Best and Worst of Times to be a CIO…Part 2

Bonnie R. Siegel, FHIMSS

Another sneak preview of CIO survey findings in this Part 2, all from a recent health system CIO survey I’ve conducted for Sanford Rose Associates.  This year the challenges are steeper and pressures are intense as revealed in some of the findings.

 1. Top 2010 trends impacting healthcare and delivery of IT.

As you might guess, “Meaningful Use” is number one among the CIO respondents as the most significant trend.  Number two is the ARRA health IT money, number three is budget concerns, number four is EMR and CPOE system implementations, and tied for fifth are these two trends: IT security, privacy and quality, process improvement.  Showing how times have changed, compared to findings from just two years ago, CIOs mentioned then that EMR and CPOE implementations was number one and quality was number two.  Other trends mentioned this year were: clinical transformation projects, changes in executive leadership, HIT workforce shortage, and ambulatory EMR implementation and integration with hospital.  What will the next two years bring? 

2. Move over techies, welcome the clinicians

About 90% of the CIO respondents have clinicians working in the IT department.  Some CIOs even mentioned that clinicians make up a third of their staff.  The most mentioned disciplines are: physicians, nurses, laboratory techs, pharmacists, radiologists, but also respiratory therapists and other therapies.  The roles they play are various all revolving around clinical and medical informatics, design/build, process flow, implementations, training, analysis and support.  The titles of clinicians mentioned are varied: CMIO, CNIO, director of medical or clinical informatics, clinical transformation experts, clinical project managers, coordinators, analysts and educators.  The centralization of many clinical IT functions under the CIO reflects a less hard core technology focus and obviously adds to the management responsibilities and budget concerns of the department. About 10% of the CIOs mentioned that they do not have clinicians in their IT department, we’ll see if that changes in the next two years.

 3. Advice to future CIOs and future IT talent

The CIO respondents were very generous and humorous in their advice to those that might venture into IT leadership.  A couple of “Don’t do it” comments were given, but most of the advice centered on understanding the healthcare business and clinicians.  Other thoughtful bits of advice included: be creative, dedicated, listen first, it is not about the technology, rely on an experienced mentor, be a change leader, be visible, expect responsibility for 24/7 operations, and be an expert on ARRA and HITECH. 

 Thanks again to the 2010 CIO respondents and good luck in your endeavors.

Related posts:

1. Best and Worst of Times to be a CIO…Part 1
2. One-on-One w/MedStar Health’s Gerry Higgins – Part 2