China's Healthcare IT Staffing Lags Far Behind US and UK, Report Reveals

Recently, the Statistical Information Center of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, in collaboration with the Chinese Health Information Association, conducted a study on “Position Setup and Human Resource Allocation for Health and Family Planning Statistics and Informatization” and released the research report recently.

The report provides the first comprehensive overview of the current status of workforce development in health and family planning statistics and informatization in China. It offers recommendations on the establishment of statistical and informational functions, job descriptions, and staffing levels for statistical and information centers at the provincial (autonomous region, municipality), prefectural (city), and county (city, district) levels, as well as for secondary-tier hospitals and above. Meng Qun, Vice President of the Chinese Health Information Association, and Zhang Yaoguang, Deputy Director of the Statistical Information Center of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, who were deeply involved in drafting the report, provided their interpretations.

The report shows that all provincial-level (including autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) Health and Family Planning Commissions have established independent statistical information centers. However, only 40% of prefecture-level cities and less than 5% of counties (county-level cities and districts) have set up independent statistical information centers. The number of on-duty staff in provincial-level statistical information centers ranges from 2 to 68, with an average of 8.8 on-duty staff members in prefecture-level city statistical information centers. In terms of statistical information technology management institutions, the lower the administrative level, the less perfect the institution and the more insufficient the personnel; at the same administrative level, the number of statistical information institutions and their operational status in eastern regions are significantly better than those in central and western regions.

Regarding hospitals, there is a shortage of information technology staff and a lack of staffing standards. Self-reported data indicate that 81.2% of secondary and tertiary hospitals do not have sufficient IT personnel to meet operational needs. Calculated based on the number of hospital beds,Currently, there are fewer than 10 IT staff members per 1,000 hospital beds; to initially meet existing operational demands, this figure needs to reach nearly 15 IT staff members per 1,000 beds.. Hospital level, affiliation, and scale all have a significant impact on informatization construction; some secondary hospitals remain at the stage of medical cost management or basic patient information management.

Experts point out that China faces a severe shortage of healthcare IT personnel. The ratio of healthcare information technology staff to total healthcare system employees ranges from 1.8% to 3.1% across various countries and regions.The number of healthcare IT personnel per bed in the United Kingdom and the United States is 8 times and 12 times that of China, respectively.The average ratio of healthcare IT personnel to hospital beds in Hong Kong is 1:27, with some private institutions reaching as high as 1:10.

This study recommends that provincial-level statistical information centers establish 13 positions across four categories: comprehensive management, information technology management, statistics and data management, and infrastructure management; prefecture-level statistical information centers establish 8 positions across the same four categories; and county-level statistical information centers establish 4 positions across these four categories. The number of personnel engaged in statistics and informatization at provincial-, prefecture-, and county-level statistical information centers shall be no fewer than 25, 13, and 4, respectively.

The study proposes,Level II and above hospitals shall establish five categories comprising 12 positions: information business management, application management, infrastructure management, IT support, and data utilization and services., hospitals with fewer than 800 beds, 800–1,500 beds, and more than 1,500 beds shall be staffed with 8–16, 17–27, and 30–49 personnel, respectively.

Studies have shown that the professional competencies of IT personnel fail to meet practical demands. The fields of health and family planning statistics and informatization require a substantial number of interdisciplinary professionals proficient in both medicine and computer-related technologies. However, most talents in this field in China possess a single background in either IT, medicine, or management, with a low proportion having combined expertise in information technology and medicine. Additionally, the proportion of senior-level professionals is relatively low. The professional training and certification systems remain inadequate, resulting in an insufficient output of qualified healthcare informatics professionals.

Research indicates that the field of health and family planning statistics and informatization struggles to attract high-caliber, interdisciplinary talent due to constraints related to staffing quotas, compensation, and career development. Most hospitals classify their information technology departments as support units, where bonuses are generally lower than those in clinical departments and are typically based on average performance incentives. Starting salaries are relatively low compared to the broader IT industry, and the technical atmosphere and work environment are comparatively inferior. Consequently, these positions find it difficult to recruit computer science graduates from top-tier universities and hold little appeal for experienced engineers and technical core personnel from corporate sectors.

Furthermore,IT personnel face limited pathways for professional title advancement, with a lack of positions and ranking structures for senior titles. Difficulties in title evaluation have led to significant staff turnover and hindered the overall improvement of workforce quality.。

Experts point out that the backgrounds of personnel in healthcare informatics departments in developed countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States are more diversified. For instance, healthcare informatics professionals in the U.S. include IT specialists, clinical staff, health information managers, and health sciences librarians; whereas in the U.K., the scope is even broader, encompassing scholars, scientists, business experts, statisticians, and administrators. Developed nations generally place significant emphasis on cultivating health informatics talent by establishing training standards and norms. China should focus on attracting multidisciplinary talent to lay the foundation for future upgrades to the functional positioning of its healthcare information systems.

Furthermore, experts recommend thatChina Should Strengthen the Cultivation and Introduction of High-End TalentHigh-level professionals in healthcare informatization should be industry experts with certain management talents and strong capabilities in strategic planning and business analysis. They should also possess management and planning skills in the field of IT outsourcing, enabling them to scientifically determine the relevant areas and proportions of outsourcing based on the specific circumstances of their hospitals.

At the same time, attention should be paid to the compensation expectations and career development needs of this workforce, ensuring that they align with the individual value of high-skilled, interdisciplinary talent.

Studies indicate that China’s statistical information technology management system remains underdeveloped, with unclear functional positioning of statistics and informatization roles, non-standardized job structures, and consequent ambiguities in responsibilities and gaps in work execution.

Experts stated,In developed countries, large hospitals have leveraged health information technology to support clinical care, patient management, strategic planning, operational management, training and research, as well as administrative and financial functions; whereas in China, hospital IT departments are primarily positioned to handle the construction and maintenance of information systems, data analysis, utilization and reporting, and the routine maintenance and management of IT equipment.。

Due to differing functional orientations, developed countries have allocated more personnel specializing in healthcare information technology and tend to develop related software and systems in-house within their IT departments, whereas China currently relies almost entirely on purchasing software from external vendors or outsourcing development functions.

Experts point out that there is currently a gap in the establishment of information management positions in China. Such roles should facilitate the effective utilization of data through the collection, analysis, and interpretation of healthcare and medical data, thereby assisting clinical healthcare professionals in identifying optimal diagnostic and treatment strategies, and enabling managers to efficiently and accurately oversee daily operations and medical processes. China should create more information management positions to unlock the greater potential of data.

The study recommends that provincial statistical information centers establish the position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) to assist in the technical management of informatization initiatives, support the formulation of technical roadmaps and architectural design for informatization projects, and oversee the translation and application of key and cutting-edge technologies in healthcare informatization projects. Additionally, it recommends establishing the position of Chief Statistician to assist in designing statistical and survey schemes, provide guidance on operational activities, support the development of statistical and data analysis plans, produce high-quality statistical analysis reports leveraging new technologies such as big data, and manage the translation and application of key and cutting-edge technologies in survey and statistical work.

Research suggests,Hospitals at Level II and above shall appoint a Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) to formulate and implement development plans and annual work plans for hospital statistics and informatization construction, and to coordinate with relevant internal and external departments in carrying out related work.。 

Source: Health News