Tag Archives: technology

Celebrating, collaborating with, and learning from HTM – part 2

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This week is Health Technology Management (HTM) Week celebrating and honoring all those who work in the HTM/Clinical Engineering/Biomedical department at provider organizations across the country. Regardless of the department name, you know who they are. If you are a nurse, you know the HTM staff by name. HTM professionals make a difference every day ensuring safe patient care.

Over the past 9 years as an AAMI board member, I’ve developed a greater appreciation for this critical part of our health ecosystem and all the players involved. From HTM leaders to clinicians to educators to device manufacturers and government representatives. AAMI is an organization that brings all of them to the table. As described on their website, the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation® (AAMI), a nonprofit organization founded in 1967, is a diverse community of more than 10,000 professionals united by one important mission—the development, management, and use of safe and effective health technology. AAMI is the primary source of consensus standards, both national and international, for the medical device industry, as well as practical information, support, and guidance for healthcare technology and sterilization professionals.

The timing of my first This Week Health Townhall interview published last week was perfect. I spoke with Pamela Arora, AAMI’s new President and CEO. I have gotten to know Pamela as a CIO colleague and fellow AAMI board member the past 6 years. She will bring new perspectives and experiences to AAMI. Not the least will be a recognition that HTM and IT teams need to work more closely together at the micro level in provider organizations and at the macro level with professional health IT organizations. Closer collaboration will have a positive impact for the patients and communities we collectively serve. Continue reading →

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 →

On the other side of the digital front door – part 3

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Two different procedures. Two different specialties. Two different patient communication approaches. Yet both practices use the same EHR and patient portal.

Prep for surgery instructions. Paper. Branded folder to put the paper in. More paper on next visit. A call from practice confirming specific surgery time and then get transferred to recorded message with specific pre-surgery instructions. Day of surgery sent home with post-op instructions – more paper.

Prep for procedure instructions. Available on the patient portal under letters. Texts and emails sent with specific prep information. Timed texts and emails for each major step along a defined prep timeline. Post procedure summary and instructions given to me on paper and available on the portal.

Practice variation is real. At times, it’s required and makes sense given different specialties. But not always.

So how were these two different experiences from a patient communication perspective? For me, there is a comfort having paper – can easily refer to it when needed. That is, if you know where you put it – hence the branded folder they give you. In the other situation, there was a very prescribed set of timed pre-procedure steps so the texts/emails at specified times telling me what to do was helpful.

What wasn’t such a good patient experience? Continue reading →

Thoughts on the Oracle acquisition of Cerner

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Without question, the announcement yesterday that Oracle is acquiring Cerner for $28.3 billion is the biggest health IT story of the year. I won’t speculate on what I don’t know. I’ll leave that to others. But I can

source: www.hitconsultant.net

speak from experience as a CIO who has worked with all the big EHR vendors over the years including Cerner, Epic, Allscripts and Meditech. I’ve talked with and at times commiserated with many CIO colleagues who have experience with some or all of these EHR vendors.

While Cerner clients are trying to figure out what this acquisition will mean for them, good or bad, I’ll go back to the basics. Over the years I’ve written several blog posts on vendor management. They all seem pertinent and good reminders for health IT leaders trying to sort out how to work with Cerner going forward and how to manage within their organizations as they are faced with questions this week that they probably can’t answer.

12 tips for effective vendor management outlines what to look for in your current and future vendors. If I were a Cerner client or contemplating a switch to Cerner, I’d pay particularly close attention to these tips:

  • A good product roadmap
  • More service than sales
  • Excellent customer service
  • Executive level relationship
  • Long term value for the investment

There will be much speculation and commentary in the coming days on what this acquisition means to Cerner clients and the health IT industry overall. At the end of the day, we must keep the Quadruple Aim in mind in all we do to serve our patients and our communities: enhance the patient experience, reduce costs, improve healthcare outcomes, and improve the clinician experience. That has never been more important than during this pandemic. Will Oracle’s acquisition of Cerner help or hinder? Will Cerner provide a superior, more reliable, more integrated EHR in 2022 and well into the future? Only time will tell.

Related Posts:

12 tips for effective vendor management

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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 →

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.

STEM or not, own your career

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Did you know that November 8th was national STEM day? I admit that I didn’t realize it until I was tagged in a comment on a LinkedIn post about national STEM day. Geeta Nayyar, SVP Executive Medical Director at Salesforce, shared some important but disappointing statistics on women and STEM in that post. While women make up about 47% of the total workforce, she notes that we are statistically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – STEM fields. Women make up only 29% of the STEM labor force, 19% of STEM company board members are women, and among STEM industry CEOs, only 3% are women. No wonder I so often am the only woman in the Zoom room when talking with technology firms. We can and must do better.

In her post, Geeta encouraged people to tag inspiring women leaders they know. I’m grateful and humbled that Linda Stotsky, Content Marketing Strategist at Boston Software Systems, tagged me and several other women in her comment.

I have long been a proponent of more women going into STEM fields and have willingly shared my own stories. I started out as a programmer in the early 1980s and then moved into health IT management for the rest of my career – a field that has been male dominated. I recall a long stretch in the late 1980s when I was the only woman on an all-male IT leadership team and the challenges I faced. Challenges I overcame and that I have helped other women overcome since then.

I was honored to be one of the first women interviewed for the new podcast series, The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare, produced by The Krinsky Company. In this interview I share stories and lessons from my career, give career advice, and provide tips for developing next generation leaders.

As I always say, you have to own your own career and be open to the possibilities. Technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace and the possibilities are unlimited. If a STEM career is right for you, go for it. Be sure to find role models and mentors who can support you and help you overcome the challenges you may face.

Related Posts:

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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 →

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.

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Major implementations need experienced leadership

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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 →