Tag Archives: interim management

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

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 →

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 →

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 →

It’s all about relationships

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I’m back in New England in the cold and snow with lots of follow-up tasks after the hyperstimulation of HIMSS19 and a much quieter visit with a friend and colleague on the Florida coast. Yes, that meant a canstockphoto15501323 (1) handshake croppeddaily walk along the beach. As I prioritize and re-prioritize my to do’s, I am reminded that this business is all about relationships.

To show how important the relationships are that I’ve built in my 30 plus years in health IT, here’s some of my scheduled and add-on meetings/calls this week:

  • A discussion with someone who worked on my IT team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital many years ago. She is now a sales director for a security vendor and needed a CIO perspective – she reached out on LinkedIn and I agreed to do a call.
  • Conversations with a few CIOs who are interested in working with StarBridge Advisors as potential advisors. Mutual connections introduced us.
  • A search firm I’d been in touch with years ago contacted me and now I am interviewing for a board position with a vendor.
  • A business partner of a colleague invited me to discuss with an investor the potential to join their advisory board.
  • Talking through an opportunity to host monthly podcasts with a colleague I’ve known for 3 years.

Yes, it’s all about relationships. But it’s not just about who you know. It’s about who you are and how you show up with people. You need to be capable and competent with the right knowledge and experience, but also honest and authentic with high integrity. That’s what it takes to be successful in a business that is all about relationships.

One of the best pieces of sales advice I got from a colleague last year was the “know-like-trust-need” model. People need to know who you are and what you can do, they need to like you, and they need to trust you. If you have all that, when they need you, they’ll call you. Simple. That’s why I focus on relationships. Continue reading →