care for all Texans.

• ONC award: Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) for research on barriers to EHR adoption: UTHSC- Houston, $15M

• ONC award: Program of Assistance for University-Based Training to increase availability of HIT professionals: Texas State University, $5.4m

• Funded by ONC to offer technical assistance, guidance & information on best practices to support & accelerate efforts to become meaningful users of EHRs

• CentrEast REC (TAMU): $5.3m• North TX REC (DFW Hospital Council):

$8.5m• West TX HIT REC (Texas Tech): $6.7m• Gulf Coast REC (UTHSC): $15.2m

• Develop & implement a state plan for HIE

• Support the development of local & regional HIE

• Foster the development of HIT policy for the state

• $28.8m planning & implementation funds through ONC via MOU with HHSC

• Pass through Medicaid incentive funds: up to $2b through 2019

• Develop & implement a Medicaid HIE (HB 1218)

• Pass through planning and implementation funds to THSA

HHSC

Texas Health

Services Authority (THSA)

Universities &

Community Colleges

Regional Extension Centers

(HITRECs)

Public StakeholdersConsumersNon-profitsPublic Health Agencies

Provider StakeholdersPhysiciansHospitalsFQHCsLaboratoriesPharmacies

Payers Insurers Employers State & Local Government

Texas eHealth AlliancePolicy Advocacy Information Education

Industry Goals

• Address immediate issues with HIT workforce– Original employer that identified the need had 60

openings• Develop curriculum that reflected industry

needs– Emphasis on office workflow

• Create showplace for new and emerging technologies to build general support for HIT in Texas

It’s fun to be a fairy godmother!

Innovative Workforce Development Programs in Health Information

Technology

NOVEMBER 2009 Texas e-Health Alliance - a workforce is needed for Health IT College of Natural Sciences responds

JANUARY 2010 Curriculum development – UT Austin in partnership with industry Apply for university-based training grant ONC

APRIL 2010 PURE-HIT consortium – receives $5.4 million; UT Austin $2.7 million Curriculum development continues; recruit faculty

MAY 2010Recruit first class of students

JUNE 2010Inaugural Summer Certificate program begins with 55 students

JULY 2010 Graduate 54 students from the program!

AUGUST 2010– NOVEMBER 2011 97% of graduates are hired

History: Health IT CNS

PURE-HIT CONSORTIUM

• Texas State University

• UT School of Biomedical Informatics

• The University of Texas at Austin

Generous Corporate

Supporters

• Delisi Communications• Dell Healthcare and Life

Sciences• Dell Services• eClinicalWorks• e-MDs• ePortation• Fujitsu• GE Healthcare• GRIDdesign• Gulf Coast Regional

Extension Center• Healthcare Transformation

Solutions• ICA• Intel• Labcorp• Lone Star Circle of

Care/Centex System Support Services

• maxIT• McKesson• NextGen Healthcare• Orion• Sandlot• Sentry Data Systems• Seton Family of Hospitals• STC• TEKsystems• Texas e-Health Alliance• TMF Health Quality

Institute• Texas Medical Association• UT School of Biomedical

Informatics• Vitera• Welch Allyn• White Glove Technologies

• Availity• Allscripts• Austin Regional Clinic• Blue Cross Blue Shield

of Texas• Cisco• CTG Healthcare

Solutions

UT Austin Certificate Programs• Health IT 9 Week Certificate Program - designed for recent college graduates and others who want to enter the Health IT workforce (ongoing)

• Health IT Privacy and Security Certificate- Computer Science students (2011)

• Public Health Leader Certificate - jointly with UT School of Biomedical Informatics- public health informatics certificate program for public

health professionals (2011-2013)

Public Health Leader Certificate Program

Public Health Leader Certificate Program

• Training public health professionals in public health informatics– 1 year certificate program – 5 courses

– Train 22 students at TDSHS and ATCHHSD in two years

– Guest speakers: • Mr. Jim Daniel, Public Health Coordinator, ONC• Dr. Herman Tolentino, Director, Public Health Informatics

Fellowship Program, CDC• Dr. Taha-Hass Hout, Director of Informatics Solutions and

Operations, CDC

First Cohort of Public Health Leader Graduates

14

• Alison Little, MPP• Texas Cancer Registry• Texas Department of State Health Services• Alison.Little@dshs.state.tx.us• August 8, 2012

15

• Alison Little, MPP• Texas Cancer Registry• Texas Department of State Health Services• Alison.Little@dshs.state.tx.us• August 8, 2012

16

• Alison Little, MPP• Texas Cancer Registry• Texas Department of State Health Services• Alison.Little@dshs.state.tx.us• August 8, 2012

Health Information Technology and Health Information Exchange

Certificate Program

• Purpose: Prepare post-baccalaureate students to rapidly enter the Health IT workforce

• Overview: 9 week integrated, spiral curriculum– 15 hours- 5 – 3 hour courses– 6 weeks: Didactic courses; hands-on exercises with workflow and process redesign, EHRs and HIE software, data analytics – 3 weeks: Practicum with industry; career

development, research posters, job interviews

9 WEEK CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

Educational Partnership with UT Southwestern Medical Center

• Successful program for distance learning– Remotely trained 23 students in Dallas to date– UT Southwestern CIO lectures on hospital systems;

provides hospital-based practicum in medical center

Proven three-fold approach to prepare graduates for the

Health IT workforce

• Knowledge and Skills Development• Professional Development• Real-World Experience

• Recent College Graduates• Variety of majors and degree programs• GPA > 2.75• Strong interest in healthcare• Variety of college experiences – shadowing medical

professionals, research, global travel

• Working Professionals – desire to enter Health IT• Previous healthcare experience• Previous computer or IT experience• Other professions (e.g. teachers)

STUDENT CHARACTERISTICS

• E-mails• Posters and flyers• Informational sessions• Newspaper advertisements• Webinars• Exhibiting at regional and national meetings• Former students recommending the program to their friends!

Recruiting

Don’t move

home with

your parents

after you

graduate!

Healthcare + Technology = Exciting Career!

Average starting salary of $52,000

http://biosci.utexas.edu/healthit

GRADUATES OF ALL

MAJORS WELCOME!Apply now for the

Health IT 9–week Certificate Program

Classes begin January 7, 2013

UPCOMING ELECTRONIC AD

FIVE COURSES

1. Fundamentals of Health IT

2. Workflow, Process Redesign and Project Management

3. Electronic and Health Information Exchange Systems

4. Operational Models of Healthcare Practice

5. Practicum in Health IT

• Disease du Jour• Guest Speakers• EHR Demonstrations• Hands-on skill development in the Health IT Learning Center

• Workflow simulations in mock ambulatory clinic• 6 EHR software systems• 2 HIE software systems• Data analytics exercises

ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Health IT Learning Center

ClassroomLonghorn Clinic

Health Information Exchange Laboratory

Classroom: Expert Lectures

Classroom: Group Activities

The Longhorn Clinic

Hands-on Skill Development with EHR Systems

EHR systems: Allscripts, eClinicalWorks, e-MDs,Greenway, NextGen, Vitera

Telemedicine Demonstration

Workflow Exercises in the Longhorn Clinic: Telemedicine Simulation

Workflow Exercises: Simulation of Laboratory Reporting, Vital Signs, and Superbill Management

Health Information Exchange Laboratory

• Longhorn Innovation Fund for Technology (awarded 9/11)

• Goals• Create a “living” interoperability learning laboratory

• Exchange simulated healthcare data in real-time

• Mimic the “network of networks” being implemented by Texas

• Engage students in the newest HIE technologies

HIE Laboratory – Phase 1

Sample HIE Teaching Module

HIE SymposiumJune 27, 2012

• All day focus on HIEs• Presented by industry partners and Texas

governmental officials– Why Health Information Exchange?– What is an HIE?– How does an HIE work?

• Workflow panel

HIE Laboratory “Go Live” for Student Use

July 5, 2012• Health IT students complete hands-on HIE

exercises in the laboratory

HIE Lab Phase 1: “Use Cases”

• Students gain hands-on experience with:– Viewing Patient Records in the Orion HIE portal

• “Breaking the Privacy Seal”• Reconciling similar but not identical patient demographics

– Exchanging Continuity of Care Documents (CCDs)

via HIEs

– Comparing the progress note in

the EHR with the CCD

– Comparing and contrasting two HIE models

• ICA vs Orion

HIE Laboratory – Phase 2

Goals• Complete the integration of the current EHRs and

HIEs

• Activate the “network of networks” to exchange simulated patient data between the two HIEs

• Exchange simulated laboratory orders and results

• Transfer immunization records from a simulated physician practice to a simulated public health immunization registry and a cancer registry

Professional Development

Employer Information Day

Etiquette Dinner

Civility ConsultingJan Goss

Two Week Practicum Lone Star Circle of Care/NextGen

Practica Hosts

• CTG Healthcare Solutions

• Delisi Communications• Dell Services• e-MDs• Gulf Coast Regional

Extension Center• Harden Healthcare• Healthcare

Transformation Solutions

• Legacy Community Health Services

• Lone Star Circle of Care/Centex System Support Services

• maxIT• McKesson• MedSpring Urgent Care• Memorial Hermann

Healthcare System• Operational Strategies

• Office of the National

Coordinator for Health Information Technology

• OZ Systems• Premiere Family

Physicians• Sandlot• Scott & White

Healthcare• Texas e-Health Alliance• Texas Health Services

Authority• University Health

System• UT Medicine San

Antonio• UT Southwestern

Medical Center• Village Health Partners• Vitera• West Texas Regional

Extension Center• Your Doctor Program

Research Poster Presentations

• Judged by members of Health IT industry and healthcare organizations

Job Interviews

Program Milestones

July 20101st in the Nation to graduate students from an ONC-funded program, and to move graduates into the workforce!

Visit from Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health IT

October 2010

“This program has hit a home run!” Dr. David Blumenthal

June 2011The program moves to the Norman Hackerman Building, a new science research and teaching building in the center ofThe University of Texas at Austin campus. Norman Hackerman Building photo by Paul Finkel

Innovation AwardOctober 2011

Program awarded a

Texas-Based Innovation in Healthcare Delivery Award

Visit from Dr. Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health IT

January 2012

“Students in this program get jobs after only 9 weeks of training! Terrific!” --- Dr. Farzad Mostashari

Launch of the Health Information Exchange(HIE) Laboratory

December 2012

"With the launch of our new HIE learning lab, UT Austin's Health IT Certificate students have the future of American health care in their hands. . . . I applaud the vision of our faculty and the enthusiastic support of our private sector partners in making this critical resource available to our students," William M. Sage, M.D., JD, Vice Provost for Health Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin

Program Evaluations, 2010

Summative (Outcome) Measures

• Knowledge Questionnaire– Targeted participants’ basic understanding of

the broad HIT subject areas• Confidence Ratings of Knowledge

– Self-report of how confident participants’ felt about understanding key areas of course content

Describe an EHR implementation challenge

Partial Response3%

Full Response97%

Post Test

n=54

Knowledge Questionnaire: Sample results

Don't Know30%

Partial Re-

sponse

6%

Full Response64%

Pretest

Knowledge Confidence Ratings

Note: *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

HIT F

ield

*

EMR C

oncept*

Medici

ne as

Business

***

Legislativ

e Issu

es**

Technolo

gical Is

sues*

*

EHR Imple

menta

tion***

My

Career P

rosp

ects

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

Interim1Interim2Final

Most Helpful Aspects of Program

Five most common helpful aspects: Percent Response

Practicum (45%)

Working with EHR software (37%)

Relevant lectures/class discussions (22%)

Group exercises (12%)

Large amount of information (10%)

Employment Outcomes2010-2012 Graduates

Enrollment 2010-2012

Session Graduates Funding Source

Summer 2010 54 PURE-HIT grant

Summer 2011 54 PURE-HIT grant

Fall 2011 54Professional Education

Spring 2012 48Professional Education

Summer 201255 Austin 9 Dallas

PURE-HIT grant

Fall 201250 Austin10 Dallas

Professional Education

Total in 2.5 years!

334

Employment Outcomes

Cohort No. TrainedNo. (%) of graduates seeking a job in Health IT who are employed in

Health IT

Summer 2010 54 30 (94%)

Summer 2011 54 39 (97%)

Fall 2011 54 44 (94%)

Spring 2012 48 36 (80%) since March 9th

Summer 2012 62 37 (62%) since July 27th

Fall 2012 60 26 (43%) since November 2nd

Average percent employed first four cohorts – 91%

Employment Outcomes

• Each cohort of graduates has been hired at a faster rate– 94% of Summer 2010 graduates found jobs within 15 months– 89% of Summer 2011 graduates found jobs within 9 months– 88% of Fall 2011 graduates found jobs within 6 months– 43% of Fall 2012 graduates hired in one month!

• Average salaries increased from $50,000 to $53,000/year– Salary range (first 3 cohorts): $21,600-76,200

On-Campus Interviews

Fall 2011 statistics: – 280 interviews in 1.5 days with 15 employers– 3 to 11 interviews per student, average of 4 interviews

per student

Summer 2010 Summer 2011 Fall 20110

50

100

150

200

250

300

Nu

mb

er o

f In

terv

iew

s

Who Hires UT Health IT graduates?

N = 45

Health-care

Provider35%

Vendor37%

Consult-ing

13%

Gov-ernment

7%

Other2%

Payer 2% Third Party Recruiter2%

CompanyNo. of

Graduates Employed

CompanyNo. of

Graduates Employed

Allscripts 1 Medix 3

Arcadia 2 MedSpring Urgent Care 1

Ascension Health Information Services (Seton) 4 Memorial Hermann Hospital 7

Athena Health 2 New Mexico REC (NM Medical Review Association) 1

Austin Community College 1 NextGen 3

Cerner Corporation 7 People’s Community Clinic 1

Concentra 2 Providence Health Services 2

Cumberland Consulting Group 1 Sandlot 1

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center 2 Scott & White Healthcare 25

eCaresoft 2 St. David’s Hospital 1

eClinicalWorks 33 TecNex 1

eMDs 22 Texas Health and Human Services Commission 1

Epic 7 The Advisory Board Company 3

Health Information Associates 8 UT Medicine San Antonio 2

Health Texas Providers Network 1 UT Southwestern 31

ICC 1 Valley Baptist Hospital 1

Intelagen 1 VersaSuite 2

Intellica 1 Village Health Partners 1

Legacy Community Health Services 1 Vitera 9

Lone Star Circle of Care 1

McKesson 6

Employers of UT Health IT Graduates

Job Titles• Application System Analyst• Associate Consultant• Business Analyst• Clinical Analyst Support• Consultant• Customer Service Specialist• Data Management Specialist• EHR Template Developer• Epic Application Analyst• Epic Implementation Specialist• Health Informaticist I• Implementation Analyst• Implementation Consultant• IT Project Management

Coordinator

• Product Innovation Manager• Project Manager

• Project Manager II• Software Developer• Software Systems Specialist I• Software Training Specialist• Support Analyst• Velocity Delivery Consultant

Recent Developments/Future Plans

Recipient of St. David’s Foundation Grant

• Health Information Technology Training for Safety Net Clinics in Central Texas• One year grant (9/1/12- 8/31/12• Fund HIT education for 45 clinic personnel in 3 low

income clinics served by the St. David’s Foundation• El Buen Samaritano• Lone Star Circle of Care• People’s Community Clinic

Training for Office of e-Health Coordination

• Contract to provide 60 hours of didactic content and hands-on learning with EHR and HIE systems

• 10 individuals in the Office of e-Health Coordination, Texas Health and Human Services Commission

What’s Next?

• Conclude grant funded programs - 2013

• Continue professional education programs

• 3- 9 week certificate programs per year

• Develop executive education and customized employee training programs

Continued Development of

Health IT Learning Center

Norman Hackerman Building

• “Physician’s Office of

the 21st Century”

• Expand HIE lab

• Home Health

• Telemedicine

• Other emerging technologies/ mobile applications

Learn More at: http://www.biosci.utexas.edu/HealthIT

Thank you!

The information in this presentation about the University of Texas at Austin Health IT program is copyrighted. In no event shall all or any portion of this presentation be disclosed or disseminated without the express written permission of the University of Texas

at Austin.

Copyright © 2012 The University of Texas at Austin. All rights reserved.