healthsystemcio.com

Outside healthcare IT, Wisconsin is known for cheese, cows and the Green Bay Packers; inside, it’s known as Epic country. And while the vendor calls most of Wisconsin’s health systems its clients, Affinity Health System and Ministry Health Care (now part of the same organization) are not one of them. That leaves the system’s CIO, [...]

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Ministry Health Care & Affinity Health System CIO Will Weider, Chapter 2 [15:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (28)

Hal Baker doesn’t boast the typical CIO resume, one with a deep background in applications and infrastructure management. But what he does posses might be even more crucial for success in today’s HITECH word, with its focus on the implementation of advanced clinical systems. That’s because Baker is an M.D. — and one who has [...]

 PODCAST: One on One w/WellSpan Health VP & CIO Hal Baker, M.D., Chapter 3 [11:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (62)

In explaining behavioral and social change, the concept of positive deviance contends there are people whose uncommon, but successful, behaviors or strategies enable them to find better solutions to a problem than their peers, despite having no special resources or knowledge. In many situations and, in particular, healthcare organizations, all that is needed to make life-saving changes is right in front of us.

Sticker price is only one, and may not even be the most important, factor to consider when evaluating an EMR purchase, according to a new report from KLAS — Acute Care EMR, Getting Your Money’s Worth: The Overall Experience. Those other factors include unexpected costs, physician usability, missed delivery dates, response time, stability and workflow interruptions. So buyers may find though they can “afford” to buy a particular solution, they can’t afford to own it or be successful with it in other ways, such as achieving significant adoption of CPOE.

Almost overnight, it seems, the qualifications for being considered a top CIO have changed. No longer do you get a pat on the back for successfully implementing a hospital information system, supporting EMR installations in affiliated practices or even achieving high levels of CPOE and clinician engagement. Now, that’s all stakes to play.
Today, you’ve got [...]

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Freemont Area Medical Center Director of Hospital IS (CIO) Richard Beran, Chapter 2: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (27)

Almost overnight, it seems, the qualifications for being considered a top CIO have changed. No longer do you get a pat on the back for successfully implementing a hospital information system, supporting EMR installations in affiliated practices or even achieving high levels of CPOE and clinician engagement. Now, that’s all stakes to play. Today, you’ve got to also tie it all together with an HIE that can then plug into whatever the feds construct as the National Health Information Network. Well, Richard Beran, director of hospital information systems at Freemont Area Medical Center, has all those balls in the air, and more. Beran just upgraded his Cerner Millennium software, struck a Stark deal with eClinicalWorks for the employed and independent docs, and is working with Lawson (HealthVision) and Initiate (IBM) to bring it all together.

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Freemont Area Medical Center Director of Hospital Information Systems (CIO) Richard Beran, Chapter 1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A Reader Asks: “When it’s time to upgrade, how do I discern between a major and minor one? How do I decide if an upgrade is big enough that it makes sense to investigate my options with other vendors?” HIS Pros Answer: Most “upgrades” are new releases or versions of a currently installed system, and should have no cost associated with them. That’ what you’re playing software maintenance for. The only cost with a new version or release might be hardware (a larger server) or third party software (newer versions of Windows or Office). If a vendor is charging for a new version or release, something is wrong with your contract, as almost all vendors provide them for free.

Integrity-based leadership may be something talked up in executive training sessions, but it’s put into practice by Curt Kwak, CIO of the Washington Region at Providence Health & Services. And the qualities of transparency, honesty and fairness which are so close to Kwak’s heart have come in handy as he says goodbye to incumbent vendors [...]

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Providence Health & Services (Washington Region) CIO Curt Kwak, Chapter 2 [8:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (298)

With the government piling on its Meaningful Use regulations, healthcare CIOs are under a lot of pressure to bring home the incentive bacon. For some, relaxation takes on traditional forms such as vacationing, biking or running. But Deane Morrison is no regular CIO. When he wants to decompress, it’s time to scale a mountain, perhaps [...]

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Concord Hospital CIO Deane Morrison, Chapter 2: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Integrity-based leadership may be something talked up in executive training sessions, but it’s put into practice by Curt Kwak, CIO of the Washington Region at Providence Health & Services. And the qualities of transparency, honesty and fairness which are so close to Kwak’s heart have come in handy as he says goodbye to incumbent vendors [...]

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Providence Health & Services (Washington Region) CIO Curt Kwak, Chapter 1 [10:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (557)

While just about every CIO in healthcare can be described as intelligent, only a handful deserve to be called wise. One of those is undoubtedly M. D. Anderson Cancer Center’s Lynn Vogel. And Vogel is not the kind of CIO to keep all that wisdom to himself. As such, he’s an active educator in both the university and industry spheres — the latter as an instructor in CHIME’s popular CIO Boot Camps. To learn more about Vogel’s take on the trends roiling healthcare — and his work at MD Anderson — healthsystemCIO.com editor Anthony Guerra recently caught up with the Texas-based CIO.

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center VP & CIO Lynn Vogel, Chapter 3 [10:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (446)

While just about every CIO in healthcare can be described as intelligent, only a handful deserve to be called wise. One of those is undoubtedly M. D. Anderson Cancer Center’s Lynn Vogel. And Vogel is not the kind of CIO to keep all that wisdom to himself. As such, he’s an active educator in both [...]

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center VP & CIO Lynn Vogel, Chapter 2 [12:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (484)

A house is only as strong as the foundation on which it’s built. And an application environment is only as sound as the network infrastructure and data center upon which it rests. As such, Will Showalter and Sisters of Mercy Health System have undertaken a rebuild of their foundation to support the more than 4,000 [...]

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Sisters of Mercy Health System VP & CIO Will Showalter, Chapter 2: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Though there are thousands of Meditech hospitals, only a handful are in the in the process of migrating from the Magic to 6.0 platform. Of course, those hospitals (and their CIOs) are being watched very closely by the Meditech community. One of those CIOs is Ed Ricks of Beaufort Memorial Hospital. Ricks is not only [...]

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Beaufort Memorial Hospital VP of IS & CIO Ed Ricks, Chapter 3 [9:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (165)

Though HITECH may have some questioning their physician integration strategy — especially the part about underwriting EMRs using the Stark relaxations — it hasn’t deterred Inova Health and its CIO Geoff Brown one bit. In fact, Brown thinks strengthening those key relationships is more important than ever. Heartened by the industry’s move towards standards and [...]

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Inova Health System SVP & CIO Geoff Brown, Chapter 2 [12:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (147)

Managing 512 interfaces isn’t easy. That’s why Daniel Barchi, SVP and CIO with Carilion Health System, was more than happy to embark on the search for a single integrated EMR a few years ago. After an intensive selection process — which included copious input from clinicians — the health system selected Epic. And from that point until today, it’s been all about implementation, rollout and optimization. Barchi is definitely a proponent of the Big Bang philosophy and, in this interview with healthsystemCIO.com editor Anthony Guerra, explains why, and how.

 PODCAST: One-on-One-w/Carilion Health System SVP and CIO Daniel Barchi, Chapter 2 [10:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (260)

Though there are thousands of Meditech hospitals, only a handful are in the in the process of migrating from the Magic to 6.0 platform. Of course, those hospitals (and their CIOs) are being watched very closely by the Meditech community. One of those CIOs is Ed Ricks of Beaufort Memorial Hospital. Ricks is not only taking his facility to 6.0 and going best of breed in the ED, but using a new integration engine to bring it all together. To gather some lessons learned for healthsystemCIO.com readers, editor Anthony Guerra recently chatted with Ricks.

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Beaufort Memorial Hospital VP of IS & CIO Ed Ricks, Chapter 1 [10:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (344)

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 3 [5:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (121)

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 3 [8:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (36)

Managing 512 interfaces isn’t easy. That’s why Daniel Barchi, SVP and CIO with Carilion Health System, was more than happy to embark on the search for a single integrated EMR a few years ago. After an intensive selection process — which included copious input from clinicians — the health system selected Epic. And from that [...]

 PODCAST: One-on-One-w/Carilion Health System SVP and CIO Daniel Barchi, Chapter 1 [13:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (177)

After 14 years with St. Claire Regional Medical Center, you might think Randy McCleese has done it all, but you’d be wrong. That’s because the CIO is just now embarking on a new core clinical install with a vendor he hasn’t worked with before — Meditech. And McCleese isn’t dipping his toe into the Meditech [...]

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/St. Claire Regional Medical Center VP of IS & CIO Randy McCleese, Chapter 1 [11:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (113)

Immediate outreach to hospital customers by vendors involved in M&A activity is critical to the future of those relationships, said the vast majority of CIOs in the most recent healthsystemCIO.com Advisory Panel SnapSurvey.
Prompted by the acquisition of Eclipsys by AllScripts, the June SnapSurvey focused on CIOs expectations of their vendors during such an event, and [...]

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 3 [14:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (181)

Recently Miami Jewish Health Systems deployed a wireless environment at its 22 acre healthcare facility. I am sharing the 16 month process and the lessons learned. This all began in March 2009 after the development of a 3-year technology strategic plan. I must stress here that it was key for this plan to be in alignment with the corporate strategic plan, with technology being one of the key underpinnings.

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 (112)