Catholic Health Initiatives Announces $1.5B Clinical Information Technology Program

Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI), a Denver-based nonprofit health care system, will hire over 200 specialists across the country as part of a $1.5 billion program to enhance clinical information technology across its network of 72 hospitals in 18 states. The project is among the largest information-technology initiatives of its kind in health care, and will be implemented over the next five to seven years.

The clinical information technology project includes plans for a system-wide electronic health record in acute care and ambulatory settings, a health information exchange and physician and patient portals. The size of the project requires significant increases in specialized positions, including technical analysts; clinical informaticists; engineers; managers; database administrators; application developers; and security- and identification-management personnel.

Many of the new jobs will be based at the CHI’s headquarters in Denver, while other key positions will be “virtual,” allowing employees to work remotely. Over 100 positions are expected to be filled over the next three months, with an additional 100 to be hired in the next year.

CHI’s principal partners in the venture will be Cerner Corp., MEDITECH and Allscripts.