Health system IT departments saw a wave of outsourcing, targeted layoffs, leadership churn and a competing push toward retention in 2026, even as surveys show the teams left behind are stretched thin and struggling to fill the roles they need most.
Here are seven notes on where the health IT workforce stands this year, as reported by Becker’s:
- Outsourcing drove much of the year’s IT workforce change: Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health is outsourcing its IT service desk and applications support to an unnamed vendor, with the phased transition set to finish by the end of 2026; the move follows a January decision to shift revenue cycle functions externally that cut that department’s workforce by 10.5%. West Des Moines, Iowa-based UnityPoint Health is eliminating 207 IT roles as it shifts IT and revenue cycle work to Accenture, concentrated in its Hiawatha and Des Moines offices. Vancouver, Wash.-based PeaceHealth is moving several IT support services to Tech Mahindra and its subsidiary the HCI Group starting in November, while keeping IT strategy and cybersecurity oversight in-house. Rochester (N.Y.) Regional Health began laying off coding staff at two hospitals in April tied to plans to outsource that work, affecting 22 union members, according to Service Employees International Union Local 1199, and prompting a petition with more than 1,000 signatures asking the board to reconsider.
- Two systems made direct IT/coding cuts tied to technology transitions: Lewiston, Maine-based Central Maine Healthcare is laying off 38 IT workers as it implements a new Epic EHR system, with the cuts tied to retiring legacy systems and overlapping roles; no patient care positions were affected. New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health is reducing its IT workforce by less than 4%, representing fewer than 0.1% of its total headcount.
- Even where headcount holds, teams say they’re stretched thin: A survey of more than 300 IT leaders, C-suite executives and network and security practitioners across the global healthcare sector, released Aug. 18 by networking provider Nile, found 66% describe their teams as strained or in constant firefighting mode, with only 18% comfortably managing operations and 21% calling themselves critically understaffed and at risk of burnout. Notably, fully staffed teams reported the same level of strain as understaffed ones, pointing to network complexity as the deeper issue. Cybersecurity and ransomware ranked as the top challenge (27%), ahead of staffing shortages and lack of expertise (23%). About 85% of organizations face network or security disruptions frequently, with 38% hit at least weekly, touching EHR access, patient monitoring and imaging. Only 20% felt confident they could contain a cyberattack across their device mix.
- The hardest roles to fill blend AI with a second discipline: Two health system IT leaders told Becker’s the gap isn’t a single skill shortage, it’s a hybrid one. James Wellman, CIO of Nathan Littauer Hospital & Nursing Home in Gloversville, N.Y., said he’s struggled to find someone who can bridge clinical operations, data architecture, security and AI deployment, a role with no settled title yet. Sunil Dadlani, chief information, digital and AI officer at Morristown, N.J.-based Atlantic Health System, named the hybrid AI/cybersecurity engineer as 2026’s hardest hire, someone who can govern AI risk while securing clinical systems, and said hospitals routinely lose candidates to Amazon, Google and well-funded health tech startups on pay alone.
- Big tech’s layoffs are feeding the health IT hiring pool, even as systems automate their own roles: U.S. tech companies announced 123,653 job cuts through 2026 so far, up 66% year over year and the most of any sector, per Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Meta cut about 8,000 jobs in May, Cisco announced nearly 4,000 the same month, and Oracle’s restructuring hit Oracle Health hard with hundreds of cuts at its former Cerner headquarters in Kansas City, Mo. New York City-based Mount Sinai’s chief digital information officer, Lisa Stump, told Becker’s the layoffs have widened her hiring pool for cloud, cybersecurity, data engineering and AI/machine learning roles, even as those same skill sets remain hard to fill.
- CIOs are leaving, but mostly not for other CIO jobs: Becker’s has tracked roughly 20 hospital and health system CIO moves in 2026. St. Louis-based SSM Health’s inaugural chief digital and information officer, Saad Chaudhry, left to become CEO of a healthcare consulting firm. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Shakeeb Akhter is now chief digital officer at New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Greenville, S.C.-based Prisma Health’s Rich Rogers retired after more than 13 years. Of the recent moves, nine executives took titles built around “digital” rather than a traditional CIO title. The churn comes as a 2024 WittKieffer survey found only 39% of organizations report having a CIO succession plan; a quarter have none at all.
- Some systems are investing in retention rather than cutting: Thirteen health system technology organizations landed on Computerworld’s 100 Best Places to Work in IT for 2026. CIOs described positioning tech teams as central to the system’s mission rather than back office support, leaning on career development and internal mobility to compete with tech companies and consulting firms for talent. Providence, R.I.-based Care New England partnered with Rhode Island College in February to train IT professionals in cybersecurity, AI and Epic systems.
At the Becker's 11th Annual IT + Revenue Cycle Conference: The Future of AI & Digital Health, taking place September 14–17 in Chicago, healthcare executives and digital leaders from across the country will come together to explore how AI, interoperability, cybersecurity, and revenue cycle innovation are transforming care delivery, strengthening financial performance, and driving the next era of digital health. Apply for complimentary registration now.
