Digital transformation strategy is no longer the sole domain of the CIO. Most savvy executives understand the transformational power of IT and they have really great insights on how to leverage IT. Does this mean that the role of the CIO is diminished? I think it means the role of the CIO is changing. Gone are the days where I spend time explaining IT concepts to executives. They have command of concepts such as the cloud, mobile and analytics. But understanding IT is different than delivering IT transformation. I believe the execution part of my job is increasingly important. While strategy i ..read more

This evening I was reflecting on how much healthcare IT has changed over my career. I became a CIO the 90s, when our medical records were still largely on paper. My fellow executives would ask me when we would have fully electronic records. My answer would always be that we were 5 years away. In fact that was my answer for 10 years. I have to admit that the tipping point was the HITECH Act and Meaningful Use. I was critical of that program at the time. I argued that there wasn’t evidence that showed the program objectives were the things that best furthered the goals of the US healthcare syste ..read more

I have been thinking about other CIOs and IT pros looking for new gigs. I thought I would follow-up my last post with another learning from my recent search. Video calls are now a standard part of executive interviews. I want to share a few tips I think make for a good result. Place your camera at eye level. For me this means simply stacking some books under my Macbook. If you simply put a laptop on a tabletop you get the upshot angle, including a look into your nostrils. Be sure to frame your entire face and shoulders. Invest in a decent USB microphone. Laptop microphones are surprisingly go ..read more

Even the best CIOs find themselves unemployed. After being displaced from my 17 year position in 2017 I started my search for my next gig. I found that these firms handle the majority of Healthcare CIO searches: Rudish Health Solutions [Nancy DeMoss] Kirby Partners [Judy Kirby] Witt/Kieffer [Nick Giannas] Korn Ferry [Doug Greenberg] B. E. Smith Additionally, you may want to contact firms that place interim CIOs. During the year it took me to find my next gig I worked as a consultant and an interim CIO. I loved the work and I found it to be adventurous. I also found my per ..read more

I read a lot about digital transformation (especially in the twitter feed of @dchou117). It is an important topic. But, I believe it should be viewed as a means by which we achieve great customer experience. When we flex our digital transformation muscles without thinking through the ideal customer experience we end up with things like patient portals with single digit adoption rates. Make no mistake, creating an ideal customer experience in any industry is difficult. It is especially difficult in large healthcare systems. Besides being incredibly complex, we have a legacy of applications ..read more

I think the best management advice I ever received was a reminder that I, as a leader, accomplish all of my work through the people on my team. Therefore, my goals as a leader are: to make sure that the team members I am privileged to lead are happy, engaged, productive and those team members are working within a system of work that is continually optimized to accomplish clearly articulated goals quickly, cost-effectively and without defect. That first leadership goal raises the question: What makes employees happy, engaged and productive? Over the years I have observed that most employees w ..read more

I just finished reading Victoria Brock’s excellent post Stop! Just stop with the “Interoperability”. In it she expresses the frustrations with healthcare systems vendors that represent their products as “interoperable” to non-IT buyers, knowing that those people will assume the best of what interoperability could mean. This is a phenomenon of human nature that I blogged about 12 years ago! I agree with Brock. We need to educate our colleagues involved in reviewing clinical IT systems to stop asking the Interoperability Question. It is too vague and gives the vendors a chance to say yes to a di ..read more

Healthcare leaders should take note of this new partnership between Lyft and Blue Cross. As a consumer, I like what Blue Cross is doing. While Blue Cross presents this as a way to improve access and reduce missed appointments, the next logical step is to quite literally steer patients to lowest cost providers. There have been numerous studies that show the primary criteria patients use to choose their doctor and hospital is convenient location. Healthgrades summarized that finding in an infographic. Perhaps the only thing more convenient than driving to the doctor’s office down ..read more

In my inbox I received the communication from United Airlines about the changes they are making in response to their recent service failure. I thought it was well written, so I though this would be a good time to review one of my favorite topics. Every organization fails their customers at some point. Whether it be an unplanned EHR downtime, or dragging a paying customer off of a plane in a manner that upsets passengers. Once the actual event has concluded there is a set of steps an organization should take to recover its standing with customers and to continually improve. These basic steps ar ..read more

CIOs need to balance three goals: Advancing the organization’s strategy Engaging the IT team members Keeping customers happy By customers, I mean the people that your IT organization provides services to. In my case it is doctors, nurses, and other knowledge workers. Some people call these people their “users”, but, as I have written in the past, that is a mistake. Many IT Organizations Are Blind With Regard to Customer Satisfaction I would argue these three goals are equally important. But, customer satisfaction is the most neglected. In my experience, most CIOs have all ..read more