Christian Steps In As CHIME Board Chair

Chuck Christian, VP/CIO, St. Francis Hospital

Starting next month, Chuck Christian, VP and CIO of St. Francis Hospital, will begin his term as CHIME’s 2015 Board of Trustees Chair. He succeeds Randy McCleese, whose term will end on December 31.

“I’m humbled and feel extremely fortunate to lead CHIME during this critical and transformative time in healthcare,” said Christian. “I look forward to working with the CHIME Board to foster leadership-development through our educational offerings, best-practice sharing, and continue to be a key resource for our members and federal agencies regarding regulatory issues.”

Christian is a Certified Healthcare CIO, Fellow and charter member of CHIME, and served on the CHIME Board from 2003 through 2004 before being elected to another term in 2012. Since 1992, he has served on numerous working groups and committees within the organization and is currently a member of the CHIME Healthcare CIO Boot Camp faculty. He is also actively involved in both the CHIME Policy Steering Committee and Policy Leadership Council.

Christian brings over 40 years of experience in healthcare, including 26 as a CIO. Before joining St. Francis in January 2013, he was CIO at Good Samaritan Hospital in Indiana for more than two decades. Prior to that, Christian worked in healthcare IT for Compucare and Baxter Travenol, in both management and implementation roles.

In 2010, he was the recipient of the CHIME/HIMSS John E. Gall Jr., CIO of the Year Award as well as the CHIME Collaboration Award for co-authoring “Make IT Known — Marketing Strategies and Case Studies in the Healthcare Environment.” Christian was recently honored by the Indiana Chapter of HIMSS with an award in his name.

“Chuck has been a committed and valuable long-time contributor of CHIME and we could not be more thrilled for him to take the helm in 2015 and lead us through new growth and development opportunities,” said CHIME President and CEO Russell Branzell. “We congratulate our outgoing chair Randy McCleese for his dedicated service, as he guided CHIME through a year of immense progress. Chuck will no doubt build upon our successes in 2014 and continue to secure our voice in the industry, support the CIO profession at large, and advance the role of IT in healthcare.”

As Board Chair, Christian’s areas of focus will include shaping federal health IT policies, cybersecurity education, and extending support to a larger set of the healthcare IT C-suite.