In a sign that more practices plan to expand their use of electronic health records in the near future, a new study has found that the vast majority of providers are looking to hire additional technical support staff this year.

The IT research firm Computer Economics found that 61 percent of healthcare organizations in the U.S. believe they will have to add IT staff to keep up with their technical demands this year, according to InfoTech Spotlight. Furthermore, the operational budgets of health IT departments grew by over 3 percent last year, while most other areas experienced 2 percent growth.

John Longwell, vice president of research at Computer Economics, told the news source that healthcare is largely invulnerable to the effects of economic downturns and that this is helping to buoy job growth in the sector.

Furthermore, experts told iHealth Beat that the government’s incentive program for the meaningful use of EHR systems is the largest single factor driving the growth in health IT budgets. Providers are eligible for up to $44,000 for participating in the Medicare program or $63,750 for their involvement in the Medicaid incentive program.