Part I of this two-part series addressed flex work hours, remote work and staff retention as considerations for workplace flexibility in the healthcare industry. As the industry becomes increasingly limited for qualified resources amidst baby boomer retirement and more competitive hiring, look to these final considerations for mutually-beneficial employment best practices.

In the annual Health IT Industry Outlook Survey, healthcare professionals cited overcoming IT staffing shortages as an ongoing significant challenge. Given these shortages and daunting competing projects, healthcare leaders need to modernize their workplace policies to retain and attract qualified professionals.

Directly caring for patients isn't the only way nurses help others. Several nurse-inventors have touched millions of lives with their groundbreaking ideas. We've rounded up five inventions created by nurses throughout history.

Since hiring firms and health systems look at piles of resumés each day, the first impression is vital. To stand out, check out six tips for healthcare IT analyst resumés.

As a hospital or health system's technology evolves in the transition to value-based care, legacy EHR systems are often overlooked, leaving organizations vulnerable to security, workflow and interoperability challenges.

Regardless of your specific HIT software or application specialty, the questions interviewers ask and the topics they touch on are often similar across the industry.

In the first post of this two-part series, we discussed legacy system cleanup, new system data entry and pre-load best practices as your healthcare organization prepares for its new Epic EHR system. Let's discuss three additional tips for data abstraction and conversion work for your strategic EHR transition.

The EHR market is set to grow to $39.7 billion by 2022. As patients and providers alike push for better access to data for informed care management and decision-making, healthcare organizations are making significant investments in their EHR systems for cohesive care coordination in the transition to value-based care.

Throughout history, countless stories endure of nurses rushing to the frontline for those in need. To honor the vital role nurse play in healthcare, the U.S. celebrates National Nurses Week each year May 6-12. From founding the American Red Cross to recent natural disaster relief response, dedicated nurses shed their scrubs to serve others in any setting. Today, let's highlight 12 times nurses made a difference with hurricane and earthquake relief.

Over 300 HIT professionals shared their insights in the sixth annual Health IT Industry Outlook survey. The results focus on health IT leaders working collaboratively to stay on top of evolving staffing, EHR system and technological advancement trends for operational efficiency and proactive patient care. Hospital IT departments continue to struggle with strained resources and competing projects. As the industry pushes forward with value-based care, the ability to optimize technology and workflow within an organization is vital for success.

We have all heard the saying, "the customer is always right." Consumers should drive how a business functions, next steps and where the industry is headed. In healthcare, it is no different. Patients expectations are raising higher standards in technology, experience and outcomes. The providers who fail to recognize the patient-centric culture forming will struggle to stay competitive.

As a follow up to our last post, we want to give an update on the state of MACRA's Merit-based Incentive Payment System and reporting tips. First, let's address continued year 1 reporting.

After gathering feedback during the lengthy comment period, Acting Administrator of CMS, Seema Verma said, "During my visits with clinicians across the country, I've heard many concerns about the impact burdensome regulations have on their ability to care for patients. These rules move the agency in a new direction and begin to ease that burden by strengthening the patient-doctor relationship, empowering patients to realize the value of their care over volume of tests, and encouraging innovation and competition within the American healthcare system."

Across the country, over 80 percent of healthcare organizations now have an EHR system in place. While initial implementation no longer serves as a major issue, with the new technology comes added CIO pressures, including reimbursement program requirements, technology disparities and security challenges.

The first reporting year of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) is officially underway, but many physicians and healthcare organizations across the country still struggle with comprehending where they stand. Providers no longer have time for guessing. Instead, healthcare organizations must create and maintain strategic plans for reimbursement, covering everything from who will head MACRA initiatives to what reporting measures best match organizational strengths. Let's begin by answering some key questions about the final rule.

Today's small and rural healthcare providers still find themselves hindered by financial and staffing limitations amidst growing industry standards and regulations. As patient expectations evolve in the transition to value-based care, these organizations' IT capabilities fall behind the curve. Lack of budget prevents the ability to transition EHR vendors or bring in outside resources to aid with optimization initiatives. With limited staff, practices cannot pull individuals away from regular duties to focus on IT training. In turn, practices struggle with moving beyond inefficient workflows and processes or being able to effectively gather and analyze data for quality measures.

After a slew of feedback from healthcare and HIT professional organizations, like CHIME, AMA and MGMA, CMS announced new flexibilities in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) final rule. Though CMS released the final ruling several weeks ago, physicians still struggle to grasp the impact or even understand what the new reimbursement structure is.

The combined use of financial analytics and business intelligence (BI) within a healthcare organization can considerably improve operational effectiveness if applied properly. Direct benefits include reduced costs, increased efficiency, optimized catchment areas and network management, improved pay for performance/accountability and better operating speed.

Congratulations to all the Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT honorees! Its incredible to have been a part of this first-ever event for female leaders in the industry and celebrate all their dedication and achievements.

Before signing the contract with a new EHR vendor, think about the immediate and future implications on your healthcare organization, end users, workflow, business operations and the patient community.

When you think about individuals in a hospital c-suite, what characteristics come to mind? Perhaps passion and drive with combined analytical and relational skills? These characteristics unite to meet the needs of today's patients and industry demands while aiding cross-organizational collaboration. Collaboration is a critical component in leading a complex and integrated healthcare system of care. No longer can separate facets of a healthcare organization operate in individual information silos, and CIOs hold an increasingly important role in connecting a hospital through technology.

Completed by project managers, CIOs, IT directors and consultants, last year's survey revealed that most (51 percent) showed confusion toward what and how much healthcare data to actually collect in data analytics initiatives. A majority (34 percent) also felt that the lack of buy-in across their healthcare organizations was the largest barrier to IT initiatives, including data analytics and achieving meaningful use.

In our first CHIME15 recap, we highlighted that CHIME's c-suite survey pointed to being able to elicit change as the most critical skill for today's healthcare CIOs. However, in Zakaria's speech, he seemed to emphasize this great responsibility of healthcare executives more so beyond IT fixes. According to Zakaria, information technology cannot be the magic bullet for America's healthcare problems.

This year's island themed CHIME15 Fall Forum created quite a splash as CHIME unveiled the full results of its year-long CIO survey in the session "The Evolving Role of the CIO: Aligning CIO Perspectives with the Executive Team." CHIME surveyed 123 CIOs across the country, along with some CEOs and other c-suite-executive colleagues of those CIOs, to compile results.

Can you believe we're in the final stretch before the looming ICD-10 October 1 deadline? Well, for some healthcare providers, the thought is still surprising. According to a recently conducted RelayHealth survey of 130 HFMA ANI attendees, 17 percent of participants said they think ICD-10 will be delayed again, while only 13 percent felt they are fully ready for ICD-10.

As Stoltenberg Consulting continues its 20th anniversary celebration, we thought we'd have a little fun looking back to 1995- the year that Sheri Stoltenberg, founder and CEO of Stoltenberg Consulting, Inc., started it all.

With the overwhelming amount of data accumulated by healthcare providers across the country, the application of true smart healthcare data analytics can seem challenging. Last month at HIMSS15, we saw HIT leaders express confusion toward data analytics in our third annual Health IT Industry Outlook Survey.

With HIMSS15 right around the corner, it seems fitting to focus on one of the conference's upcoming hot topics: The Future of... Big Data. In a survey published by InformationWeek, participants were asked about the effectiveness of their organizations in identifying critical data and using it to make decisions.

Whether you're attending HIMSS15 in Chicago or not, you and your organization can still join the HIMSS buzz in this year's Third Annual #HIMSS15 Blog Carnival from April 6-10! The Blog Carnival will promote health IT hot topics one week before the actual HIMSS conference to provoke meaningful conversations.

Last Thursday, we were thrilled to announce that Stoltenberg Consulting strengthened its legacy of renowned healthcare IT consulting services by earning not one, but two 2014 Best in KLAS awards!

Last week I attended my first Midwest HIMSS conference in Chicago, Illinois- the 2014 Midwest HIMSS Fall Technology Conference. Being new to the company and to HIMSS conferences, it was a truly eye-opening and educational experience for me. It is neat to see a group of professionals come together from different states, companies and backgrounds all under one roof sharing the latest news and technologies in the healthcare world.

It's hard to believe that just one week ago the Stoltenberg team travelled from all over the country to celebrate the company's success at the 2014 Stoltenberg Consulting Company Retreat at Disney!

After our team's recent participation at the Ohio Northern University Fall Career Fair, we felt we'd share some tips for college students and young professionals preparing for the often-overwhelming career fair.

Year after year, Siemens Innovations continues to be a great experience for the Stoltenberg Consulting team! This year's event proved to be yet another productive and insightful opportunity for Stoltenberg and Siemens, as we further reinforced our partnership – an effective pairing of HIT solutions and expertise – in the journey towards an improved healthcare industry, for both patients and providers.

At Stoltenberg Consulting, we're excited to celebrate the growth of our unique health IT education initiative the Consultant Development Program. To date, 13 consultants have graduated from the program designed to provide hospitals with first-time certified consultants to alleviate the HIT staffing shortage plaguing the industry.

Recently, the CMS and ONC announced a proposed rule that would provide additional flexibility to healthcare organizations and facilitate their continued participation in the Meaningful Use program in 2014. Before sharing our thoughts, let's focus on what led to these proposed revisions.

Responses noted that big data is too intimidating (7%), the tools and strategies to address big data aren't available yet (22%) and other HIT initiatives such as ICD-10 or Stage 3 MU are taking precedence over big data (31%), while the majority of respondents said most organizations don't know what to do with all their data (40%). Because these responses are all interconnected in various ways, let's address each one.

What are the barriers holding organizations back from achieving Meaningful Use? The majority of responses to our survey conducted at HIMSS14 indicated the biggest barrier as a lack of resources (50%) while other responses noted restricted timeframes (23%), lack of buy-in from the organization (15%) and competing IT projects (12%).

In our second post in our HIMSS14 Industry Outlook Survey series, we discuss the highly buzzed about topic- ICD-10. Conducted back at the HIMSS14 Annual Conference, our survey found that a majority (47%) of respondents felt that ICD-10 is the biggest topic of 2014. Knowing this, we fast-forward to today with the recent U.S. Senate vote to delay the ICD-10 compliance date by one year.

During this year's annual HIMSS conference, we conducted our second annual industry survey to identify and address the leading challenges and topics in healthcare technology today. We set out to receive insights, opinions and perspectives from health IT leaders by asking five questions that incorporated the most often-cited subjects and issues from our customers, as well as our own observations on the current industry environment.

The HIMSS14 convention from a first-time perspective is both a humbling and empowering experience. HIMSS 2014 was hosted in Orlando, Florida and closed out with over 38,000 attendees. Even more impressive, the list of exhibitors encompassed 1,233 booths throughout the exhibit hall.

Thanks so much to all who have been participating in the What If...? campaign. It excites us to see all the visions of the future of healthcare IT.

We are extremely proud to announce that Stoltenberg Consulting has been named Category Leader in Staff Augmentation two years in a row for the Best in KLAS Software and Services Report. Stoltenberg was also ranked among the top ten firms in the Clinical Implementation Supportive category for the company's expertise in Cerner, Epic and Siemens consulting services.

As Stoltenberg prepares for our HIMSS14 Conference appearance, we'd like to share with you our promotional campaign. Yesterday, we announced a new campaign designed to promote the company's capabilities in HIT consulting.

Throughout the past few months, Stoltenberg leadership has had the opportunity to attend several health IT conferences, including CHIME13 Fall Forum, Midwest HIMSS Conference, New York eHealth Digital Health Conference, and several smaller regional HIMSS events.

If you didn't attend the South Florida HIMSS event last week, you missed an amazing CIO roundtable discussion with the opportunity to learn the latest trends from powerhouse CIOs like Miami Children's SVP & CIO Ed Martinez. Martinez discussed how he's helping to transform healthcare delivery to children all over the world through Telemedicine.

Congratulations to CEO Sheri Stoltenberg on being selected as a honoree in the Diversity Journal's 2013 Women Worth Watching award supplement.

Stoltenberg participated by sponsoring the CIO Boot Camp Closing Reception, hosting the first ever Women of CHIME Networking Event, and holding a Fall Forum Focus Group, while making time to attend sessions, meet with media, and attend networking events.

Medicare and Medicaid compliance can be a tricky area to adhere to. As such, a Stoltenberg Senior Consultant, provides the following tips on navigating compliance issues.

As we revisit the release of the HIMSS Workforce Survey, Stoltneberg VP of Client Relations adds to last week's comments.

The recently released HIMSS Workforce Study highlighted some important issues that many in the industry have been encountering firsthand for a while now. While the factors contributing to the current situation continue to change almost as fast as technology changes around us, we must look at how our organizations can adapt and thrive in this environment. Enacting programs that both attract employees and help increase staff retention are critical.

As a HIT consulting firm, we receive resumés constantly. In doing so, from first glance, it becomes easy to weed out the good from the bad. With that, our recruiters have found a helpful resource from Monster to advise today's job seekers to make resumés clear, cohesive, and polished.

From March 3-7, the HIMSS 2013 Conference and Exhibition, the largest healthcare IT gathering with as many as 34,000 attendees, was held in New Orleans, LA. It was my first time attending HIMSS, and I enjoyed every moment of it. Upon walking into the convention hall, I was surprised of the size and complexity of the booths before my eyes, and I couldn't even see every booth.

With Meaningful Use (MU) in full swing, healthcare organizations are fully involved in planning and completing their tasks to keep them moving down their MU roadmap. As of January 30, 2013, a FierceEMR article reports that incentive payments top $10.6 billion dollars.

In the Feb. 7 Healthcare IT News article, Diana Manos elaborates on comments made by Farzad Mostashari, MD, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. His comments came at a meeting of the Health IT Policy Committee.

Within the Feb. 7 EHR Intelligence CIO Series feature "Moving from Stage 1 to Stage 2 Meaningful Use" author Kyle Murphy interviews EMH Vice President of Clinical Operations and Information Systems/Chief Clinical and Information Officer Charlotte Wray, addressing the goals set for the community hospital system's movement toward Stage 2 MU.

Have you survived a HIT go-live? Just like "this one time, at band camp," several of us have "this one time, at a go-live" stories to share.

This week the Northeast saw one of the most devastating storms in its history it ever has as Hurricane Sandy touched every state in the region in one way or another. Easily accessible health information is crucial for the care of a patient at any time, but this is especially true when disasters like Hurricane Sandy strike.

From October 16- 19, the 20th Fall CIO Forum for the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) was held in Palm Springs, CA. It was my first event with CHIME, and I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of it.

First of all, let me start by welcoming you to the Stoltenblog. Thank you for taking the time to explore our new venture in social media. As our first of many blog posts to come, I would like to take this opportunity to explain the vision behind both Stoltenberg Consulting and the Stoltenblog.