While the managers of small medical facilities were likely aware of the fact that healthcare IT workers are playing an increasingly large part in the industry's day-to-day operations, a new report indicated that certain professional positions are also increasing in stature. According to the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), the roles of chief medical informatics officers (CMIOs) and chief nursing officers (CNOs) are likely to expand further in the coming years.
The report, which is entitled "Medical Device Integration: CMIO and CNO Perspectives," detailed how the roles of these professionals are becoming more complex due to the integration of electronic medical records software and the growing number of medical devices that need to be properly connected to these programs. To gather data, HIMSS talked to a number of workers dealing with the day-to-day aspects of IT work in the industry.
Jennifer Horowitz, senior director of research at HIMSS Analytics, spoke to InformationWeek Healthcare about the findings in the study.
"As organizations move forward toward integration of medical devices into the EHR environment, it is likely that operations for supporting and maintaining the interfaces for medical devices to the EHR will be the responsibility of the IT department," she told the media outlet.
In her interview, Horowitz also discussed how CNOs and CMIOs help ensure that the workflow of other employees is taken into consideration. However, while larger facilities can rely on these multifaceted employees to serve an adaptive role that benefits their patient care, smaller facilities may need to hire outside assistance to ensure their Allscripts and Lytec EMR are working properly.
Because of their unique needs, these facilities may want to purchase their EMR programs from a provider that can also offer troubleshooting and installation.