It seems like just months ago that ONC was welcoming Jacob Reider as the acting National Coordinator, and bidding farewell to Farzad Mostashari and his trademark bowtie, as well as David Muntz. In fact, it was just months ago — 13, to be exact.
Since that time, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has been a revolving door. Below is a rundown of leaders who have stepped down during the past few months:
- Joy Pritts, chief privacy officer (July)
- Lygeia Ricciardi, director of the Office of Consumer eHealth (July)
- Doug Fridsma, chief science officer (September)
- Judy Murphy, director of the Office of Clinical Quality and Safety (October)
- Jacob Reider, deputy National Coordinator (November)
And then there’s this one:
- On October 23, Karen Desalvo stepped down from her role as National Coordinator for Health IT to serve as acting assistant secretary for Health at the HHS. Less than a week later, it was announced that she would “maintain her leadership of ONC” and “continue to work on high-level policy issues at ONC.” The Ebola response team gig, it turns out, is more of a deployment.
All of this, of course, has been going on as the organization faces criticism over the timeframes of MU Stage 2 and the criteria for Stage 3, and deals with the ongoing ICD-10 saga.
The timing couldn’t possibly be worse. At a time when CIOs need stable representation in Washington, they’re watching a revolving door. And while some have tried to remain optimistic and find a silver lining in this dark cloud, many are very concerned, and rightfully said.
“You can’t spin this one,” an industry veteran told me. “It’s not good.”
I agree, because when there is an exodus among leadership, it means things are either bad, or they’re about to get bad, and anyone worth his or her salt is going to at least test the waters. It may seem like I’m oversimplifying, but multiple leaders don’t jump off a ship that’s cruising along nicely. Even in the Perfect Storm, Captain Billy Tyne (played by George Clooney) chose to remain on the Andrea Gail despite the very rough waters it had hit.
Probably not the best example, but I’ve heard the current health IT landscape referred to as a perfect storm more than once, and in times like this, strong, stable leadership is a must. So when an organization with so much stake in the game can’t seem to hold on to anyone, it’s disconcerting. As the American Medical Association stated after the departures of DeSalvo and Reider were announced, the industry is left with “a significant leadership gap which could jeopardize the growing momentum around interoperability.”
And even though DeSalvo is now back in the fold — for now, anyway — the damage has been done. ONC has lost credibility, at a time when it can least afford to do so. The organization desperately needs someone who can steer the ship through rough waters and provide the leadership that an initiative as critical as Meaningful Use needs.
Otherwise, we’re really headed for a storm.
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