Report Reveals CIO Challenges And Priorities For 2016

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Report includes insights from eight leading healthcare CIOs for the road ahead.

An Impact Advisors/Scottsdale Institute report highlights insights of eight CIOs from leading healthcare organizations regarding the challenges and priorities for healthcare in 2016. The CIOs met at the annual Scottsdale Institute Fall CIO Summit to share their current experiences and strategies for the next year, and the conversations and key findings from the Summit are outlined in the report, The New World of the Health System CIO: Consumers, Consolidation and Crooks.

The CIO Summit included David Bensema, MD, from Baptist Health Kentucky; Kyle Johnson, from Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems; Jonathan Manis, from Sutter Health; Bill Russell, from Saint Joseph Health System; Bruce Smith, from Advocate Health Care; Subra Sripada, from Beaumont Health; Jim Veline, from Avera Health; and Laishy Williams-Carlson, from Bon Secours Health System.

The group identified five chief challenges including new payment models, optimization, mergers and acquisitions, security, and competing for and retaining patients and consumers. Significantly, despite meeting just days prior to the October 1 transition date, ICD-10 was not mentioned as a top challenge by any of the participants.

Sripada noted Beaumont was created as a result of the merger of three health systems specifically to “prepare for the move toward population health and value-based care.” The move to value-based care also requires a tremendous amount of IT infrastructure which places increased pressure on CIOs. Some healthcare organizations, like Sutter Health, have begun outsourcing most of the IT infrastructure for population health, though this is not without its own set of challenges including responsiveness, prioritization, integration, and costs.

The CIOs also identified key strategies to address those challenges, concluding that leadership skills, taking risks, and innovation are critical to the success of their health systems in the future. Leadership is crucial, as Williams-Carlson explains, saying Bon Secours is making progress because of the Board and CEO commitment. “Without broad executive-level support, the CIO and CISO are fighting with one hand tied behind their back.” Levine concurred, saying, “It’s incredibly important to have your CEO and Board involved in creating solutions.”

Patient engagement is also a key element in the success of any healthcare organization, but keeping up with IT needs to keep patients engaged can be challenging. Williams-Carlson said, “Operationally we know that we need to move from a sickness industry to a health industry, but we’re not sure that our community or our patients want us to.” Russell adds the challenge of retail health, online sites, and other competitors is “scary.”

One of the strongest takeaways from the Summit was that CIOs need to work side-by-side with their operational partners to assist in developing new ways to fully engage patients in their care as well as optimizing software to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and fully engage providers.

“Most, if not all, organizations today are facing growing information technology needs in the face of shrinking margins,” Andy Smith, President and Co-Founder of Impact Advisors, explained. “We are confident that the priorities and focus areas this group identified for the coming year will be useful for all CIOs facing similar challenges.”