Wes Wright, CIO, Seattle Children’s Hospital
One of the core philosophies of military leadership is to train the person who will eventually replace you to help ensure a smooth transition. That’s precisely what happened at Seattle Children’s Hospital this past summer. When Drex DeFord resigned as CIO, Wes Wright was ready to fill the role. Recently, healthsystemCIO.com spoke with Wright about what it was like to move from CTO to CIO, what he learned from working with Drex, and how the organization incorporates Continuous Process Improvement into its overall strategy. He also discusses the clinical application environment, managing multiple vendors, why leaders must be willing to take risks, and how his organization is working to foster innovation.
Chapter 4
- Lessons learned from the early CIO years
- From Japan to Hawaii to Seattle
- CIOs need to “take that leadership role and lead”
- MU & ICD-10 — “The more we can get standardized in healthcare, the better off we are”
- The developing partnership between government entities and healthcare organizations
- Finding a place to call home
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Bold Statements
One, it was a really small shop — four or five people, as you might imagine. And two, there wasn’t a whole lot of Windows technical expertise out there, so I kind of forced myself to learn about it. It was a great place to start.
I think that’s what CIOs need to do now; take that leadership role and lead. Start with your department — get your legs under you — and then once you do that, take the lead in the organization and start innovating and taking that waste out.
Without those standards and standard definitions, when we say something here at Seattle Children’s, it may mean something completely different to somebody in Florida. We’ve got to get that stuff down. If it takes the government to make us start working together, I guess that’s what it takes.
Some days I think it’s being pushed along too quickly, and some days I don’t think it’s being pushed quickly enough. I think you’re going to upset somebody no matter which way you go, so you might as well take a path and continue on that path.
The pushback of ICD-10 implementation is a great example of the government taking input and actually listening and doing something about it. That was too fast for everybody.
Gamble: In terms of your background, we talked a little bit about the experience you had with the Air Force. Before going to Seattle Children’s, you were at Scripps Health, correct?
Wright: Yeah.
Gamble: Was that your first IT position? How did you get into IT?
Wright: Back in 1993, somewhere around there. I was a lieutenant captain early in my commissioned Air Force career, and my first assignment as a CIO was a small, 25-bed community hospital in Japan. So I was the CIO out there, which was kind of a good time for me because everybody was making the move from Novell. One, it was a really small shop — four or five people, as you might imagine. And two, there wasn’t a whole lot of Windows technical expertise out there, so I kind of forced myself to learn about it. It was a great place to start that career.
From there, I went to the Air Force Surgeon General’s office for a year to be his exec. And then I went out to David Grant Medical Center in Northern California, which is where Drex [DeFord] and I first worked together. He was the CIO and I was the number two, and then we both stayed out there. He went to the Pentagon to be the Air Force Medical Service Chief Technology Officer. I stayed at David Grant for another year to become the CIO out there, and then I moved to Oahu to be the Pacific Air Force Medical Services CIO. So I had five hospitals, five clinics that were in Alaska, Hawaii, Japan, Guam, and Korea that I was the CIO for. Drex had retired before me and went to Scripps. He knew I was retiring three months after him, so he gave me a call and I went out there with him again.
Gamble: So you’ve had different types of CIO roles. I’m sure there are a lot of differences in how things are at Seattle Children’s versus what you were dealing with in Hawaii and back in Japan.
Wright: It’s the same basic stuff. It’s that stuff you learn in your formative years — integrity, discipline, and communications. Leadership is leadership, and I found that for a lot of folks — not a lot, but at some of the places you go to — what they’re looking for is somebody to lead. I think that’s what CIOs need to do now; take that leadership role and lead. First with your department — get your legs under you — and then once you do that, take the lead in the organization and start innovating and taking that waste out.
Gamble: With everything going on right now with the government initiatives, I feel like the CIO role is getting more and more important. It’s got to be a really interesting time to be a CIO. Can you give some of your thoughts on what’s going on in the industry with Meaningful Use, and the direction that things seem to be going?
Wright: There’s Meaningful Use, there’s ICD-10 — both of those are bringing standardization to the health IT field. I think the more we can get standardized in healthcare, the better off healthcare, and the nation, is. It’s only through standards that we can communicate the same ideas across healthcare systems. Without those standards and standard definitions, when we say something here at Seattle Children’s, it may mean something completely different to somebody in Florida. We’ve got to get that stuff down. The industry has been out on our own for a long time and we haven’t done that in all cases; DICOM and radiology would be an outlier there. But if it takes the government to make us start working together, I guess that’s what it takes. But I’m excited about where health IT is going, particularly the standardization of what we all do.
Gamble: Do you think that things are being moved along a little too quickly with Meaningful Use or do you think that the government has to push things along?
Wright: Yes. Some days I think it’s being pushed along too quickly, and some days I don’t think it’s being pushed quickly enough. I think you’re going to upset somebody no matter which way you go, so you might as well take a path and continue on that path. I think the government, with the help of organizations like CHIME, is taking the CIO’s input and actually listening and responding. The pushback of ICD-10 implementation is a great example of the government taking input and actually listening and doing something about it. That was too fast for everybody. I think that at least here, it feels like there’s a good — for lack of a better term — partnership developing between the government entities and the non-government entities, and they seem to be willing to listen and react. I’m happy about that.
Gamble: Yeah, it’s a really interesting time. There’s no doubt about that.
Wright: Yes, I would certainly agree with that.
Gamble: Now, where are you from originally?
Wright: Really nowhere, originally. My dad was in the military so I bumped around a bunch with him, and then I was in the military, so I bumped around a bunch with me. And actually, ironically, I’ve been here for four and a half years, and this is the longest I’ve ever lived in the same place.
Gamble: That sounds like the life of a military person.
Wright: Yeah, strictly from a time based perspective you’d almost have to say I’m from Seattle.
Gamble: Okay. Yeah, I have a brother out there. He’s at Fort Lewis in the army.
Wright: Oh, okay.
Gamble: He loves the area. I was able to visit there a couple of years ago and I really love it. I like how the people are and I can see how it would be a pleasant place to work. It’s very different from the east coast.
Wright: It is different from the east coast. I kind of miss the sun. I was in Hawaii and then San Diego and then here, so that’s been a little hard to get used to.
Gamble: Sure. But I would imagine it’s nice being in an area where there are a lot of things you could do outdoors. Do you try to get out of the office and just enjoy the area?
Wright: Yeah, when it’s not raining. And actually, this summer’s been incredibly nice. The whole key around here is when the clouds set in, usually about this time, and then they go away in July. In between those times, you’ve got to get time away — get some sunshine gathering time on your schedule and make sure and stick with it, or it can get a little bit gloomy.
Gamble: That’s exactly what my brother says. He says when there’s a window when it’s sunny out he’s like, you’ve really got to take advantage of it.
Wright: Yeah, and it’s just absolutely gorgeous when it’s a nice day. The rest of the country was suffering through massive heat waves, and we were sitting up here sunny and 70. It was pretty nice.
Gamble: Yeah, I bet. If I ever get out there just to see my brother I’ll have to look you guys up. It’s a great area, and I’d love to go back.
Wright: Please do.
Gamble: Alright, I think we’ve really covered a lot here so unless there’s anything else you wanted to discuss, it’s been great and I really appreciate your time.
Wright: No problem. I’ve got to pop on to another call.
Gamble: All right, it was great speaking with you, and I hope to speak with you again.
Wright: Thanks, Kate.
Gamble: Thank you.
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