Today let's look at 3 things to be mindful of on how hospitals
hire for their technical needs.
1. Most hospitals and health systems want
full-time staff. This is what they want because this
is what they are used to.
One issue with this is these facilities cannot pay what the
market demands for these resources, with the salaries they offer
frequently being 50% to 75% below the rates the same people can
earn as full-time contractors for consulting companies. These
facilities also cannot pay as well as private healthcare software
and hardware companies, whose salaries are generally about 30%
higher.
If you look at which entities pay the most down to the least, it
looks like this.
- Healthcare consulting companies
- Healthcare software/hardware companies
- Health system and hospitals
2. Most hospitals and health systems use pay
grades for salaried positions. In this way, they are
much like government entities or very large, bureaucratic
entities. For example, virtually any hospital has grades for
salaried positions, but many look at them using the hourly
equivalent of the corresponding salary, meaning an $80,000 salaried
position would be graded in 3 ways: Low, Mid-point, High,
with each level having a stated/desired rate assigned to it.
A Senior PM at a hospital, for example, might be graded out like
this: Low - $22.12 to $32.87; Mid-point - $30.15 to $39.58;
High - $36.64 to $48.00. Note that the top tier of ranges are
not disclosed in almost all cases.
3. Most hospitals and health systems seem
naturally drawn toward using consulting companies for interim
help. Because of the first two items above,
hospitals do not often look to use interim resources. But
when they do, they typically use expensive alternatives --
healthcare consulting companies, whose resources are very good and
whose corresponding rates are very high.
Wondering what led to the above 3 core beliefs or desires is not
the point of this blog nor does it serve any helpful purpose.
It's simply the way things are, no different than someone who has
worked in the past with large companies with massive hiring needs
knows what drives the philosophy of IT hiring for outfits such as
AT&T.
For the multitude of IT professionals in the U.S. with the
desire to transition their skills into healthcare settings, it's
wise to factor in these 3 items and design a career search
accordingly. The relentless emphasis on acquiring healthcare
experience from many career counselors, however important, does not
ensure the job seeker is successful unless it's clear what beliefs
drive the hospitals' hiring efforts each day.