healthsystemcio.com

In my previous post about Where will 50,000 come from?, the need for more skilled health IT workers was discussed as well as where these individuals might be found.  Here we are, just past mid-2010 and there are many health system CIOs, vendors and consulting firms looking to hire qualified IT leaders and staff.  Many [...]

If you thought CIOs merely had to surmount the Stage 1 Meaningful Use bar to be successful, you’d be very wrong. That’s because the government has just begun enacting the massive mandates it’s planned for healthcare. Specifically, there’s a little conversion called ICD-10 that will run parallel with the mid-stages of HITECH and take more [...]

 

 PODCAST: One-on-One-w/Norton Healthcare System VP of IS & CIO Joseph DeVenuto, Chapter 1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (244)

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 [...]

 

 One-on-One w/ El Camino Hospital CIO Greg Walton, Chapter 1 [12:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (278)

More and more, healthcare systems seem split into two camps: the one-vendor-for-everything, enterprise solution model or the best-of-suite (or breed) approach. Those embracing the former often spend a big chunk of change to rip and replace most of what they have, while being relieved of many integration headaches down the road. Those selecting the latter [...]

 

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Hunterdon Healthcare VP & CIO Glenn Mamary, Chapter 2 [9:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (50)

It didn’t take an act of Congress to start Carol Dresser and Hallmark Health implementing advanced clinical technologies. Hallmark — which includes Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Melrose-Wakefield Hospital, Hallmark Health Cancer Center and Hallmark Health Medical Center — is now working to increase adoption of CPOE and perfect its bedside bar coded medication administration processes. What [...]

 

 One-on-One w/Hallmark Health VP of IS Carol Dresser, Chapter 2 [12:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (101)

If your organization is anything like mine, you too are adding additional IT staff to deal with the increased activity driven by such legislative drivers as HITECH. Even with today’s economic downturn, with organizations (both vendor and hospital) vying for similar resources, I have definitely started to experience increased difficulty attracting advanced resources. Having anticipated [...]

Lots of ink has been spent on the increasing complexity of the CIO role and the new attributes needed to be successful in the job. Similar amounts have been dedicated to how to cope with these demands. Perhaps it’s presumptuous to consider my habits effective, but these have been the core planning categories that have [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

After writing public comments on meaningful use, submitting grant proposals and trying to keep pace of healthcare reform, the comment period has just begun.  With the formation of the Regional Extension Centers, State HIT coordinators being nominated, Health Information Exchanges gaining more traction and countless vendors trying to obtain your stimulus money, a CIO’s involvement [...]

When ONC recently announced the beneficiaries of its workforce development grants, this reporter wrote an editorial lamenting what seemed to be fast and loose spending of taxpayer money. But one reader took exception with that characterization — Oregon Health & Science University Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology Chairman Bill Hersh, M.D. That’s because [...]

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 [...]

A day in the life of a healthcare CIO includes interpreting and responding to new federal regulations for use of clinical systems, managing a widening gap between available, healthcare-experienced IT staff and needs, balancing cooperation and competition in health data sharing initiatives, aligning internal and vendor agendas to assure EHR delivery, and coping with ongoing funding competition which will steepen with health economic reforms. How is he to do it?

HHS has awarded $84 million to 16 universities and junior colleges “to support training and development of more than 50,000 new health IT professionals.”
Workforce Award recipients, by program area, include:
Community College Consortia Program ($36 million):
The Community College Consortia Program provides assistance to five regional recipients to establish a multi-institutional consortium within each designated region. The [...]

The best managers know that relentlessly pushing for more from employees doesn’t work. The best strategy is to create an environment where people can thrive and realize their full potential. The 1950’s image of a factory foreman admonishing cowering workers to increase widget production is long dead and buried. Unfortunately, not every manager is enlightened, [...]

With a healthcare IT career that started in January 1973 — and has since covered the vendor, consultant and provider sides of the business — there isn’t much that’s going to surprise Eastern Connecticut Health Network (ECHN) VP and CIO Charlie Covin. But the HITECH Act, which he describes as close to revolutionary, comes darn [...]

About a year ago, I received a call from someone looking to blog on the healthcare IT Web site I was running at the time. I had developed a robust blogosphere, which came to host over two dozen well known and respected thought-leaders with long tenures in the business. Ken, as we’ll call this [...]

Investment banking firms are lining up to cash in on the big HIT boom that will be spurred on by the ARRA legislation.  Their eyes are gleaming with the thought of billions of dollars that will flow to this sector.  I had the chance to meet with some investment bankers recently and they were keenly [...]

“The AHA is very concerned that the high bar for achieving ‘meaningful use’ and the limited transitions proposed in the NPRM will severely limit hospitals’ ability to access these much-needed resources,” the organization stated in its recently filed comment letter to CMS. “We fear that the ultimate impact of the program actually could be the [...]

As hospitals of all shapes, sizes and complexity sprint for HITECH dollars, many are looking at consultants to fill gaps in their healthcare IT intellectual capital repositories. Offering everything from system selection expertise to contract negotiation to temporary staffing augmentation, many organizations won’t best Meaningful Use without outside help. To gain insight into just what [...]

Tuesday morning at HIMSS about 100 CIOs had the opportunity to attend a standing room only meeting with Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The invitation arrived late Monday night simply stating that Dr. Blumenthal wanted to invite a small group of CIOs to have a discussion about the “progress being made [...]

More than 90 percent of CIOs responding to a recent CHIME survey expressed at least some concern about whether they will qualify for HITECH stimulus funding, according to the organization, with upgrading or implementing a certified EHR system one of the largest challenges. Nearly half of all respondents, 48 percent, expressed concern about vendor readiness, [...]