One year later – an increased focus on diversity, equity and inclusion

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A year ago this week a small number of Minneapolis residents witnessed the death of George Floyd. Within days, the world knew what had happened and responded. There were mass protests in cities across the country and the world.

It was a time to reflect as companies across the country looked internally at their own practices and culture. Many started programs focused on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). Those with programs already in place revisited and strengthened them. At Boston Children’s Hospital where I am currently serving as interim CIO, they reaffirmed their commitment. This past week, Dr. Kevin Churchwell, President and CEO, sent a note to all staff outlining some of the work that has been done in the past year in support of their six core EDI commitments with the subject: “One Year after George Floyd’s death, our work continues…..”

The core commitments are:

Goal 1: We will be truly inclusive.

Goal 2: Our team will be as diverse as the patients and families we care for.

Goal 3: We will eliminate racism from our processes, practices, and guidelines.

Goal 4: We will continue to educate ourselves to be an inclusive working environment.

Goal 5: We will work to eliminate health disparities in our community and across the nation.

Goal 6: We will develop and use metrics to continually improve our performance in equity, diversity, and inclusivity.

As Dr. Churchwell said in his message, “George Floyd’s name became a rallying cry for millions and yet another compelling reason to discuss tensions around racism and social injustice. One man’s life became a symbol of so many lives lost needlessly. Disparities and inequities long considered to be “part of the system” became impossible to ignore. Here at Boston Children’s, we took a hard look at ourselves, and we realized that we need to be part of the solution to these important issues.”

Many of you or your CIO may be members of CHIME. In 2020, I joined the CHIME Diversity and Inclusion Committee which was established in early 2019. Continue reading →

Remote work – what next?

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After 14 months of remote work for many, organizations are making plans to bring people back to the office. Most healthcare CIOs that I spoke with in the past year plan to have their staff either remain fully remote or back in the office part-time for a “hybrid model”. Only one CIO that I spoke to had his full IT team onsite throughout the pandemic. They were considered critical support staff and available to augment staff in other departments if needed.

With this transition there are many articles covering all sides of the topic and the challenges facing organizations and employees. Two recent articles from Harvard Business Review are worth checking out.  The first one, “What Mix of WFH and Office Time is Right For You?”, is aimed at individuals assessing their own workstyle when it comes to work location. If the employee has a choice, the article suggests they do a self-assessment and then discuss with their boss what would work best for them. The second one, “How To Do Hybrid Right”, is aimed at organizations trying to determine the right hybrid model in terms of employee types and workspace design.

A recent opinion piece in the Boston Globe by Jon Levy, “The Hybrid Workplace Probably Won’t Last”, talks about the pendulum swinging back to onsite work. Jamie Nelson, CIO at Hospital for Special Surgery, made similar projections in her recent podcast with Bill Russell on This Week in Health IT and talked about being onsite herself through the pandemic and the importance of leaders in healthcare organizations being present.

Bill and I covered the topic extensively on This Week in Health IT Newsday show earlier this week. A few of my thoughts on the topic: Continue reading →

Resources for your digital health journey

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My StarBridge Advisors colleague, David Muntz, wrote an excellent blog series on Digital Health over the past year. His latest in the series is titled, “Digital Health – Planning for the Virtual Campus”. David’s ability to define digital health and provide a blueprint for organizations is impressive. This most recent post does not disappoint. He describes the changes that health systems have made in care delivery during the pandemic and poses the question – where do we go from here? He outlines 12 steps organizations should take. Here is a partial list just to whet your appetite:

  • Embrace the same discipline and framework to create the virtual campus as for a traditional campus
  • Query a broader representative sample of stakeholders than you have in the past
  • Plan for the underserved and those who might be excluded because of the digital divide
  • Personalize the experience for providers, patients, and families
  • Use augmented intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) during the data collection process

I encourage you to check out the entire post. If you are interested in any future posts in David’s digital health series, subscribe to View from the Bridge to get notifications of new posts. Our team of advisors regularly contributes posts on a wide range of topics relevant to today’s healthcare executives and IT leaders.

The New England HIMSS 2021 Annual Spring Conference: “Empowering People to Impact Health Through Information and Technology” was this week. Continue reading →

Career advice revisited

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It seems that I am getting a lot of requests to provide career advice these days. I did formal career coaching for a few people in recent months and am currently participating as a mentor in the Boston Young Healthcare Professionals (BYHP) mentor program. In all these situations, I point people to my many previous blog posts on career advice to supplement what we discuss.

For general career advice, they find these “classics” useful to review:

Career advice in a competitive market

5 job search challenges in 2020

You need to own your own career

Taking control of your life

Make career choices right for you

New year, new job?

Time for a job change?

Stand out at the interview

So you didn’t get the job

In this new virtual world of recruiting, I tell people not to underestimate the power of LinkedIn. It is an online professional directory that recruiters look to for candidates. Optimize your profile. Ensure the one liner under your name is a good description of your role since that is what people see when you invite them to connect with you and when you are found on searches. Use the about section to describe what you offer and how you can add value – don’t just copy and paste your current job description summary. Be active which shows you are current and engaged – that means sharing content yourself and commenting on other people’s posts. And if you are actively looking for a new job, check the “open to work” box – don’t worry, you can control who sees it.

If you are thinking of using a coach, check out these two posts:

When to use a career coach

Investing in you, the value of a coach

Looking for a new job can be exciting and hard at the same time. Hopefully, the lessons and tips in these posts will make it a little easier.

How do patients rate telehealth a year later?

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Since March 2020, telehealth volume has increased at rates we would never have anticipated. As Dr. Rasu Shrestha, EVP & Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer at Atrium Health, said during a panel at the recent CHIME21 Spring Forum, “It was an overnight success 30 years in the making”. Indeed, when there were no other choices, clinicians and patients were quick to adapt.

But what do patients really think of telehealth a year later? The COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition recently published the Telehealth Impact: Patient Survey Analysis. The aims of their research were to determine:

  • How well did telehealth serve the clinical needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic?
  • For what reasons did patients seek care through telehealth?
  • What were the strengths and weaknesses of telehealth related to quality of care?
  • What are patients’ expectations for the use of telehealth after the pandemic?

The 20-question survey was open to persons 18 years or older who had at least one telehealth encounter between March 1, 2020, and January 30, 2021.Survey responders included 2,007 persons from across the U.S. who received telehealth during the pandemic.

The findings were highlighted in an mHealth Intelligence article “COVID-19 Telehealth Delivery Reaps High Patient Satisfaction”, by Hannah Nelson on April 15, 2021. The results are very encouraging for the future of telehealth. Continue reading →

Treasure the good

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The past 14+ months have been a period of loss and sadness. Even if you and your loved ones have remained healthy and employed, the pandemic has impacted all our lives. Now that over 200M people in this country have received at least one dose of the vaccine, 87M people are fully vaccinated, and the vaccine is available to anyone over 16 who wants it, we are on our way to a new chapter. But we still need to get to at least 70% for herd immunity and continue with precautions.

I don’t want to appear Pollyannish as we look to the future, but let’s ask ourselves what good has come out of this past year.

Have you had more quality time and connections with your family being home so much?

Have you found new ways to connect and celebrate milestones with family and friends at a distance?

Have you simplified your life and decreased your consumption?

Have you found new hobbies or restarted old ones?

Have you spent more time reading and learning?

Have you spent more time outside enjoying nature?

Have you explored cooking new foods and eaten healthier at home?

Have you become a kinder person, more caring about your community and people you don’t know?

Have you come to know and appreciate your co-workers in new ways after working together through tough times, and perhaps meeting their kids on video calls and hearing their dogs bark in the background?

Have you converted your work commute into something positive for yourself?

Have you spent time reflecting on your career and what truly is important to you? Continue reading →

Crowdsourcing – looking for your stories on digital transformation 

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I am trying something new with this week’s blog post. I will be doing a talk titled “Digital Transformation: Emerging from COVID19” at an upcoming virtual conference. I will be working on it in my spare time (aka the next two weekends) so it can be recorded in advance.

For many organizations, Digital Health means the “digital front door” and an increased focus on patient or consumer facing applications. But it is far more than that. My StarBridge Advisors colleague, David Muntz, wrote an excellent blog series on Digital Health over the past year. His first post attempted to frame what we mean by Digital Health – “Digital Health – Is Healthcare Ready? Are You and Your Organization Ready?”.

He starts by trying to define it and acknowledge that the Wikipedia definition is good but not great: “Digital health is the convergence of digital technologies with health, healthcare, living, and society to enhance the efficiency of healthcare delivery and make medicine more personalized and precise.” As David expands on his definition, he says ”Digital health requires harnessing the energy from the data tsunami that includes all sources, not just provider-controlled databases. We need to synthesize data from existing sources and use patient generated data, social determinants of health, census information, AI engines, and so many other sources.”

As I work on my upcoming talk, here is my “crowdsource” ask if you are willing to share your stories and anecdotes on any or all of these questions: Continue reading →

Renewal, big rocks, and the elusive work life balance

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Spring is a time of renewal and rebirth. I see daffodils, crocus, and blooming trees everywhere on my daily walks.  After the last 12+ months we have experienced and the vaccine rollout giving us all new hope, it is a time of renewal and rebirth unlike in previous Springs. In past years, I have written about my “big rocks” at this time of year. In April more than any other month I am reminded of my big rocks – it is when my siblings and I lost our father to cancer at a very young age. I turned four years old the day of his funeral.

Over 570,000 families in this country alone have lost one of their “big rocks” to COVID-19. For some families, it has been multiple losses. The stories of a husband and wife dying just hours apart are truly heartbreaking. I am fortunate that all my big rocks here in New England and back in Minnesota where I grew up are healthy and well. And all of us “elders” are vaccinated.

So, in this time of renewal and being two weeks post my second vaccine dose, I look forward to breaking bread this weekend with family members. It will be the first time since an outside, socially distanced, early Thanksgiving we had on November 8th. I told my husband back then that it could be a long, isolating winter as we would not be able to spend time outside with family nor have meals together. After a relatively mild winter, I am happy to say my daughter who lives only 20 minutes away came over on some weekends with her two young daughters to walk the dogs with me and to visit. Some of the visits were outside socially distanced and some were inside with masks.

Thinking about my big rocks is a reminder to take care of myself and maintain a reasonable work life balance, or life work balance as my StarBridge Advisors colleague, David Muntz, likes to call it. Taking on the interim CIO role at Boston Children’s Hospital means I am back to long days and catching up on the weekends. My personal gauge for work life balance each day during this period will be whether I’ve gotten out for walks to hit my 10,000 steps daily goal and if I’ve played the piano. Continue reading →

It’s transition time again

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“Until every child is well” is the tag line used by Boston Children’s Hospital, the number one pediatric hospital in the nation as ranked by U.S. News and World Report. I am thrilled to share the news that I started as their interim SVP and Chief Information Officer two weeks ago. What an incredible organization to be able to serve. I am excited to be part of a healthcare provider organization again – even though it is temporary.

Boston Children’s treats more children with rare diseases and complex conditions than any other hospital. In addition to caring for the sickest children in the Boston area as well as nationally and internationally, Boston Children’s is a leading research institution. It is home to the world’s largest pediatric research enterprise, and it is the leading recipient of pediatric research funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Boston Children’s is investing $24M in digital health initiatives (D2.0) over a three-year period with solutions for patients, their families, clinicians and administrative staff. Under the leadership of Chief Innovation Officer, John Brownstein, they have an Innovation Digital Health Accelerator (IDHA) which is partnering with many technology start-ups to provide solutions both internally and broadly to others in the healthcare community.

And let us not forget about the importance of an organization’s culture. The public statement on their website says a lot about the kind of organization they are and strive to be:

“Boston Children’s is dedicated to creating a culture where all patients, families, clinicians, researchers, staff, and communities feel empowered and supported. We are committed to working together to support health equity and promote anti-racist practices. This is not merely an aspirational goal, and in August 2020, we shared our formal Declaration on Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity that will be our guiding compass in making this goal a reality. We will continue to evolve to ensure we provide a welcoming, inclusive environment for all staff and families. Our diversity makes us stronger.”

As the search for the permanent CIO continues, I will be focused on moving the current IT strategic plan forward, gaining alignment on the EHR strategy, and assisting the search firm, AMN Healthcare, to find the best candidate for the future. Continue reading →

Systems at scale and optimized workflow

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IT teams work at scale all the time supporting thousands of users. Workflow optimization is often a goal for new systems. The mass vaccination sites and events are at scale and depend on an optimized, efficient workflow. With over 2 million doses a day being administered now in the U.S., these sites and events are becoming more prevalent and will continue over the next several months. While there was much publicity of the problems in the vaccine rollout early on, there have been many improvements in the tools to find vaccine locations and schedule appointments, and the administering of shots. In part that has been due to improved technology and better workflow design.

Two health systems doing mass vaccination sites/events have shared their playbooks in recent weeks for others to learn from. UCHealth in Denver is offering a playbook, “COVID-19 Mass Vaccination Drive-Through Playbook”. It is a 59 page comprehensive and very detailed playbook covering organizational structure and partner involvement, pre-event planning, contingency planning, patient communication, staff, provider and agency recruitment, vaccine storage and handling, and media communications. The Atrium Health playbook is a higher-level guide for leaders – “A Leader’s Guide to Safer, Faster and More Equitable Community Vaccination Events”. Both are valuable tools whether you are in the planning stage or tweaking your current operation.

To build on these tools, I recommend checking out two recent interviews that Bill Russell did at This Week in Health IT.

Continue reading →