healthsystemcio.com

Last year, the astronauts on the space shuttle were tasked with replacing some of the software on the Hubble. From what I read, their first task was to remove over a hundred tiny screws, keeping track of each one to ensure the screw did not float away and goof up a billion dollar piece of hardware.
I’ve [...]

Implementing a few clinical systems isn’t going to get you applause at El Camino Hospital. That’s because the organization has “been there, done that,” implementing the first CPOE system some 40 years ago. Considering that tough crowd, the CIO role isn’t for newcomers, and Greg Walton is no newcomer. With 40 years in the business [...]

 

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/ El Camino Hospital CIO Greg Walton, Chapter 2 [13:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (75)

The 2009 HealthLeaders Media Patient Experience Leadership Survey write up by Gienna Shaw states “nearly 90% of top-level healthcare executives said patient experience is either their top priority or among their top five priorities.  However, there’s a gap between what senior executives say about patient experience and what they’re actually doing.”
We should be surprised, but [...]

When Jody Albright took the IT reins at Overlake Hospital in December 2008, she had no idea industry-changing legislation was only a month away. And while HITECH has certainly accelerated some of her plans, Albright never expected the job to be a walk in the park. That’s because Overlake was in need of some heavy-duty [...]

 

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Overlake Hospital Medical Center VP of IS & CIO Jody Albright, Chapter 2 [9:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (200)

On NPR I listened to an interview of the man whose job is to ensure the reliability of the electrical grid for the northeastern US.  As you might suspect, the country’s power plants are all interconnected.  That way, if there’s a problem with one, power can be rerouted and we can still make our cappuccinos.  [...]

When Jody Albright took the IT reins at Overlake Hospital in December 2008, she had no idea industry-changing legislation was only a month away. And while HITECH has certainly accelerated some of her plans, Albright never expected the job to be a walk in the park. That’s because Overlake was in need of some heavy-duty [...]

 

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Overlake Hospital Medical Center VP of IS & CIO Jody Albright, Chapter 1 [14:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (105)

Dear HIS Pros: If a hospital plans to implement most core clinical applications, do you recommend a big-bang approach of turning everything on at once or an incremental one that involves doing a few applications a year over 2-3 years? Generally, it’s best to convert the least you have to at any one time, to maximize the quality and minimize the trauma. “Big Bang” conversions often lead to resumes. Our usual recommendation is to implement a new HIS in 3 phases:

Much has been written about the impact of meaningful use on the healthcare CIO, but it is worth digging a bit deeper in the organizational chart and outline how our management teams will need to adapt as well.  A tremendous strain has begun to take hold within our departments as we thoughtfully charge forward to [...]

Over the past year, John Glaser, Ph.D., has been eating and breathing Meaningful Use and Certification even more than his HITECH-focused CIO colleagues. That’s because while Glaser has kept up his role as VP & CIO at Partners HealthCare on a part-time basis, he’s also been winging down to D.C. every week to fulfill his duties as Senior Adviser to ONC and its chief, National Coordinator David Blumenthal, M.D. In this — his first extensive interview since the culmination of that role in March — Glaser talks frankly with healthsystemCIO.com editor Anthony Guerra about working in the federal government, the proposed regulations, and what the future may hold for both the industry and himself.

 

 One-on-One w/Former ONC Senior Adviser John Glaser [47:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (664)

The Maginot Line—Ligne Maginot. France built the Maginot Line to protect itself from Germany so it would not be overrun as it was in World War One. France built hundreds of miles of fortification to: Disrupt Germany’s strategy; Avoid a surprise attack; To be used for a counteroffensive; To hold off the Germans while the French army could be brought up

I had repeatedly heard stories about the extended wait times for the company’s software — wait times that were as true for existing customers desperate for upgrades as newly signed clients desperate for delivery. I thought to myself, “Man, that company must be in some serious trouble. There’s no way those customers and prospects are [...]

Many organizations have a Program Management Office and a Program Steering Committee to oversee all aspects of the EHR.  Typically these include broad objectives like defining the functional and technical requirements, process redesign, change management, software selection, training, and implementation.
Chances are that neither the PMO or the steering committee has ever selected or implemented an [...]

In every industry, there are organizations so pervasive they constitute bellwethers for the entire market segment. In healthcare IT, that company is Meditech. With over 2,200 customers and almost $400 million in software revenues last year, the Westwood, Mass.-based organization’s opinions on national policy — especially the HITECH Act’s Meaningful Use NPRM — should be [...]

Nearly 70 percent of healthcare providers expect to hire a professional services firm to help with the demands of achieving Meaningful Use, according to a new report from Orem, Utah-based KLAS entitled, “Shifting Demand for Consultants: Who’s Hot, Who’s Not, and Why.” (click here for a Podcast interview with report author Mike Smith, KLAS general [...]

Healthcare IT is to healthcare like baseball is to America.  It is an underpinning, something that holds the fabric together.  Most of the recent attention around HIT has to do with Electronic Health Records and CPOE.  That is where the money is, and because of the money those garner most of the attention and notoriety.
Will [...]

Chuck Podesta’s stance on Stage 1 Meaningful Use criteria probably won’t win him any toasts at the next CIO event. That’s because, despite the position of organizations like CHIME (and this journalist), Podesta thinks the criteria aren’t overly onerous. Though he acknowledges the incentive payout structure isn’t perfect, little else about the program disquiets the [...]

Even if they haven’t seen the movie everyone knows the line from Field of Dreams, “if you build it they will come.” It’s a great movie, but the idea doesn’t apply to information systems, not in healthcare or any other industry. Technology by itself will not affect patient safety, quality of care, productivity, or profitability. [...]

Earlier this week, Pamela McNutt, SVP and CIO of Methodist Health System in Dallas, gave a presentation entitled “Meeting Stage 1 Meaningful Use: A View from a Healthcare System,” at the AHA’s Annual Membership Meeting in Washington, D.C.  McNutt — chair of CHIME’s Policy Steering Committee and former chair of the organization’s Advocacy Leadership Team [...]

Gordon Schiff, M.D., associate director of the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is getting ready to head up an ambitious study on CPOE-related errors. The year-long study, funded by The National Patient Safety Foundation, will examine 200,000 reports to elicit common themes and, hopefully, identify possible solutions. Schiff [...]

There is a tetralogy of novels, the Alexandria Quartet, in which the same basic story is told from four different points of view.  The reason I share this with you is having different points of view does not change the reality of what happened, or what will happen.  We each have different points of view [...]

While just about every healthcare CIO can hit the market and select a core clinical system that’s architecturally sound and fiscally feasible, no one recommends they make such a decision alone. One of the cardinal rules of system selection is to include the clinicians–the ultimate end users of the product. “From the beginning, we decided [...]

As chair of CHIME’s certification committee, St. Vincent’s Health System SVP & CIO Tim Stettheimer, PhD, has been instrumental in developing the CIO-focused organization’s new CHCIO program. And as chair of CHIME’s Board of Trustees, he’s also been at the forefront of crafting the organization’s comment letters on the Meaningful Use and Certification NPRMs. But [...]

What are the goals or your project? Do you know? Every project has as least one and often several goals, but too often there are unspoken goals that can undermine the success of the project. Unspoken goals can be the result of unrealistic expectations, personal agendas, or just resistance to change. The problem is amplified by the fact that, in most of our organizations, staff are involved in several projects concurrently in addition to their day to day responsibilities. This increases the difficulty of making project goals a top priority.