Why the Healthcare IT Staffing Model Is Breaking

By Eric Utzinger, CCO & Co-Founder, Revuud

Healthcare IT leaders are being asked to move faster than ever.

AI initiatives. EHR optimization. Cybersecurity hardening. Data modernization. Operational automation. All while controlling costs and keeping clinical operations stable.

But here’s the uncomfortable part: the healthcare IT staffing model most organizations use today was built for a slower era.

Most healthcare IT teams still default to staffing agencies, not because the model works well, but because it’s the least risky decision on paper.

The problem isn’t the talent.
It’s the model used to access and manage that talent in an AI-driven environment (and that model is starting to create real liability).

And that model is starting to create real liability.

What is a healthcare IT staffing model?

A healthcare IT staffing model is the system your organization uses to:

• find healthcare IT consultants and contractors
• onboard and manage them
• retain knowledge across engagements
• control cost, risk, and continuity over time

In the old model, staffing is a transaction. In a modern model, staffing is an operating capability.

Why traditional staffing agencies still win (even when it hurts)

To be clear, this isn’t a critique of strategic consulting partners or systems integrators. Many healthcare IT leaders rely on trusted firms for large-scale transformations.

This is about the default, transactional staffing model used to fill ongoing IT gaps… the one optimized for speed of placement, not long-term continuity or adaptability.

And to be fair, that model exists for a reason.

You have a gap. You need someone quickly. You call the vendor. They send candidates.

But the tradeoff is that many organizations end up paying for speed and quietly giving up control in the process.

Here’s what hiring managers often experience:

• Great consultants disappear after a project ends (no easy re-engagement)
• Teams re-onboard “new” people for recurring work
• Institutional knowledge lives in email threads and people’s heads
• Vendor management becomes a job inside the job. For many leaders, this shows up as standing agenda items that never seem to get shorter.

This matters more now because staffing pressure isn’t easing. Healthcare organizations continue to face talent constraints, while health IT complexity only expands what teams are expected to support.

Industry groups like HIMSS have consistently pointed to these constraints as a top barrier to executing healthcare IT initiatives.

AI changed the pace of healthcare IT

AI isn’t eliminating the need for people in healthcare IT.

It’s compressing timelines and raising the bar for execution.
What used to be acceptable delays now show up as real execution risk.

• priorities shift faster
• skill needs become more specialized
• leaders need the ability to redeploy talent without starting from zero

At the same time, cybersecurity risk is growing, and many organizations are talking openly about needing more support through staffing and partnerships.

In other words: the environment is faster, riskier, and more complex.

A staffing model designed around resume shuffling and one-off placements can’t keep up.

The “liability” most teams don’t see until it’s too late

Traditional staffing agencies create risk in four very specific ways:

1) Execution risk (speed and agility)

Scenario: Your AI pilot exposes a data quality issue you didn’t anticipate, and suddenly analytics talent becomes more urgent than the original scope.
Reality: Your staffing motion resets and you lose weeks.

2) Continuity risk (knowledge loss)

Scenario: A consultant nails your EHR optimization or data architecture work.
Reality: When the engagement ends, you may not have a clean way to bring them back.

3) Governance and vendor-management risk

CIOs consistently cite vendor management and alignment as major concerns.
The more your staffing model depends on intermediaries, the harder it is to reduce fragmentation. Becker’s Healthcare and This Week Health regularly highlight vendor sprawl and contract complexity as growing leadership challenges for healthcare IT teams.

4) Cost and control risk

When every engagement starts over, you pay again for sourcing, onboarding, and ramp time—without building a reusable bench of proven talent.

None of this is a moral argument against agencies.

It’s a structural argument: the model is misaligned with the moment.

What forward-thinking healthcare IT leaders are doing differently

The shift happening quietly across the market is simple:

From: “staffing transactions”
To: a system for managing healthcare IT consultants as a reusable capability

That means:

• retaining access to high-performing consultants
• reducing re-onboarding cycles
• building continuity across initiatives
• increasing transparency into availability, performance, and cost

You hear variations of this in leadership conversations about simplification for agility: the goal isn’t “more stuff,” it’s less friction.

Agency vs. modern healthcare IT staffing model

Here’s the clearest way to explain the difference:

Where Revuud fits

At some point, this stops being a philosophy problem and becomes a systems problem.

Revuud supports a modern healthcare IT staffing model by helping teams:

• access vetted healthcare IT consultants directly
• manage engagements with more transparency and continuity
• re-engage proven talent instead of starting over

The point isn’t to “replace every partner.”

It’s to give healthcare IT leaders a system that matches the pace of AI-era work.

5 signs your current staffing model is slowing you down

If you’re nodding at any of these, it’s worth rethinking your model:

1. You re-onboard talent for the same work every quarter
2. Your best consultants vanish when a project ends
3. Vendor management is consuming real leadership time
4. You lose weeks every time priorities shift
5. You can’t easily answer: “Who do we trust to do this again?”

FAQs

Are staffing agencies going away in healthcare IT?

No. But in an AI-driven environment, relying on them as the primary model creates friction. Many organizations are moving toward models that preserve continuity and reduce resets.

What’s the best alternative to staffing agencies for healthcare IT consultants?

A model that lets you re-engage proven consultants, maintain visibility into availability, and reduce vendor sprawl. Some organizations use platforms to centralize this process and retain control over time.

Why does AI make staffing harder?

AI accelerates change. Projects shift faster, skill needs evolve quickly, and governance expectations rise. A slow, transactional staffing process becomes a bottleneck.

What should I look for in a modern healthcare IT staffing model?

Speed to deploy, continuity of talent, transparency into performance and cost, and the ability to re-engage trusted experts without starting over.

Final thoughts

In an AI-driven healthcare IT environment, the staffing model is no longer a background process.

It’s a strategic decision that directly affects execution speed, continuity, governance, and cost.

The question isn’t whether traditional staffing agencies are “good” or “bad.”
It’s whether your current healthcare IT staffing model helps you:

• respond when priorities shift
• retain hard-earned institutional knowledge
• reduce friction instead of adding it

For many healthcare IT leaders, this realization starts with a simple question:

If we had to do this work again in six months, would our staffing model help us — or slow us down?

That question is often the first signal that it’s time to rethink how healthcare IT talent is accessed, managed, and retained.

The first step isn’t replacing partners. It’s evaluating whether your staffing model is helping you move forward or quietly holding you back.