Rick Schooler, FCHIME is CIO and vice president at Orlando Health. He has been named the 2011 John E. Gall, Jr. CIO of the Year by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives.
In an interview with HealthLeaders Media, Rick Schooler, 54, discussed his career and the prospects for information technology in healthcare over the next decade.
The lifetime achievement award is sponsored by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. The boards for both organizations select the annual winner.
The honor recognizes health IT executives who have made significant contributions to their organization and demonstrated innovative leadership through effective use of technology. It is named for the late John E. Gall Jr., who pioneered implementation of the first fully integrated medical information system in the world at California's El Camino Hospital in the 1960s.
On receiving the John E. Gall Jr. award:
"I have not accomplished anything without a lot of good teammates, a lot of good colleagues, and a lot of good support. But the award is targeted to an individual and it reflects that you have been through the throes of healthcare IT. You have transformed healthcare organizations. You're recognized as an industry thought leader. I am on a list of very good folks. I am the 23rd recipient and I know 20 of the people who have received this award."
On the decision to make healthcare IT a career:
"I was a pre-med student and unfortunately was drawn to girls and parties. I realized after two years that I was going to have to take a lot of classes over again. I had a relative in 1978 who said there are going to be opportunities in data processing."
On the overall state of healthcare IT:
"It took me about two or three years working at my first organization, which is now Indiana University Health, to figure out this industry is woefully behind in the use of technology. My first healthcare mentor was my boss there, the CIO.
He said you have to slow down and be patient because we do things by consensus. We have a long way to go and it is going to take many years to get where we need to be. He said to me very clearly that 'healthcare needs to bring people like you in to our organizations.'"
On the overall state of healthcare IT workers:
"As an industry we have done a good job growing people to do this work. When I entered healthcare in 1991, most of the people on the IT side just didn't understand industrial computing. They were used to running billing systems and systems confined in a dumb terminals and green bar reporting.
They were still using punch cards. They were so far behind, even [at] a renowned health system like IU Health back then. I think we have done a good job in the last 20 years getting people in the pipeline. So we've done a good job on that side. On the pure technology side, we still need more help from the outside.
On the prospects for healthcare IT over the next decade:
It is going to take us five to 10 more years to fully enable accountable care. I'm talking about putting information throughout a care continuum at the fingertips of those who need it to support care while on the backside having the robust analytics capabilities that mirror other industries. To do that takes everything with regard to infrastructure, with back office systems, full-blown automation of EMRs, and automation of our core processes as a business.
I want to be able to look a back and say I left a mark on this industry when I can truly demonstrate that health information exchanges, analytics, population management capabilities for patient registries, and advanced data warehousing, those types of technologies are rock solid in place and being fed by solid operational support systems like electronic medical records and ancillary systems.
On the legacy of healthcare information technology of 2012:
"We will look back and see this time as the turning point where the industry, circa 2010-14, [came] to grips with the fact that reimbursements are only going to shift and it's only going to be tougher to contain costs and the people who pay for healthcare truly have had enough."
"From an industry perspective that is when people will realize we 'got it.' One key to making that happen is a robust reliable information infrastructure. It's an awakening that many of us have had going on for several years. But if you're looking at critical mass, particularly at community hospitals they are realizing 'I have to get a partner. I can't do it on my own.' This whole idea of managing populations, whether or not you believe a disease management program saves money, it won't matter because the people paying for healthcare eventually are going to say 'either you manage that population or I won't pay you.'"
Schooler will receive the award at the 2012 Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas on Feb. 23.
John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.