Our 2010 Compensation Survey offers interesting insight. CMIOs are generally satisfied with their compensation and happy with their career choice, according to those who completed our CMIO 2010 Compensation Survey. Does this sound like you?

A solid majority of respondents—91 percent—are licensed physicians, and about 68 percent are currently practicing. More than a third of respondents dedicate 90 to 100 percent of their time to their CMIO/medical informatics duties. The numbers also reflect the increasing importance of the CMIO role—via increases in time they expect in 2010 vs. 2009. Only 2 percent predict a drop in the amount of time they will spend on CMIO/medical informatics duties this year versus last year.

Most CMIOs hail from “big picture” disciplines that follow patients over many years, such as internal medicine (25 percent), family practice (16 percent) and pediatrics (10 percent). However, the breadth of specialties represented is also notable: survey respondents named 23 specialties.

More than 63 percent of survey respondents hold the title of chief medical information/informatics officer. The next most-cited title was director/manager of medical informatics, at about 7 percent. Most—36 percent—report to the CIO, followed by the chief medical officer/medical director (31 percent) and the CEO (13 percent).

Most of the respondents—a full 93 percent—were men. However, a recent survey by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) found that the number of female healthcare CIOs has increased from 9 percent in 1987 to 30 percent in 2008, so this ratio might change among CMIOs as well.

More than money

Although directly targeted toward compensation-related questions, we designed the inaugural CMIO Compensation Survey to provide more than just salary and bonus information—and it delivered. The survey participants revealed the top priorities and projects that their healthcare providers are tackling this year and into the future—and the increasing importance of the CMIO responsibility in healthcare facilities and practices of all sizes. The survey results show that there is no single drop-everything-and-deploy technology; rather respondents cite the systems that will reduce medical errors and improve care quality as their major areas of importance.

When the questions turned to dollars, we got a wider than expected range of salaries—from less than $30,000 to more than $300,000. About 48 percent of respondents report an annual salary of $200,000 or more, while only about 10 percent of respondents say their annual salary is less than $100,000. That could be related to the fact that many CMIOs still split their duties between patient and IT responsibilities (17 percent spend less than half their time as CMIO) and thus do not derive their total annual compensation just from CMIO duties. In a tight economy, it’s little surprise that 44 percent of respondents say they’re not expecting a raise in 2010. 

About the CMIO

As for bonuses, more than 56 percent of survey participants say they expect to receive a bonus this year. Often these bonuses are based on goal-based incentives for implementation of IT projects. Although 11 percent of CMIOs predict they’ll get less than last year, 23 percent of respondents expect a bigger bonus this year, and the same number say they expect to receive the same bonus amount as last year.

The survey delivered job satisfaction figures that would be the envy of many other professions: Two-thirds of participants report they’re very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their current compensation. Furthermore, 86 percent of respondents say they have no plans to change jobs this year.

As for staffing, in many facilities the CMIO is an army of one: More than 41 percent say they have no full-time equivalent (FTE) employees who report to them. Roughly the same number manage one to 10 FTEs, and 7 percent say they have 11 to 20

FTEs reporting to them. And with marching orders this year most often focused on implementing EMRs and CPOE, it’s not surprising that about 66 percent of respondents expect clinical IT staffing to increase.

Close to 67 percent expect their CMIO/medical informatics workload to stay about the same in the coming year—possibly meaning they’re already operating at capacity—while 31 percent predict their workload will increase.

As we know, the CMIO role is relatively new to the C-suite of hospitals, healthcare organizations and large medical groups. Our results show that almost 70 percent of respondents have been employed in clinical IT for less than 10 years—and 4 percent have been in this line of work for less than a year. Approximately 88 percent of survey takers report they’ve been employed in their current position for 10 years or less; 11 percent have held their current job for less than a year.

“It is interesting that more than 50 percent of respondents have been involved in clinical IT for six years or less; while greater than 60 percent have been with their current institution for more than seven years. This clearly shows that most CMIOs have evolved [within their organization],” says Don Levick, MD, MBA, medical director, clinical informatics at Lehigh Valley Health Network, who reviewed the survey results.

This doesn’t mean the typical CMIO is fresh out of school. None of the survey takers is under age 30 and more than 28 percent of respondents are between 51 and 55; 18 percent are 56 to 60 and almost 17 percent are 36 to 40 years old.

Most respondents—97 percent—are high-level strategists within their organization, citing a role as developer of clinical IT strategy for their entire organization or enterprise, group of facilities or one facility. Some 41 percent also are part of their organization’s capital equipment buying team.

“I was surprised that 41 percent of CMIOs are involved in enterprisewide capital buying decisions,” Levick says. “Typically, CMIOs have been involved in IT capital decisions. It demonstrates how the role of the CMIO is expanding to impact organizational strategy.”

Most of our respondents—42 percent—work at multi-hospital/IDN organizations, followed by community hospitals (26 percent) and academic medical centers (18 percent). The position of CMIO is budgeted from IS/IT, according to 39 percent of survey respondents. 

Setting goals

Survey participants were asked to rank the overall importance of 17 long-term goals, from very important to not important. Topping the list were:

• Improving quality of care, rated as very important by 90 percent of respondents;
• Improving organizational workflow, rated very important by 76 percent;
• Translating organizational processes into IT solutions, rated very important by 66 percent
• Patient (customer) satisfaction, rated very important by 64 percent
• Integration of disparate IT systems, rated very important by 52 percent

When asked about the current status of various IT projects in their organizations, the information that survey respondents provided reflects national healthcare trends. For example, when it comes to replacement/upgrade projects, EMRs lead the way, as 17 percent of survey takers say they’ll be adding a new system this year and about half already have an EMR. This installed base is far higher than the national average, but the premise is that facilities employing a CMIO are more IT-progressive than others yet to deploy the technology.

Respondents also were asked to rank the importance of 18 technologies ranging from billing/coding and CPOE to data storage to revenue cycle management. CPOE is considered very important in 2010 by 66 percent of survey participants; 59 percent say EMR is very important this year, and clinical decision support is considered very important by 55 percent. Health information exchange technology is rated as very important by 43 percent, important by 27 percent and moderately important by 20 percent of respondents.

Patient health record (PHR) systems are still largely in the planning and implementation stages—28 percent of respondents plan to implement PHR, 17 percent have begun a PHR installation and 20 percent say they have a fully functional PHR system. Still, more than 18 percent have no plans to implement a PHR.

The importance of upgrading their organization’s network infrastructure is evenly split, with 30 percent reporting it will be very important in 2010, 30 percent saying it’s not a priority at this time and 30 percent saying it will be important in 2011. Implementing single-sign-on technology is rated as very important in 2010 by 30 percent of respondents, while another 36 percent say it is not a priority at this time.

The to-do list:

2010 Among big-picture IT efforts, 2010’s top-ranked topics would be perennials on almost any survey. Reducing medical errors was rated very important by 77 percent of survey takers; delivering clinical knowledge to physicians, 66 percent; and implementing/upgrading clinical information systems, 59 percent.

Delivering clinical knowledge to patients is rated as very important this year by 30 percent of respondents; very important next year by 32 percent, and very important in the next two years by 22 percent.

The survey shows that the economy, employment and revenue are concerns for many. Overall job market or employment concerns are considered very important, somewhat important or important by almost 79 percent of participants. Creating new revenue sources and service lines is considered very important, somewhat important or important by 89 percent. Demand for capital earns a combined 98 percent very important, somewhat important or important rate.

In this era of federal stimulus incentives and increased regulation, government compliance also is a high-level concern: More than 98 percent of survey takers say it’s very important, somewhat important or important. 

For more in-depth survey results about technology implementation plans in 2010 and beyond, go to www.cmio.net.

The Fine Print

The web-based survey of CMIOs, medical informatics officers, vice presidents of medical informatics and information systems, and directors and managers of clinical informatics was open on CMIO.net for 48 days, from Nov. 20, 2009, to Jan. 6, 2010. Participation was solicited via ads on both the website and enewsletter CMIO News. We tabulated these results based on 118 completed responses, 96 percent of whom work in the U.S.