On Best Practices

Maximizing health IT investments requires a holistic approach

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Evaluating the value of IT investments in healthcare is a significant challenge for health IT leaders and their organizations. With the growing demand for digital health solutions and the increasing interest in AI, establishing a comprehensive IT investment valuation process has become crucial for health systems both large and small. My colleague at StarBridge Advisors, David Muntz, recently wrote an excellent blog post describing what we call the VOI framework – “An Effective Strategy for Valuing HIT Investments”.

Traditional metrics like ROI, IRR, and TCO are often used to assess IT investments. While these financial measures are important, relying solely on them can be insufficient. As David outlines in his blog, StarBridge Advisors has developed a Value of Investment (VOI) framework that combines traditional financial metrics with additional elements that capture the broader impact of IT investments.

I encourage you to read David’s entire blog post where he expands on these core elements of the VOI framework:

    1. Flexibility: Modern IT solutions provide new capabilities, such as using smartphones to locate the nearest mobile imaging device or utilizing AI for image evaluation with high precision. This flexibility improves operational efficiency and patient care.
    2. Intangibles: Non-physical assets like clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, and brand loyalty play a crucial role. Personal stories that highlight the human impact of IT investments often provide the most compelling evidence of value.
    3. Social Value: IT solutions that meet patient and family needs, such as enabling control over care environments or providing interpreter services, significantly enhance patient experiences and outcomes.
    4. Risk Management: Effective risk management is essential to achieving the anticipated value of IT investments. The framework identifies nine risk categories with targeted questions to help organizations determine acceptable risk levels.
    5. Accountability: Ensuring that those responsible for implementing and using the IT asset are accountable for achieving results that drive continuous improvement and better outcomes.

Additional analyses include stakeholder impact, capability-based assessment, market positioning, strategic alignment, and intellectual capital.

Evaluating IT investments requires a comprehensive approach. StarBridge Advisors offers the expertise and tools to help you develop and deploy a personalized VOI framework. David and I are happy to explore with you how we can help you maximize your investment.

Related Posts:

What do healthcare CEOs want from technology in 2024 and beyond?

Beyond cost cutting: Health IT’s role in financial health

 

Networking and navigating a tight job market

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Are we in a tight job market? It sure sounds like it from all the calls I’m getting from colleagues having a hard time finding a new position. Probably the best indicator though of a tight job market is that unemployment has been under 4% for the last 2+ years.

At StarBridge Advisors, we have many advisors who are only interested in interim and advisory work while others are looking for their next permanent position but available for interim and advisory engagements in the meantime. On our recent monthly advisors call, I asked those who are looking for their next permanent position what their current job search experience tells them. Trends they see are more internal promotions rather than hiring from outside the organization and hiring from the local area or region rather than relocating someone. One of them also commented that with so many boutique search firms, it can be hard to know who to reach out to regarding openings.

Another sign of the tight job market might be the fact that a LinkedIn post I shared on job interview skills got over 2,000 impressions in a short timeframe.

Knowing how important networking is, I take every call request I get from people I know who need career advice. And when colleagues reach out asking if they can send someone my way to talk, I say yes. I seem to be a go to kind of person keeping tabs on the market for health IT leadership positions but more importantly I’m always willing to help if I can. People have helped me along the way, so I do the same.

I also write a lot about career management and all things related in this blog. You can always search previous posts for more career advice. And I do short career coaching engagements – if it helps you to land your next opportunity, this small investment in yourself could be very worthwhile!

I know from personal experience that a job search takes a lot of patience and persistence. Beyond networking, spend time doing your research. Maintain a positive attitude and be open to various possibilities. Our industry continues to evolve, and the health ecosystem is broad with many different types of organizations to consider.

Related Posts:

Navigating career crossroads

Career advice revisited

Considering a career move?

Building bridges for success: the role of interim leaders in healthcare IT

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I have written in the past about interim management in terms of when it makes sense for an organization and shared some lessons from my own experience. Following my career as a CIO at two leading academic health systems, I have served four different healthcare providers as an interim leader – three as CIO, one as CTO. As a principal at StarBridge Advisors the past 7 plus years, I have placed and overseen interim IT leaders at many healthcare organizations. I know firsthand how interim leaders provide an important bridge during leadership transitions and can make a significant impact on an organization in a short time.

I recently had the opportunity to do an interview with the Advisory Board on interim management. We covered a lot of ground together. Some of the highlights from our discussion:

    • Rising Executive Turnover in Healthcare: healthcare organizations are grappling with a 66% increase in hospital CEO exits in 2023 and there is a resulting surge in demand for interim leaders.
    • Role of Interim Leaders: interim leaders play a critical role in steering organizations through transitions, making quick assessments, and delivering tangible results within a six-month timeframe.
    • Preparing for Transition: clear communication and preparation are needed when bringing on an interim leader, including briefing books, townhall meetings, and the support of the hiring executive is critical.
    • Driving Long-Term Improvements: organizations can leverage the expertise of interim leaders to drive sustainable change, focusing on agreed-upon areas of improvement and setting the stage for the permanent leader’s success.

The Advisory Board article, How to navigate executive turnover: A Q&A with StarBridge Advisors’ Sue Schade (advisory.com), is available to non-members if you set up a free account.

When your organization has a critical IT leadership gap, turn to StarBridge Advisors. We can make available to you fully vetted, world-class healthcare IT executives, inclusive of CIOs, CISOs, CMIOs, CNIOs, CTOs, and others. And if you choose to use an internal interim, we can provide coaching support to them to ensure they are well positioned to be successful in the role. Our advisors all come from health system backgrounds and have a wealth of knowledge and experience which often stretches far beyond the provider space.

Related Posts:

Bridge Builders: Interim Management Solutions for Health Systems

Talent shortage? Great resignation? Interim leaders can help

Interim Management – Providing a Bridge During Transition

When an interim CIO makes sense

Stepping into an interim leadership role

How healthcare providers can empower voters for a healthier democracy

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It’s Super Tuesday – a day when voters in 15 states and one U.S. territory go to the polls for the presidential primary election. I’ve written in the past about the importance of exercising your right to vote, voting your values, and highlighted some of the non-partisan “get out the vote” organizations.

This time I want to address the intersection of voting and healthcare, but not from a policy perspective. You can probably guess my views on key policies. But rather from an empowering everyone to vote perspective. Whether you vote in the primary or not, much is at stake in the November general election.

Let me start with a very progressive organization, A Healthier Democracy, that I learned about last year when their CEO, Dr. Alister Martin, spoke at the annual NEHIMSS Chapter Conference. According to their website:

A Healthier Democracy builds platforms for collaboration and community organizing at the intersection of health and civic engagement to maximize collective impact on pressing challenges.

They are home to five high-impact national initiatives. There are two initiatives involving voting that I want to highlight – Vot-ER and Patient Voting: Continue reading →

The art of mentoring: insights for leaders

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Being a mentor is a fundamental role of leaders. A mentoring relationship may be a formal or informal arrangement. I’m currently participating in two formal mentor programs through the NEHIMSS chapter and the Emerging Leaders Program of RIBBA (Rhode Island Black Business Association). Informally I serve as a mentor for many people.

I’ve written many blogs referencing the importance of being a mentor and having a mentor. Bill Russell and I share a commitment to developing next generation leaders. He outlined his concise framework for mentoring on a recent This Week Health Newsroom podcast – “A Framework for Mentoring”. As Bill explains, it’s all about helping your mentee to expand – their network, experience, knowledge and thinking.

As a leader, you have a broad network, and you can help expose your mentee to it. I truly believe that one of the most important introductions I ever received was as the new CIO at Brigham and Women’s Hospital when I attended my first CHIME conference in early 2000. My boss, John Glaser, CIO at Partners HealthCare, (now called Mass General Brigham) introduced me to his CIO colleagues at other large health systems and academic medical centers.  Those connections helped greatly in my early CIO years and laid the foundation for getting more involved in CHIME. When I mentor people, making introductions to others who can be helpful to them is high on the list early in our conversations.

Expanding a mentee’s experience can happen most effectively when you work together in the same organization. Being able to have your mentee participate in certain meetings or initiatives on your behalf or with you is a powerful show of support and encouragement to them.

And of course, expanding their knowledge and thinking comes from your ongoing discussions and the resources you recommend to them. This Week Health is one of the resources I regularly recommend to mentees and others I talk with who are looking to stay current and relevant. Between the various podcasts, interviews with health IT leaders, and daily news headlines, it is worth checking out and sharing with others. As Bill describes it, “This Week Health is a set of channels and events dedicated to transform healthcare one connection at a time”.

Think back over your career to the people who have mentored you in some way. Guessing you would agree that what mentors do is truly priceless.

Related Posts:

Developing tomorrow’s leaders through mentorship and coaching

Mentoring, role models and sometimes a little nudge

Leaders as mentors

7 Ways to develop the next of generation leaders

From reflection to action – preparing for 2024

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It’s that time of year when you can find 2023 recaps and 2024 predictions everywhere you watch, listen to, or read content. In health IT, we are no exception to this. My StarBridge Advisors colleague, David Muntz, has written our final blog post of the year that health IT leaders may find useful – “12 Steps to Prepare for 2024 – Big Challenges – Bigger Opportunities”.

David is one of the kindest people I know. It is a true pleasure to have been on this StarBridge venture with him for the past 7 years and to have known him far longer than that from when we were CIO colleagues. It is no surprise that he starts his post by talking about how important it is to model kindness, mercy, and compassion in all that we do. He notes the workforce challenges that organizations face and the importance of recognizing that healthcare is a people business. He goes on to address specific opportunities in DEI, digital health, AI, security, and much more.

He closes with a call to make the best of these opportunities in 2024 to improve health and care in our communities, our nation, and our world. After all that is our common goal! I encourage you to add his blog post to your end of year reading list.

All the best to you in 2024! May it be a healthy, peaceful year filled with kindness.

Beyond Hero Culture: Trusting Your Team to Shine

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Do you trust your team to cover when you are gone? I was inspired to comment on the importance of team, especially at this time of year, after listening to one of Bill Russell’s Friday podcasts on his ThisWeekHealth Newsroom show. If you are a regular listener, you know Bill comments on various topics on Fridays rather than focusing on a specific news story. This episode was called – “Step Aside”. It’s definitely one worth listening to.

He talks about lessons from a recent golf tournament where the format was more than what we golfers know as “best ball”. In this tournament, whoever had the best ball didn’t get to hit the next ball. Only the other three could hit it. This ensured everyone was participating fully on the foursome team.

He also talked about “hero culture” which I’m afraid many IT shops still depend on. We know that IT takes a team. And there is no “I” in team! When you or someone else takes a break or is unavailable, can your team cover or can at least one other person step in?

Let’s take that question a step further and apply it to the holiday season. Who is doing the holiday decorating, gift shopping and party planning in your household? Do you have a holiday “hero culture” at home? Or are you sharing the tasks?

I am getting ready for a multi-week vacation which has included working the pre-holiday to do list. Happy to say gift shopping is done! I’ll get as far as I can on all my work tasks and then do my handoff document for my StarBridge Advisors colleagues before I leave. With our team approach, I know everything will be covered just fine.

Whether at work or at home, there is no need to be a hero – think team and know that others will step up and maybe even grow with some new responsibilities. Note to parents – your home team includes your kids!

Wishing you a happy, healthy, stress-free and joyous holiday season!!

Navigating career crossroads

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I’m fresh off another stimulating in person CHIME Fall Forum. Many colleagues have already posted on LinkedIn their recaps of the forum speakers and key takeaways. One of my takeaways is the importance of networking on many different levels. A common conversation for me was colleagues who are looking for their next career move or currently in between positions. As I organized my post CHIME to do list on the plane home, I found that I had several people to follow up with from that perspective.

Ironically, when I got home and back into my daily podcast listening routine, the first one I heard was the ThisWeekHealth Newsroom show from November 10 – “The Signs it’s Time to Move on as a Leader”. On Fridays, Bill Russell usually does a stream of conscience commentary on a topic. This one tied very well into some of my CHIME conversations. I encourage you to check it out – only 10 minutes long.

If the end of year approaching has you rethinking your own career plans, check out my previous blogs on career advice. Earlier ones are listed in this blog – “Career advice revisited”. Newer ones are referenced in this blog – “Considering a career move?”. You will find some useful insights and advice for your journey.

And if you’re looking for a career coach, this blog might be helpful – “When to use a career coach”. I’m happy to explore with you what a short 3-month engagement would look like and how best to customize it to meet your unique needs.

Health IT leadership searches and Interim management industry trends

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I have written in the past about interim management in terms of when it makes sense for an organization as well as my own experience. Over the past several years, I’ve been fortunate to serve four different healthcare providers as an interim leader – three as CIO, one as CTO. I’ve learned firsthand how interim leaders provide an important bridge during leadership transitions and can make a significant impact on an organization in a short time.

I encourage you to check out my recent StarBridge Advisors blog post – Bridge Builders: Interim Management Solutions for Health Systems. In this new post I cover industry trends I am seeing in health IT leadership searches and interim management decisions including internal interims, relocation and onsite requirements, financial and budget constraints, and more.

Related Posts:

Talent shortage? Great resignation? Interim leaders can help

Interim Management – Providing a Bridge During Transition

When an interim CIO makes sense

Stepping into an interim leadership role

From listener to host: conversations with health IT leaders

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I’ve been a fan of podcasts for several years and a regular consumer of many different ones. I’ve shared some of my favorites in past blog posts. My health IT favorites are the multiple shows that ThisWeekHealth offers.

While still an avid listener and consumer, I am also a regular contributor. Since 2022 I’ve been one of the Townhall show hosts for ThisWeekHealth. That means I’m committed to doing one interview a month with a health IT leader along with the 7 other hosts. New Townhall shows are aired every Tuesday and Thursday on the Conference Channel. I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing many current and former health IT leaders in the past year including:

We have had so much to cover in my two most recent interviews that my guests each agreed to schedule a part 2. Continue reading →