As CIOs, we need reliability and, in addition to EHR uptime, email is perhaps the platform that affects our credibility the most. Many of us are enjoying the explosion of intuitive and helpful consumer devices and applications. I like that my Garmin GPS watch can upload my runs to Endomondo, which automatically syncs with the […]
Movin’ To Cubeville
I had the nicest office I’ve ever had. It had big windows overlooking Boston Harbor and the city skyline. Earlier this summer, I watched “Old Ironsides,” the USS Constitution, make its bi-annual turn-around in the harbor. I didn’t spend much time sitting there looking out the window, but it was very nice. Two months ago, […]
Healthcare Is Local, But The Problems Are The Same
I woke up at 3:30 this morning because I slept half the day yesterday after arriving on a red-eye from HIMSS12 in Las Vegas. We were thrilled that the Annual Conference had record-breaking numbers of attendees and exhibitors. It was a fabulous week of learning and catching up with friends, and I was ready to […]
Scott MacLean, CIO, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Partners Healthcare, Chapter 2
Scott MacLean, CIO, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Partners Healthcare, Chapter 1
When a Top Performer Leaves, Channel Jack Welch
In early January, I received this email from one of our top project managers who had a baby in November: “I hope you had a great Christmas and a happy new year! I was hoping to catch up with you for a few minutes when you have time over the next few days. If you could give me a call when you have some time to chat, I would appreciate it.”
When All Else Fails, Have a Hissy Fit
A few weeks ago, I had a hissy fit at our IS Steering Committee. I didn’t quite break down into a childish tantrum, but I was visibly upset when the Committee failed to make a decision on whether to squeeze in a few projects before our EMR vendor becomes certified for Meaningful Use. They “didn’t […]
Leaving John Glaser
In the 1995 film Leaving Las Vegas, Nicolas Cage stars as Ben Sanderson, a Hollywood screenwriter who’s lost everything and moves to Las Vegas to drink himself to death. I’m not going to set out to drink myself to death because John is leaving Partners, but as one of my colleagues said, “It’s a big deal, John. This marks the end of an era.”
Several Habits of an Effective CIO
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 […]
Who Says Meditech Isn’t Flexible?
As my hospital converts to more corporate applications, my Meditech system has become more interoperable. The folks at Meditech have been incredibly supportive of a very complex systems agenda at our site. A few weeks ago we went live with Siemens Soarian Financials and Scheduling, feeding our Meditech clinical systems. This two-year implementation was part of a corporate Soarian project and our hospital was the first site. The design is simple. Soarian Financials generates a “master” ADT feed to a “submerged” Meditech admissions module.