The ongoing boom in healthcare jobs has created a tidal wave of healthcare related career paths for IT professionals. Individuals with webmaster/web development skills are a great fit for the emerging healthcare webmaster career path. With strong technical skills and a creative approach to online data management, transitioning to an IT healthcare job is a great way for IT professionals to get into a dynamic and exciting job with a rapidly expanding growth forecast.
The Nature of the Work
The federal mandate for electronic medical record keeping has many healthcare facilities scrambling to tighten up their data management systems. Healthcare webmasters are needed to assist in this process. While the hours may be long and unconventional at times, having a direct role in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the healthcare system for patients and their families adds an extra level of job satisfaction to the career.
Healthcare webmasters work for large healthcare organizations such as hospitals but also may work for government agencies or corporations that provide supportive services, such as coordinating home-health nurses. A variety of online courses are available to bridge the gap between the IT world and the healthcare sector. The flexibility of the online experience allows IT professionals to gain education while building pertinent experience through on-the-job training.
While healthcare webmasters must have a proficient command of related IT applications and generally will hold a bachelors degree or higher, they also need to be able to work well in collaborative settings. A healthcare webmaster will need to work on projects which may involve participation from every level of employee, from help desk receptionists up to the executive C-suite leaders. Flexibility, strong communication skills and a creative approach to problem solving are important soft skills to develop in addition to technical skills.
Healthcare Webmaster Career Outlook
As healthcare providers fiercely compete for patient loyalty, more organizations are investing in healthcare webmasters to assist in securing the competitive edge. Federal mandates related to electronic medical record keeping has given healthcare facilities all the incentive they need to improve their overall IT strategies.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor has not yet published specific salary data for healthcare webmasters. However, the term webmaster is sometimes used in a similar vein to web developer, which the BLS does track salaries for. On average, web developers made $75, 580 in 2018.1 The outlook is positive, with the BLS projecting 15% employment growth for web developers through 2026.2
Managing data in a way that is secure and is accessible online to users at different levels means that healthcare organizations need to invest in specialized professionals, such as healthcare webmasters. To remain viable in a competitive marketplace, healthcare organizations need to utilize the important talent of IT professionals who can use the latest software and hardware products to build a better healthcare system from the inside out.
Other Considerations
Stakeholders in medical healthcare companies are looking toward IT investments as a more centralized component of an overall business strategy for market viability in extraordinarily competitive times. Healthcare webmasters can help medical facilities edge ahead of the competition with their expertise and highly coveted skill set. For IT professionals interested in translating their skills into a healthcare webmaster job, there are a number of growing opportunities available in this historic time in healthcare.
1 Annual wages have been calculated by multiplying the hourly mean wage by a “year-round, full-time” hours figure of 2,080 hours; for those occupations where there is not an hourly wage published, the annual wage has been directly calculated from the reported survey data.
2 Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Web Developers, on the Internet at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/web-developers.htm (visited June 07, 2019
