Karen Moore

Staffing shortages, employee burnout, early retirement, physical and mental stress are just some of the stories making headlines regarding the state of today’s healthcare industry. While organizations are working to address these issues, the demand for healthcare professionals continues to rise. The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that employment in healthcare occupations is projected by grow by 16% this decade

With all of these challenges and developments in mind, what are the healthcare hiring trends HR professionals need to be aware of? Here are five of them:

1. More opportunities for home healthcare and telehealth positions

Supplemental Healthcare Chief Operating Officer, Vickie Anenberg, recently stated, “To accommodate growing healthcare needs, care continues to move outside of the traditional hospital setting.”

According to recent market research, the home healthcare market is projected to reach $274.7 billion by 2025. Pre-pandemic, home healthcare was most often utilized after hospital stays.

This changed with the pandemic, and home healthcare services are now used to keep people out of the hospital. Home visits and telemedicine being used to help manage chronic disease, a variety of issues facing the elderly population, mental health issues, and more. With this trend, we expect to see more of the responsibilities normally handled within a medical facility to now be managed by clinicians outside of the office and inside of the home, increasing the demand for these essential home healthcare positions.

2. An increase in nontraditional, healthcare-related positions

Along with healthcare moving outside of traditional doctor’s offices and hospitals, we are seeing the rise in roles to service both providers and patients. For example, Uber for Business offers Uber Health, which provides patient/caregiver transportation, healthcare worker commute services, and prescription and meal delivery services. Lyft Business offers similar services such as courtesy patient rides. And Amazon now offers Amazon Care, which they are marketing as “healthcare made easy,” in that you can access a clinician seven days a week, 365 days a year. The increase in nontraditional healthcare support provided by these companies and others has led to new job categories that didn’t exist a few years ago.

3. The healthcare technology boom

The healthcare industry is evolving, and technology plays a significant role in that evolution. We see health systems investing in software, data migration to the cloud, increased automation and more robust cybersecurity measures.

In addition to technologies being upgraded to enhance and streamline administrative duties, we also see the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies to improve patient outcomes. For example, MIT and Harvard used ML to track the pandemic’s impact on mental health. The internet of things, or IoT, is being used to develop a new generation of tech-enabled pills to ensure patients take medication properly while also delivering providers with valuable patient insights.

All of these advances are opening doors for a new category of IT professionals, ones who may not have prior healthcare experience but are adept in the technical knowledge needed to move the industry forward.

4. The evolution of precision medicine and healthcare

The FDA defines precision medicine as “An innovative approach to tailoring disease prevention and treatment that takes into account differences in people's genes, environments, and lifestyles.” As more advances are made in the study of the human genome and its impact on health, there will be a growing demand for different kinds of expertise healthcare: Geneticists, bioinformaticians, genetic counselors and scientists and researchers with deep knowledge in genomics and related subjects. The global precision medicine market is estimated to account for $114,891.8 million in terms of value by the end of 2028, according to a projection by Coherent Marketing Insights.

5. Cross-functional opportunities to answer demand

In addition to all of these new areas of growth in healthcare and healthcare hiring, we will likely continue to see a rise in internal hiring and promotion, specifically for cross-collaboration and cross-functional roles. As the need for talent continues to stress healthcare organizations, opportunities may arise for existing employees to embrace new positions, developing new areas of expertise they may not have previously considered. Moreover, these internal shifts and cross-training roles may help address employee burnout and fatigue by providing new opportunities to those currently employed within healthcare organizations.

Underlying these hiring trends is a positive change and growth for the industry. The field of healthcare is broadening its definition and expanding rapidly to meet our world’s continually changing needs. This opens new doors to candidates looking for a change of industry or a new opportunity, as well as new pools of talent for healthcare hiring managers.

Karen Moore is director of healthcare at Accurate Background.