Chief information officers at children's hospitals tend to have higher salaries than peers at other healthcare institutions, according to data from the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives.
Senior healthcare IT executives, including CIOs, from children's hospitals made an average salary of $309,028 in 2018, according to CHIME. That compares to the $287,385 average salary earned by executives from academic medical centers, as well as the overall average base salary of $235,806 across organization types.
These findings come from CHIME's most recent survey on senior healthcare IT executive salaries, which the group released Wednesday morning.
CHIME in late 2018 polled its U.S. membership for the survey. Roughly 11% of CHIME's domestic members, or 266 members, responded to the survey. Women accounted for roughly 27% of survey respondents, which CHIME said is comparable to the gender breakdown of its domestic membership.
According to CHIME's survey findings, executives working at comprehensive cancer centers had the lowest average salary at $161,000.
Overall, the survey revealed an uptick in salaries since the group's last salary survey in 2012, with executives now making an average base salary of $235,806, up from $208,417.
Trends in salaries for different types of healthcare organizations may be linked to size, as executives' salaries tended to increase with the number of beds in a facility. Those at facilities with 25 or fewer beds reported an average salary of $136,183, while those at facilities with more than 400 beds trended closer to $250,000 or $300,000.
Average salary also varied by education, as executives with medical degrees earned 60% more than those with master's degrees, as well as region, with those living in the Pacific region earning 11% more than the national average. Surprisingly, women tended to slightly edge out men in average salary, earning about $30,000 more.
On average, female senior healthcare IT executives made $257,340, while men averaged $228,217.
That contrasts with other industry trends.
Female hospital CEOs tend to earn 22% less than their male counterparts, according to one 2017 CEO compensation study. And, according to a 2018 compensation survey from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, female health IT professionals made an average salary of $100,447, compared with $123,244 for men.
HIMSS, which polled 855 health IT professionals for its compensation survey, estimated an average salary of $109,610 in the field. HIMSS' survey included managers and non-management staff in its survey, in addition to executives.
