Dive Brief:
- HIMSS's annual leadership survey was released Tuesday at their annual conference in Las Vegas alongwith an analysis from its 2015 compensation survey, which found that gender disparity is significant in the health IT field.
- Of the compensation survey repondents, only 14% of females are represented in upper management and executive positions, compared to 21% of males. Non-executive women earn about 80% of what men make in the same roles. Also, males had a higher compensation average of $126,000 than females, which earned an average of $101,000.
- In the leadership survey, 95% or respondents "view health IT as a strategically critical tool to help healthcare organizations be successful… especially surrounding their patient care focused efforts."
Dive Insight:
The findings from the compensation survey and the leadership survey raise questions about the efficacy of the sector’s IT staff recruitment and retention practices, HIMSS stated in their analysis.
"Analyzed several different ways, women consistently earn less than their male counterparts," the analysis noted. "The findings also suggest females are under-represented in IT-related executive and senior management roles in the health sector."
The results from the leadership survey strongly suggest clinical IT executives have a significant impact on a healthcare organization’s move toward IT.
“Clinical IT executives clearly possess a unique and valued perspective regarding the criticality of health IT on an organization’s patient care focused efforts, and this orientation appears to be gaining traction in many organizations” Vice President of Research for HIMSS Lorren Pettit, said in a prepared statement.
"And while clinical IT executives are part of the overall executive team in many healthcare organizations, their presence is not universally true," Pettit said. "We will definitely continue to explore and track these issues in future HIMSS research studies.”
The leadership survey included responses from 282 IT executives and professionals. More results will be released at a later time.