Tag Archives: innovation

Leadership and crisis management lessons from Pennsylvania

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I love seeing stories of success with lessons to apply to our work in health IT. The recent I-95 collapse in Philadelphia and the re-opening in just 12 days is one of those stories. There was a great opinion piece in the Washington Post on July 16th by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro – “Opinion: We fixed I-95 in 12 days. Here are our lessons for U.S. infrastructure”. Initially experts told the Governor it would be months before they could reopen the highway and get traffic flowing. Instead, they reopened it in just 12 days. Indeed, there are many lessons for leaders in all industries.

Here are the four key takeaways he comments on:

  1. Empower strong leadership
  2. Speed up the bureaucracy
  3. Encourage creativity
  4. Work together

In the face of a crisis, empowering strong leadership is critical. We’ve seen it in healthcare during the pandemic and when responding to any kind of disaster. As Governor Shapiro describes it – “Managers of every component of the project were empowered to be decisive, take ownership and make a call when necessary — not defer and delay to the often-circular bureaucracy. Decisions were made quickly and in a synchronized manner.”

We have plenty of bureaucracy in healthcare including many processes in IT that seem burdensome. Governor Shapiro described how an executive order he signed shortly after taking office that catalogued each of the 2,400 permits, certificates and licenses the state issues and set timelines for each of them resulted in significantly reducing wait times – with one example cutting the time from eight weeks to two days. IT leaders take note – how many processes can be streamlined in your shop?

Innovation in healthcare is greatly needed and there are many bright spots we read about each day. But innovation is not just the new big flashy stuff, it can be a creative and new way to solve a problem that comes from someone on the team or an observer. Governor Shapiro wrote, “Encourage creativity and allow everyone to bring their ideas forward”. The backfill solution to rebuild the collapsed freeway using a recycled glass product was a result of that creativity from PennDOT engineers.

We all know there is no “I” in team. We accomplish great things by working together. In Pennsylvania, state and federal officials coordinated closely with each other and private contractors and organized labor collaborated working 24/7 to get the job done.

While we never want a crisis to manage through, there will be more. These lessons will be key then and every day.

Related Posts:

Leading through a crisis

Health IT content – plenty of choices

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My recent two-week vacation included family time, Disney with grandkids, and time just chilling with girlfriends (aka pool time, my first ever pickle ball game, walks by the ocean, shopping, eating, talking and lots of laughing).  I often publish a blog each week even when I’m on vacation but not this time. It was a true break!

Now that I’m back it’s a different kind of week. I am taking care of one of my grandchildren so arranging my work schedule around her school drop-off and pickup times. Something many of you navigate seamlessly or not so seamlessly every day. I’m hoping to get it right!

I am also getting into the recording mode this week.

On May 5 at 1PM Eastern, I will be a panelist on the Well Health sponsored webinar – “Digital Transformation Post-COVID: What’s Next on the CIO Priority List?”. Meg Aranow from Well Health will be moderating the panel that also includes Joel Vengco, SVP and Chief Information & Digital Officer at Hartford HealthCare and Raymond Lowe, SVP & CIO at AltaMed Health Services. It should be a great session. You can register here.

And I’ve recorded my first show as one of the moderators on the new This Week in Health Town Hall / Community channel. I interviewed Pamela Arora, new President and CEO at AAMI and a longtime CIO colleague of mine. For all the IT leaders who listen to This Week in Health podcasts, be sure to check it out – the IT and HTM (health technology management) relationship is a critical one. Continue reading →

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.

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 →

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 →

Vaccine rollout – it takes a village, part 3

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Let’s start with the big picture and some good news. There are downward trends in the key COVID-19 indicators – the number of new COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. But we know there is no good news in 3,000 deaths per day and nearly 500,000 deaths since the pandemic started a year ago.

In terms of the vaccine, there is good news at a macro level. According to the Bloomberg COVID tracker, 48 million doses have been given in the U.S. with an average of 1.62 million doses administered per day, 14.6 doses have been administered for every 100 people, and 70% of the shots delivered to states have been administered. (as of 2/11/21 at 6:25PM)

There are more examples of mass vaccination sites with thousands being vaccinated in a single day at stadiums around the country. UC Health in Denver is offering a playbook for mass vaccination sites to other health systems – best practice sharing is something we do very well in healthcare.

Dr. Anthony Fauci projects that by sometime in April, the vaccine will be available to anyone who wants it. That seems very optimistic considering many states are just now in mid-February beginning to vaccinate anyone over age 75. President Biden says there will be enough vaccine supply to vaccinate 300 million in the U.S. by the end of summer.

Access issues continue with a lot of confusion and frustration for those in qualified groups trying to make appointments either online or by phone.  It has become a family affair for many as younger family members try to help their elders figure out how to get vaccine appointments when there are multiple channels possible in their state or city and multiple different websites to go to. I applaud the various initiatives of software engineers in Massachusetts and New York who based on their own frustrating family experiences created a way for people to check availability of vaccine appointments. But we should not have to rely on such solutions. I would expect our government agencies to have made it simpler to begin with.

I just learned of another tool that notifies people via text message when there are leftover doses in their zip code so no dose goes to waste – Vaccination Standby  List. According to the website, their mission is  “to reduce COVID vaccine waste, reduce unnecessary lines and crowds at stores, reduce misinformation of leftovers, and allow as many people as possible to take advantage of any leftover doses”.

Disparities in vaccine distribution are real. We need more examples like the one in South Los Angeles where Dr. Jerry P. Abraham and the Kedren Community Health Center set up a walk-in site described in the Los Angeles Times article by Erika D. Smith on January 29, “Column: How a South L.A. doctor is beating the system and distributing vaccines equitably”. In Dr. Abraham’s interview on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show on February 5, he said that he and his team are extremely solutions oriented and recognized that people with no car, no Internet access, and no email needed a workaround. Continue reading →

The evolving role of the CIO

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At the beginning of 2019, is your role as a Chief Information Officer what it was a year or two ago? Is that even still your title? Chances are the answers are no. Your role is possibly broader and more strategic canstockphoto2442956 (1) changing role of CIOthan it was.

Much has been written about the changing role of the CIO. There is talk about CIO 3.0. Some CIOs may feel pressure to take on new responsibilities, so they aren’t overshadowed by other new CXO leaders. But many more want to broaden their role as healthcare and technology evolves.

As John Glaser summarized so well in his article, “The Evolution of the Health Care Chief Information Officer”, many new CXO roles now interplay with the CIO role.

He talked about the five factors shaping the CIO 3.0:  the transformation of the health care business model; relentless innovation in information technology; shift in strategic emphasis; stepping up your skills; and IT leadership becoming a team sport. This last one is critical. The CIO and other evolving roles must play well with one another in the interest of the organization.

One of our StarBridge Advisors blogs in 2018 was by Avery Cloud, a former advisor and now CIO at Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System (FMOLH).  The title of his blog post was “The C-Double I-O”, adding a second “I” in the CIO title for innovation. He challenged CIOs to become as conversant in innovation principles as they are in ITIL.

David Chou, Chief Information and Digital Officer at Children’s Mercy Hospital, suggests that CIO also must mean “chief influence officer”. In his article he emphasizes the importance of creating a strong culture that supports transformation, and thinking like a CEO.

In the most recent StarBridge Advisors blog, “10 Steps to Prepare for 2019 – Big Challenges – Bigger Opportunities”, David Muntz had some advice for CIOs in the coming year. In step #3 he encourages CIOs to do a self-assessment. Continue reading →

Innovation or disruption?

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“You only call it a disruption because you didn’t create it – stop being disrupted, innovate.” That was just one of the messages in the opening keynote from Terry Jones at the fifth Annual Thought Leaders on Access Symposium (ATLAS) in Boston this week. His talk was titled “Turning Disruption OFF and Turning canstockphoto30429373 (1) innovationInnovation ON”.

As an entrepreneur with an impressive history, Terry Jones knows what he’s talking about. He is best known for founding Travelocity.com and serving as founding Chairman of Kayak.com. As consumers, we’ve experienced the disruptive innovations in the travel industry. As healthcare leaders, we were challenged by Terry to consider the innovations and disruptions yet to come in our industry.

ATLAS is a patient access conference for hospital and health system leaders sponsored by Kyruus for their customers and invited guests. Kyruus is a software firm that offers provider search, scheduling, and data management solutions to help health systems match patients with the right providers and enhance patient access enterprise-wide. This year’s theme was “Systemness. Ignited.” with excellent speakers on innovation and digital transformation in healthcare. The focus of the conference was on patient and consumer engagement. Health systems such as Banner Health and Piedmont Healthcare, leaders in transforming the patient experience, shared their stories.

It was inspiring to see so many healthcare leaders passionate about improving the patient experience. I’ve been in health IT management for decades and I was humbled to hear leaders from marketing, patient access, and innovation teams talk about getting things done in spite of roadblocks they sometimes face from IT. Continue reading →

What does a high value conference look like?

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Last week I had the opportunity to speak on two panels at a different kind of conference. HealthIMPACT East was held in Washington DC. The first day was solely focused on social determinants of health canstockphoto5296053 (1) conference(SDoH). The rest of the conference was on population health, interoperability, patient centered design, innovation, and blockchain.

The conference organizers and facilitators focus on what they call “purposeful events” with “no BS and no PowerPoints”. Instead of speakers talking “at people”, they facilitate lots of conversation in a room of full of smart people. The format was mostly panels with several excellent individual speakers who did use slides. The organizers want the conferences to be an idea exchange among a community of leaders and encourage dynamic debate.

The overall number of attendees was small. But it facilitated thought provoking discussion during each session and deeper networking connections at meals and breaks. I wasn’t tempted to pull out my iPhone to check my email as presenters talked through slide after slide. Instead, I was asking questions of the experts and engaged in the discussions.  The track facilitators did an excellent job getting attendees engaged.

When I walked in, I only knew two people – Megan Antonelli, CEO HealthIMPACT and CEO/founder of Purpose Events Group, who had invited me to speak, and Nick Bonvino, CEO at Greater Houston Healthconnect and a frequent speaker on interoperability. Continue reading →

When innovation means plan B

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It was already Thursday morning and I had no blog topic in mind for this week. By Thursday night I had several. So, what happened in between?canstockphoto6581040 plan b

I attended the New England HIMSS Chapter’s Annual Spring Conference – something I’d planned to do for a while. On my way there, I figured something that day would light a fire and I’d have a topic to talk about. Instead, there was a different kind of fire.

One of the chapter board members called me in the car and said she had heard I was on my way to the conference. I thought to myself, I’m stuck in traffic and may get there after the opening keynote starts, but did I have to admit that to her? No, that was just my guilt about leaving the house 15 minutes later than I should have. She was calling for a “small favor, no actually a big favor” as she said.

Turns out one of the afternoon speakers had gotten stuck in New York with flight cancellations and couldn’t make it. So, a panel with 3 chapter members was being hastily put together – would I be willing to participate? Of course I would. I said yes without knowing what we’d talk about or who else was being asked to be on the panel.

Two other panelists were being enlisted in that same rush of phone calls and conversations. Arthur Harvey, chapter board member and CIO at Boston Medical Center, had already arrived at the venue. He was of course very sympathetic to the dilemma and ready to help. Arthur and I were on the CIO panel together at the 2017 spring conference. He was already starting to percolate on a relevant topic we could address. Dirk Stanley, CMIO at UConn Health, was on his way to the conference from Connecticut and got a call like mine. I only knew Dirk from social media, so I was looking forward to meeting him in person.

When I arrived at the conference and was greeted warmly by board members who were pulling this backup plan together, I asked which speaker had to cancel and what was their topic. Answer: Blockchain. I laughed and said, well we’re not doing a panel on blockchain. Continue reading →