Monthly Archives: May 2019

What organization can’t benefit from lean?

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As I start my interim management role at a new organization, I’m learning about pockets of best practices throughout the health network for daily huddles and other lean methods. I’m learning from my team that canstockphoto67324721 lean thinkingidentifying the right metrics to measure in IT is a challenge.

And of course, I’m getting a lot of standing meetings added to my calendar while trying to understand what each group’s unique purpose is and where specific type decisions are made. These are important questions given most organizations have too many meetings and people often say they spend too much time in meetings.

One of my first observations week one as I listened to colleagues is that there is potential for lean methods such as a daily management system, huddles, and visual boards.

I’ve learned a lot about lean and what it takes to introduce new concepts into organizations in recent years. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is to listen and get to know an organization before making any assumptions.

I will be doing a lot of listening and learning in the coming weeks. When it comes to lean methods, I will share my experiences in previous organizations as it makes sense with my new colleagues and teams.

If you share my passion for lean thinking or are interested in learning more, check out my post “Lean classics worth a second look”. It’s a recap of previous posts covering huddles, visual boards, and gemba walks from my journey as a lean leader in different organizations. And if you have a story on how you have applied lean thinking in your organization, I would love to hear it.

Related Posts:

6 tips for successful huddle boards

Leadership huddles: not just another meeting

Making the invisible visible

Making the invisible visible – part 2

Importance of rounding or going to the “gemba”

Go to the gemba, seek to learn

Leadership transitions – learning a new organization

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“Working together, we improve people’s lives”. That’s the vision of The University of Vermont Health Network (UVMHN) where I started this week as the interim Chief Technology Officer. I am excited to be canstockphoto3439718 time to learnpart of a healthcare provider organization again – even though it is temporary.

The first week has been what you’d expect – meeting new people, learning new acronyms, understanding the key issues, getting accounts and devices setup, getting access to systems, and gathering documents for review. While healthcare organizations differ, the issues and challenges are common.

My focus over the next several months will be to drive forward major infrastructure projects. With the Epic Wave 1 implementation scheduled for November at multiple UVMHN affiliates, there are critical interdependent projects that my teams will need to complete.

The opportunity to be part of a team, solving problems and making a difference is something I love doing. Yes, the days will be long, there will be lots of meetings and email, and production support issues. But, at the end of the day, I’ll know that the systems and solutions we provide and support make a difference in the lives of clinicians and in turn our patients and families.

As I act like a sponge and drink from the fire hose in the early weeks, I’ll need to get up to speed quickly on all the current activity and issues. Fortunately, the organization is not entirely new for me. I worked with Dr. Adam Buckley, Chief Information Officer, and his leadership team in late 2017 and again recently on consulting engagements focused on IT redesign.  But consulting is nothing like how deep and broad you need to go as an interim leader. As I said at our redesign retreat this week, I’m switching gears from an outside view to an inside view and excited to be part of the team. Continue reading →

Partnering for your health

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You go to a conference, hear many great speakers, take some notes, learn about some new firms, make new connections, and catch up with colleagues. There are usually one or two key takeaways. Those btn_epatient_spm (002)stories or presentations that make a significant impression on you.

At the New England HIMSS Chapter Annual Spring Conference this week, that moment came during the session by Dave DeBronkart, known as e-Patient Dave, and Dr. Daniel (Danny) Sands, his primary care physician and faculty member at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Together they were two of the twelve founders of the Society for Participatory Medicine and the inaugural co-chairs.

Prior to the conference, I knew who e-Patient Dave was and had seen him on social media, but I had never heard his personal story nor met him. Their session demonstrated the power of storytelling at its best. Now I understand why Dave is so passionate about patient engagement.

Their session, “Hot or Not? A Doctor and Patient Role-Play the Archaic and the Modern Way to Engage” was a combination of role play and presentation. Dave started by describing the moment when he was diagnosed with a stage 4 cancer in 2007 following an incidental finding from a shoulder x-ray. He learned early in his journey that the median time left for a patient with his diagnosis was 24 weeks. He thought then that he had at most 6 months to live. That got my attention!

Their role play illustrated what may be the typical patient – physician interaction vs what should be a true patient – physician partnership. They covered communications (email, texting), patients doing their own online research and sharing information with their physician, timely access to results on a patient portal, and disease specific online support groups.

The Society for Participatory Medicine focuses on the power of partnership between patients/families and clinicians. They describe “Participatory Medicine” as a movement in which patients and health professionals actively collaborate and encourage one another as full partners in healthcare. They believe this leads to improved health outcomes, greater satisfaction, and lower costs. Continue reading →

Finding your passion

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One piece of advice I give young people is that they don’t have to decide what they want to do for the rest of their life at age 22. Just think of all the jobs that didn’t exist 10 years ago and what might exist 10 yearscanstockphoto19577734 (1) finding passion from now.

As we acknowledge the nurses among us for National Nurses Week, think how much the nursing field has changed over the years and how many opportunities and different paths nurses can take these days. There is a growing need for nurses with informatics training but that is just one possible path among many.

My oldest daughter is a nurse practitioner. But she didn’t start there when she went to college. She got her undergraduate degree in hotel and restaurant management with a minor in business. She wanted to do travel and tourism – and see the world. On graduation day she looked at me and said, “Mom, I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life that’s meaningful, but I don’t think it’s travel and tourism”. I looked at her and said, “Just get a job and then figure it out”. That was the response of a parent having just put their oldest of two children through college and anxious for her to get started in the full-time work world. Can all you parents of young adults relate? Or did I sound like a callous and unsupportive parent?

She floundered for a year or two after college with a couple different jobs including work in the travel industry for a short time. But she started thinking early on after graduation about becoming a nurse. Whenever she talked to me about it, I told her she’d be a great nurse – super organized, able to multi-task better than anyone I knew, with fabulous people skills. But I also told her that she’d have to buckle down and study the sciences if she wanted to be a nurse.

She considered her options and decided to pursue a combined nursing / nurse practitioner program getting her second bachelor’s degree then her masters. She had found her passion! Continue reading →

M&A work is not just about technology

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Between the organizations I’ve served as CIO and the health systems I’m advising these days through StarBridge Advisors, I’ve seen plenty of M&A activity over the years. Mergers and affiliation agreements People putting the pieces together conceptcome in all sizes.

For a CIO there are the typical areas to look at for system consolidation and integration. But it’s not just about technology. You have to consider the people who are impacted.

I recently wrote an article for the CIO Techie Magazine Healthcare Technology Special Edition 2019 called “M&A activity continues – for IT leaders it’s not just about technology”. I advised on how best to retain talent while still ensuring the strategic goals of the organization and the drivers for the M&A activity are met. My advice:

  • Get to know your new partners and colleagues early
  • Remember that culture is key
  • Partner with HR early on
  • Communicate early and often
  • Think win-win not win-lose
  • Be kind and generous

Check out the full article here.

Related Posts:

Merger mania – is it good for the patient?

Culture matters in mergers

Corporate functions, local service