Tag Archives: interim CIO

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

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

Interim leaders may be one answer to the “great resignation”

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Over the past 6 years, I’ve been fortunate to serve four different healthcare providers as an interim leader – three as CIO, one as CTO. While there have been common themes, each has had its unique challenges. 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 – “Talent shortage? Great resignation? Interim leaders can help”. In this new post I share some of my own experiences as an interim and what organizations expect when they look outside for an interim leader.

Related Posts:

Interim Management – Providing a Bridge During Transition

When an interim CIO makes sense

Stepping into an interim leadership role

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 →

Time to simplify

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The past week has been an unexpected one. I’m one week out from a bad fall and injuries that will take a while to heal. Having to limit my mobility at a time when we are downsizing, getting our house ready to list and working full-time is not easy. I thought about writing a blog this week titled “In an instant” to describe how quickly things can change or “View from the other side” to describe my emergency room experience. Other than being in the ED far longer than I expected, I can only say positives about the hard-working hospital staff and how they took care of me.

But instead, I’m just going to keep it simple.

As I simplify what’s on my to do list, I decided August is a good time for a break from weekly blog writing. Many readers are on vacation and taking well deserved breaks. If you are looking for new content, check out two recent podcasts I did:

Newsday – HIMSS Plans and Pandemic Lessons Learned with Bill Russell.

Healthcare CIO Leadership, Innovation, and the Interim CIO with John Lynn.

I can’t compete with the amount of conference level content that Bill (This Week in Health IT) and John (Healthcare IT Today) produce throughout the year. But I’m grateful to periodically be part of what they do to continually educate and develop next generation leaders.

If listening to podcasts isn’t your thing, they both have much written content to check out as well. Or you can always peruse my past blogs by category and find some of the classics.

Look for my next blog in early September!

Most popular posts in the past year:

Career advice in a competitive market

8 health experts to follow

Rounding in a virtual world

Remote work – writing chapter three

Resources for your digital health journey

Vendor relationship management revisited

When healthcare becomes personal

Looking ahead to 2021 – predictions, emerging trends and some advice

 

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 →

It’s handoff time again

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This week I will do a handoff to the new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the University of Vermont Health Network (UVMHN), Seth Maynard. I’ve been serving as interim CTO since late May of last year. Seth recently served as CTO at Yale New Haven Health System and is ready to take over from me. We have already had several transition conversations, but we have plenty more to cover in the coming days as part of the handoff.

Anyone who has relocated to join an organization at a senior management level knows there is much to learn. It’s a new market, a new organization, a new set of leaders, a new team, a new culture, a new set of projects, and new issues. Yes, there is much similarity between health care organizations, and you have your experience and knowledge to draw on from the past. But the learning curve in a new organization is still a steep one.

My overarching goal for this week is like my previous interim to permanent handoffs – provide as smooth and comprehensive a handoff as possible. Ultimately, I’m there to ensure the permanent leader gets off to a good start and is successful. That means:

  • Sharing background information that is most critical and useful passing along as much needed knowledge and insight as possible
  • Conducting the meetings that are a critical part of the handoff including focused time with the management team, an introduction at the monthly all staff meeting, as well as initial discussions with key partner departments
  • Ensuring that together we don’t miss a beat on current issues that need leadership direction
  • Stepping back and letting the new leader start making decisions and address issues providing support as needed

When I started this interim, Continue reading →

Bridging the gap with an interim leader

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My husband and I have both served in interim roles this year. Tom left IT in the mid-1990s to become a Unitarian Universalist minister. He is now a retired minister who does a lot of guest preaching and writing and is very active in our denomination nationally. He did part-time interim ministry at two different churches in our area this year. The first was for 3 months early in the year, and the second was for 4 months this Fall. He was filling in for ministers who were on sabbatical. His role was to preach and lead worship on Sundays, work with the board and staff, and be available as needed for pastoral care.

Compare this to the interim CTO engagement I’ve done since late May. A full-time role keeping infrastructure projects moving forward, helping to ensure a successful Epic go live, dealing with day to day issues, and helping recruit the permanent CTO.

Interim leadership roles take different forms. They range from “keeping the seat warm” to turnaround situations where significant change is needed. Regardless of the role, an interim needs to be able to confidently step into the role, build relationships, gain respect, and get up to speed quickly. Continue reading →

One year anniversary, how are we doing?

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For the first birthdays of my four grandkids, there have been party hats and “smash” cakes. But what does a small team of entrepreneurs do on the first anniversary of founding their firm? They take stock and plan canstockphoto48088945for year two.

David Muntz, Russ Rudish and I launched StarBridge Advisors in October of 2016. So how does a health IT advisory firm measure success after year one?

Number of clients – We have already assisted 12 healthcare provider organizations with some repeat engagements and have national reach.

Revenue – Any first-year projections can be a crapshoot but you need to start somewhere. We may have been overly optimistic but we are well on our way with our client base and pipeline.

Size of our team – In addition to our three principals, we now have almost 20 advisors on our team available for interim management, leadership support and consulting. Their IT leadership experience includes serving as CIO, CTO, CISO, CMIO or CNIO in healthcare organizations.

Channel partners – We work closely with several larger consulting firms who offer services that we don’t. We partner with Healthcare IT Leaders, a leading staffing firm and Rudish Executive Search, which specializes in healthcare.  And we are working with a few start-up technology vendors who are bringing to market new and novel solutions for healthcare providers.

Referrals – Our principals combined have over 90 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Our relationships are a key component of growing a new business and getting known in the market.

Name and brand recognition – A year ago we had decided on a name and incorporated, but had yet to figure out our branding. That was some fun work at first; by January we launched our website and social media presence. Continue reading →