On Best Practices

On the other side of the digital front door – part 2

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My health journey continues with multiple focuses. And my journey through digital front doors continues as well. I wrote part 1 on this topic in early November when I was in the middle of various health and dental appointments and scheduling more. I also wrote about what I thought was an awesome example of how technology has evolved in “Patient friendly testing – yes, a positive story!” in September.  The end of that story was not so positive. More on that later.

Here are a few anecdotes from my recent experience:

Cataract surgery – I had my initial consultation appointment the end of November and have surgery scheduled for mid-February. Specialized eye drops were prescribed to start taking a few days in advance of the surgery. As soon as I left the doctor’s office, I received a text message that my eye drop prescription from my doctor was pending payment with this special pharmacy – for immediate delivery to my home I should click the link to pay $82.50. I was a little suspicious of a text asking for payment like that and knew I didn’t need to have the eye drops until February, certainly not immediate home delivery. I called the doctor’s office to confirm the text was legitimate and asked how to handle the timing of delivery. I was told I could just text back regarding delivery timing which I did and got a reply that they could do that. I thought great, there’s a person on the other end. But then I received several more automated text reminders to click the link so they could ship right away. Then they called me. I talked through the timing and gave them my payment info. Their proactive communication (and persistence) was a plus, but I was more comfortable with real-time communication to coordinate specific delivery schedule and payment.

Bone health – I had a virtual visit with a Nurse Practitioner from the Bone Health clinic at my primary hospital. This was part of follow-up from my fall and pelvic bone fracture in August. The virtual visit was easy to get into and very thorough. I learned that more and more elders are asking to be seen in person – not this one unless there is a reason to “lay hands on me”. Continue reading →

With gratitude – family says it all

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I’m challenged to write something brand new on gratitude this Thanksgiving week even though this has been a far better year than 2020. At the same time, it has not been as positive and as “back to normal” as we had all hoped as COVID cases surged over the summer. So, I went back to my 2020 post to see how I had reflected on gratitude a year ago at a time when we weren’t gathering as families the same as we are now. I share it again here as some things haven’t changed.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with our immediate family this past Sunday at our new house. My two daughters, their husbands, and four grandkids. One of my daughters has in-laws in Florida so she and her family will travel there for the holiday. We now live within half hour of our other daughter and her in-laws live near her. We will celebrate with all of them on Thanksgiving as we have done many years in the past.

While my husband is a retired Unitarian Universalist minister, if I suggest we say something before dinner at a special family gathering, he will often pass it over to me. This year it was simple. I asked everyone to hold hands (as the grandkids wondered what I was doing) and I commented on family being together again and that I was thankful for each and every one of them as I looked each one in the eye around the table. The adults know they are my “big rocks” as Stephen Covey would describe. And someday the grandkids will understand that as well.

Being together with family says it all. I am truly grateful that we didn’t lose anyone to COVID, that we are fully vaccinated and that we can all be together again.

May you share similar love and gratitude with those closest to you this Thanksgiving 2021. As my StarBridge Advisors colleague, David Muntz, likes to say – “let the season of gratitude begin”.

Related Posts:

Treasuring family after a long year

The year we meet again

Family first

 

CHIME21 recap and CIO perspectives

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about FOMO – what I felt about not going to the CHIME Fall Forum this year. After all, I had not been to either HIMSS or CHIME to see colleagues since spring of 2019. Being in-person with colleagues I’ve come to know well, like a lot, and respect even more, was something I had looked forward to. So yes, I missed reconnecting in-person after all this time. But I am grateful to get some of the content and perspectives from the forum second hand through trusted sources.

It’s no surprise that Bill Russell has dropped a series of excellent podcast interviews with some of the leading healthcare CIOs as well as vendor experts in his Today in Health IT podcast special series he calls “Interviews in Action”.  It includes 10 interviews at CHIME, 8 at HLTH, and 5 from the Sirius Healthcare 2 Healthcare Event. Each one is no more than 15-20 minutes long so perfect for a brisk one-mile walk. Learn from CIOs such as Donna Roach of University of Utah Health, Stephanie Lahr of Monument Health, Dr. Zafar Chaudry of Seattle Children’s, and Scott Joslyn of UC Irvine.

Through the HealthsystemCIO.com recap of CHIME21, Kate Gamble covered several topics highlighting presentations from more of my favorite CIOs:

Whether you are a CHIME member who didn’t attend the Fall Forum or someone who just wants to learn from some of the best IT leaders in the industry, I encourage you to check out all these resources.

On the other side of the digital front door

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Being on the other side of health care delivery is always an eye opening experience as to the progress we’ve made with technology and making it easy for our patients, and how far we have yet to go.

Now that I have more flexibility in my work schedule and we’re past the house move, I’m taking time to prioritize my own health. The newest health issue I’m addressing is cataracts in both eyes. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that the ophthalmic practice in the area who my eye doctor referred me to has a patient portal link on their website. As I waited on the phone to make an appointment, I perused the website. I thought it was odd that the portal had the same name as my health system’s portal. When it was my turn to talk to someone, they told me my new address asking me to confirm it. I had just updated it with my health system on the patient portal last week. So I asked how they, a separate ophthalmic practice knew. They said the patient portal showed it based on my phone number. Turns out it is the very same portal as my health system. I asked if they were part of the system and they said no but they share the portal. Guessing there is more to the story – possibly an Epic Community Connect relationship?

We scheduled the initial consultation appointment at a location reasonably close at the end of November vs one at an even closer location at the end of January. But my positive response to this encounter quickly took a step backwards. As they described my next steps pre-appointment it included writing down two fax numbers. One to give my eye doctor so they could send a report from my last eye exam. And a different one to give my PCP so they could send a referral. When will healthcare finally retire fax machines??

The fact that I can remember my patient portal password means I’ve become a regular user. And that means I’m taking care of my health. Due to my injury in August, I have multiple ortho appointments and now weekly physical therapy visits.

I was late to my first physical therapy appointment due to mistakenly thinking the e-checkin on the portal would be quick. Continue reading →

What I learned this week

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When I’m stuck and don’t know what to write about, to trigger ideas my husband asks me “what did you learn this week?”. As I wrote in last week’s blog post, it’s handoff time as my interim CIO engagement at Boston Children’s comes to an end. The past 4 days was a packed schedule for the new CIO, Heather Nelson, and me. A good amount of time was in standing meetings already on the calendar where Heather got to meet individuals or groups in the IT department as well as some senior leadership meetings. In all the non-meeting time, (the white space on the calendar), I inserted sessions for just the two of us to go through the lengthy 10-page transition outline I had prepared.

Heather joked each day about being a sponge and wringing it out at night to start again the next day. She now has multiple lists of to do’s and discussion items for others as she gets started. Her priority in the coming weeks will be listening. What did Heather learn this week? A lot!

What did I learn? Through these standing meetings and handoff discussions I learned how much more there is to do that I didn’t have the time or opportunity to focus on. At one point I told Heather that maybe I’d write about “regret” this week. She was quick to say, no, look at how much you got done in a short time. My CIO colleagues know that our work is endless. We just need to step back occasionally and appreciate what we have gotten done. That’s true for ending an interim engagement as well.

And I learned how much value there is to being in these standing meetings together as part of the handoff so I could debrief with Heather afterwards adding more context and color. Without getting too distracted, using Zoom chat during the meetings to clarify and add context to topics being covered was also a plus.

And during this very busy handoff week, I learned (again) that moving is indeed a stressor! Continue reading →

Time to pass the baton

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It has been an honor to serve Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) as their interim SVP and Chief Information Officer for the past 7 months. At the start of 2021, I told myself I wasn’t going to do another interim CIO engagement. But how can you say no to the #1 children’s hospital in the country? While they tell me they are grateful for what I have accomplished during this period, I too am grateful. Grateful for the opportunity to work with such fine people and be part of such an incredible mission – as they say, “Until every child is well”. I’m proud to have been part of an organization with a culture that values their staff and is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion.

From the start, BCH leadership knew I didn’t want the interim engagement to be prolonged. One of my priorities was to assist the search firm in finding the best candidate to be the next SVP and CIO. Goal accomplished! Heather Nelson starts on October 11. She has served as CIO at UChicago Medicine since 2017.

This last week before the official handoff begins, I focused on annual performance reviews for my leadership team, finishing up my work on the EHR strategy so Heather can move forward with the next phase, and compiling everything I will go over with her in our one-week transition/handoff.

Why would an interim do performance reviews? I strongly believe that people should not miss a review cycle because of a leadership transition above them that they have no control over. Collecting input from others in an informal 360 manner along with my experience working together for seven months is enough to have a constructive conversation and provide guidance on future development opportunities. Of course, Heather will need to work with each of them on specific goals for the coming year.

The EHR “path for the future” as we’ve called it has been the primary focus of my time at BCH. Continue reading →

#InternationalPodcastDay

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Yesterday was #InternationalPodcastDay according to social media. There seems to be a day for everything. And from what I can tell there is a podcast for every possible interest. I am definitely a fan of this medium and I’ve shared my podcast favorites in previous posts.

While I currently subscribe to 20+ podcasts (I add them as I hear about new ones of particular interest), I regularly listen to a small handful, and primarily three:

Given my recent injury, my podcast listening time has been greatly reduced. I used to listen when I walked 3 miles a day with my digital dogs. Last weekend while packing boxes for our upcoming move, I decided to catch up on few of them. Realize I need to get creative about finding times to listen.

To “celebrate” #InternationalPodcastDay, I encourage you to check out my favorite podcasts and recommendations in these previous posts:

More podcast recommendations – going beyond HIT

7 HIT blog and podcast recommendations

Tune in: recommendations for IT podcasts

Staying fit and informed

Value of podcasts for professional development

And of course, let me know if you have any favorites to recommend.

Happy listening!

ERPs enable business transformation

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In the spirit of re-use and recognizing that I’ve already met my weekly discipline of blog writing, I encourage you to check out my StarBridge Advisors blog post published this week – “Will your ERP enable the business transformation you need?” After decades of focus on EHRs, health systems of all sizes have or are turning more attention to their ERP solution(s). In my post I share some of the key questions organizations need to consider and perspective on ensuring a successful ERP journey.

Related Posts:

Major implementations need experienced leadership

Ensuring go live success for large scale IT projects

Patient friendly testing – yes, a positive story!

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The role of insurers in direct healthcare services may be debatable but I have at least one positive personal story worth sharing. It involves a claims review, a proactive call from my insurance company to schedule a needed test, and the test done in my home at my convenience a few weeks later.

Blog readers may remember my recent reference to a bad fall and injury. I have a fractured pelvic bone. When I was discharged from the ED, they ordered follow-up visits with my PCP and an ortho physician. I did a virtual visit with my PCP the next week and scheduled the in-person ortho appointment for the week after that. At the ortho appointment the physician said I should get another bone density test. I hadn’t had one for several years. I assumed she would put in an order, and I would get a call about scheduling the test.

The day after the ortho visit, I did get a call. But is from my insurance company. They said that based on claims info, I had fallen in the past year so I should get a bone density test. I asked if that was per my ortho and they said no, it was based on the claims info. Can I vouch for the interconnection between these two conversations? No. But I knew I needed the test so continued with the call. Continue reading →

Tips on moving: gig economy, targeted donations, and online marketplaces

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As briefly mentioned in recent blogs, my husband and I are in a transition phase – moving and downsizing. The last time we moved it was halfway across the country which brings its own challenges. What’s different this time is the number of people we’ve needed to help us, the number of new resources we’ve learned about through networking, and the focus on downsizing which means finding places where we can donate or sell stuff.

I’ve learned a lot the past few months and found some great resources. It’s no surprise to my regular readers that I’m willing to share some tips and resources. Here goes:

Finding trusted helpers – Our realtor lives in the neighborhood and has people he regularly uses and refers. Taking his recommendations, we used a handyman on some small projects and a few strong young men willing to move boxes and heavy items. This was all part of getting the house ready for photos, the listing, and open houses.

Sourcing local resources for small jobs – From our realtor I also learned about Surv, a company founded with community in mind that operates in eight states. CEO Pat Brown believes that Surv has the power to bridge social gaps, elevate young adults, and meet a community’s needs. Their mission is to build stronger communities through service. As they say on their website, “it’s more than an odd-job. By connecting Neighbors with hardworking Local Workers, we build lasting relationships that can uplift a community.”

Finding specialized services – Disassembling a very large free standing custom closet to move and reassemble at our new place became the biggest challenge for a few days after we accepted a very attractive offer. Our buyers said they didn’t want it because they planned to build a walk-in closet. We inherited the custom closet when we moved in so building a walk-in closet was something we too had considered but dismissed. If we were going to move it, I wanted someone who had some experience with custom closets. With a little research I landed on Home Depot and their Pro Referral service. Independent contractors fully vetted in terms of any criminal record, liability insurance, and licensed if needed. It took one call then I received an online link to a project request form and was matched with a few possible contractors.

Finding where to donate – Before we listed, we took several loads of donations to Savers. When it came to my business books and professional clothes, I wanted to find a more targeted place to donate. My husband is a retired minister and has 10 times as many books as me. Finding places to donate these items became a challenge. Sources I found include: Continue reading →