In last week's column, I wrote that healthcare information technology professionals who identify themselves as healthcare workers?as opposed to HIT workers?might be happier and more effective in their jobs.
This week I have a Q&A with Sheila Currans, CEO of the 61-bed Harrison Memorial Hospital in East Cynthiana, KY. Currans talks about the CIO's role in the C-suite, and how IT professionals can better communicate with others in the hospital, contribute to their organization's mission and strategy, and improve patient care.
HealthLeaders Media: In your organization, the CIO reports directly to you. What's the reasoning behind that?
Sheila Currans: We moved the CIO into that senior leadership [position] about eight years ago because we had so much coming down the road. It's just so much simpler if I can understand it all from the ground up. The CIO is part of the senior leadership. We meet regularly, and our meetings are primarily focused on our strategic planning for the care of the patient?not IT. CIOs should start thinking about how they support the mission. We've done that for several years and it's worked well.
IT is relatively new to the leadership arena. We're all used to the chief financial officer or the chief nursing officer. But the CIO is relatively a new position. And, unfortunately, I think too often it's been relegated to a basement support service. Today's world puts IT as an integral part of healthcare. It's going to touch everything that happens for the patient.
HLM: Why do IT professionals, in particular, have trouble communicating with other leaders?
SC: I've been accused of speaking with too many acronyms, abbreviations, and technical language. IT folks have their list of acronyms just like a lot of other folks do. But theirs seem very technical. They can get frustrated when people don't understand them. It's important to help them understand that you have to send a message to people and they have to hear it and understand it. They've got to communicate the same language that the rest of the hospital or the health system communicates.
HLM: How can IT professionals do a better job of communicating with clinicians?
SC: CIOs think they're under a lot of pressure?and they are?with all of these new standards. As we've prepared for stage one of meaningful use, we've had to implement additional prompts that the physicians have to respond to. The CIO has to fully appreciate the physicians' workflow. Providers are busy. They see more patients with more complex problems and they cannot be frustrated with what they see as minutia that doesn't add value to the care.
CIOs should think through the process to the end user and show them how it is valuable to them, [and] how it impacts the care of the patient. If you've developed that right relationship with those care providers, they'll go along with you a little bit. They'll give you a little flexibility.
With IT, the one thing I've learned [is that] it's a journey and you're always hearing that in the next upgrade it will be an improved process for that end user. There are constant changes for the end user. All I'm asking the CIO to do is work and think that through as a process workflow before you put the fix in or before you go to the docs and ask them to make a change. Be prepared and appreciate their position.
HLM: What role does IT play in caring for patients?
SC: At the end of the day we're a hospital. We take care of patients. IT is the bridge that supports that core business. Whether or not health IT folks believe it, the healthcare world does not revolve around the computer. It's about taking care of the healthcare needs of our community. And the computer is a resource that we use to help that.
IT folks should see themselves as a bridge between that technical and that touch and learn to communicate. If they do, they'll have a whole new level of reward from the job that they're doing. Because they'll see how it touches the patient and the care.
HLM: How do you encourage IT professionals to engage in patient care at Harrison?
SC: The IT staff round every morning at the same time that the physicians are rounding. Every day, IT is on the medical floors. That's their first priority of the morning is to be available to all of the caregivers as the shifts are changing. That has really helped them to see, quite honestly, that they are a resource and a tool that helps take care of these folks.
When I talk to our CIO my first question is 'how is this going to affect the patient?' You have to come into the same sphere of conversation. How does it affect the patient? How does this help the doctor take care of the patient? How does this help the nurse take care of the patient? Patient care is the most important thing. Honestly, it's the reason we exist.