By: Dan Schubert, CEO & Co-Founder
Recently, I came across a quote in Becker's Hospital Review that stopped me in my tracks:
"The 1.0 FTE is gone."
The article focused on how health systems are rethinking workforce models across their organizations, but I couldn't help thinking about how relevant that statement feels inside healthcare IT.
Because if we're being honest, most CIOs aren't operating in a world where every challenge can be solved by adding another full-time employee.
Healthcare IT has become too specialized. Priorities change too quickly. Budgets are under constant scrutiny. Yet the expectation to deliver has never been higher.
One week, the conversation is around AI. The next, it's cybersecurity. Then an Epic optimization project gets approved, a hospital acquisition closes, or leadership wants to accelerate a cloud initiative.
The challenge isn't a lack of work, but having access to the right expertise when priorities inevitably shift.
That's why many healthcare CIOs are beginning to rethink workforce strategy—and why some of the most forward-thinking organizations are building what Revuud refers to as a healthcare IT talent bench.
Healthcare IT Doesn't Operate on a Predictable Schedule Anymore
Not that long ago, many healthcare IT initiatives followed a fairly predictable pattern. Projects were planned months in advance, priorities changed less frequently, and most work could be supported by internal teams supplemented by a handful of consulting partners.
Today, that reality feels increasingly outdated.
Healthcare organizations are juggling digital transformation initiatives, cybersecurity threats, interoperability requirements, revenue cycle modernization, workforce challenges, and growing pressure to evaluate and implement AI.
At the same time, technology itself has become more specialized.
An Epic upgrade may require expertise in a specific module. A cybersecurity initiative may require skills that don't exist internally. A merger may create the need for integration specialists for six months before that work disappears altogether.
Not every challenge requires another full-time employee, but every challenge requires expertise. And that's forcing healthcare leaders to think differently about how they access talent.
Why Traditional Hiring Can't Solve Every Workforce Challenge
When a new project emerges, the default response has often been straightforward: open a requisition, start a search, and hire someone.
For many roles, that still makes perfect sense.
But healthcare CIOs know that some needs are temporary, highly specialized, or urgent enough that a traditional hiring process simply can't keep up.
A cloud migration may need an architect for nine months.
An Epic optimization effort may require a specialist for a specific initiative.
An AI project may need expertise that the organization isn't ready to hire permanently.
In these situations, the question isn't necessarily, "Who should we hire?" It's often, "How do we quickly access the expertise we need without adding permanent headcount?"
That's a very different workforce planning conversation than healthcare organizations were having even five years ago.
The End of One-and-Done Consultant Engagements
Every healthcare CIO has experienced some version of this scenario.
You bring in a consultant to help with a major initiative.
Over the course of several months, they learn your environment. They build relationships with your team. They understand how decisions get made. They become productive and trusted.
The project wraps up and they move on.
Six months later, another initiative emerges that requires similar expertise.
Suddenly everyone is asking the same question: "Do we know how to get a hold of that consultant again?"
If the answer is no, the process starts over.
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New sourcing.
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New interviews.
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New onboarding.
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New ramp-up time.
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New risk.
It's an incredibly common cycle, and it's one that many healthcare organizations are beginning to challenge.
Rather than treating every contractor engagement as a one-time transaction, they're investing in ongoing relationships with consultants who have already proven themselves inside the organization.
The thinking is simple… if someone has already demonstrated they can deliver results, why start from scratch the next time you need their expertise?
What Leading Healthcare Organizations Are Doing Differently
The most successful healthcare organizations aren't necessarily building larger teams. They're building more flexible workforce models.
Instead of viewing workforce planning as a series of individual hiring decisions, they're treating access to expertise as a strategic capability.
That often means creating a network of trusted professionals who can be engaged as priorities change.
For some organizations, that network includes Epic consultants they have worked with before. For others, it includes cybersecurity specialists, project managers, cloud architects, data experts, or revenue cycle professionals.
The common thread is that these aren't random contractors sourced during a crisis.
They're known resources with proven experience and established relationships.
Some organizations refer to this approach as building a talent bench.
At its core, a talent bench is simply a trusted network of experts that can be activated when specialized skills are needed.
Instead of starting every search from scratch, organizations maintain access to professionals they already know, trust, and can deploy quickly.
Workforce Agility Is Becoming a Competitive Advantage
Healthcare organizations spend significant time developing technology strategies.
They build cybersecurity strategies. Cloud strategies. AI strategies. Digital transformation strategies.
Increasingly, workforce strategy deserves a seat at the same table because the success of many technology initiatives doesn't just depend on funding, leadership support, or technology choices.
It depends on whether the organization can access the expertise required to execute the work.
The healthcare organizations moving fastest today often aren't the ones with the biggest teams. They're the ones that can quickly bring the right expertise to the table when priorities change.
And that ability creates momentum.
Projects start faster. Teams avoid burnout. Knowledge is retained. Risk is reduced.
And perhaps most importantly, leaders spend less time scrambling to find talent and more time focusing on outcomes.
The Future of Healthcare IT Workforce Planning
Most healthcare CIOs aren't trying to replace full-time employees. They're trying to build workforce models that reflect the reality of modern healthcare IT.
Some expertise belongs on the internal team.
Some expertise is needed only for a specific initiative.
Some expertise may only be required for a few months or a few hours each week.
The challenge is knowing when to use each model and having access to the right people when the need arises.
That's why the workforce planning conversation is changing.
Healthcare CIOs are still investing in strong internal teams. That's not going away.
What's changing is the recognition that not every challenge requires another full-time employee and not every project requires a lengthy search process.
Sometimes the fastest path forward is having a trusted expert you can call when the need arises.
Organizations that figure out how to combine strong internal teams with flexible access to specialized expertise will be better positioned to execute the growing number of technology initiatives coming their way.
Building Your Healthcare IT Talent Bench
The best time to identify trusted expertise is before you urgently need it.
Healthcare organizations that proactively build relationships with specialized healthcare IT professionals are often able to move faster, reduce sourcing costs, and execute projects with greater confidence when new priorities emerge.
The reality is that technology projects rarely get delayed because leaders can't identify the problem. More often, they get delayed because the organization can't access the expertise needed to solve it fast enough.
And that's exactly why the conversation around healthcare IT workforce management is beginning to change.
For years, the industry has largely relied on the same playbook: a need emerges, a search begins, a contractor is sourced, and the process starts over again the next time expertise is needed.
But healthcare IT no longer moves at that pace.
The organizations leading the way today are taking a different approach. They're building reusable networks of trusted experts, maintaining relationships with top-performing consultants, and creating workforce models that can adapt as priorities evolve.
In many ways, it's the same shift we've seen in other areas of healthcare technology. Organizations are moving away from reactive processes and toward platforms, visibility, and long-term workforce strategy.
While some health systems are still approaching every engagement as a brand-new search, others are quietly building a competitive advantage through faster access to specialized expertise.
That gap is likely to widen over the next several years.
Revuud was built for organizations that recognize where the market is heading.
Our platform helps healthcare organizations discover, engage, and manage specialized healthcare IT talent while maintaining greater visibility, flexibility, and control over their workforce strategy.
Because the future of healthcare IT workforce management isn't about finding talent when a project starts. It's about building access to expertise before you need it.
See how leading healthcare organizations are building their healthcare IT talent bench with Revuud.
FAQs
What is a healthcare IT talent bench?
A healthcare IT talent bench is a network of trusted consultants, contractors, and specialists that a healthcare organization can quickly engage when expertise is needed.
Why are healthcare CIOs building talent benches?
Healthcare CIOs are building talent benches to gain faster access to specialized expertise, reduce project delays, improve workforce flexibility, and avoid restarting the hiring process for every initiative.
How is a talent bench different from traditional staffing?
Traditional staffing focuses on filling individual positions. A talent bench focuses on maintaining ongoing access to trusted experts who can be re-engaged as priorities change.
