Jonathan Morris, SVP& CIO, WellStar Health System

Challenges in technology to meet enterprise needs in 2013 and expectations

I believe several changes must occur in order for us to move forward, optimizing the value information technology, can bring to patient care. Until a few years ago, the majority of large enterprise IT vendors’ investment was directed towards hospital-based solutions. As healthcare reform progresses and we work to improve patients’ access to affordable care, it will become increasingly important to improve technology solutions and ‘parity’ for both primary care settings as well as patients’ homes. Changes in health care providers’ and organizations’ reimbursement are evolving from fee-for-service to population management-based models.

The areas in business environment where solutions do not yet exist or not up to the mark, and which if existed, would've made job easier

Healthcare reform requires a new level of partnership between patients, providers and other clinicians. Successfully communicating this need and working to develop the required collaborative culture and environment is one of the most challenging tasks I’ve experienced in my healthcare career. New project requests, existing projects’ scope creep and the need for IT support of ongoing organizational growth initiatives must be juggled by every healthcare IT organization.

Manner in which data is used to head off problems and complications before they happen

We do have pockets of successfully deployed IT-enabled patient safety initiatives scattered across our organization, i.e., inpatient bedside barcode medication scanning, and some ambulatory EHR implementation, but at the same time we are challenged by multiple diverse legacy clinical and revenue cycle datasets being combined and consumed by disparate areas of our organization. Our expectation is this data will become more accessible following our transition to Epic’s single, integrated, patient-centered clinical and revenue cycle record and anticipate improved enterprise alignment.

Technology trends impacting enterprise business environment

One of the biggest trends I have observed over the last few years is the evolving convergence of technologies, including network, platforms, user roles and devices. Healthcare IT is an incredibly complex environment; the variation in clinical applications’ user’s needs, individuals’ workflows and venues of care is almost infinite. Technology must change and improve the way our devices and applications help. We need to work with vendors to better address ‘smarter’

devices and BYOD solutions.

My roles and responsibilities as a CIO

When I began working in the CIO role two years ago I viewed the role primarily as being accountable for developing a collaborative strategic IT roadmap and working to improve execution with break/ fix and implementation. Today I understand, I am a peer member of the

leadership team and work with senior leadership to develop, validate and communicate a more integrated and coordinated strategy.

Lessons learned and advice for fellow CIOs

One of the biggest lessons I keep coming back to relates to the importance of ambulatory care. The direction of prior vendor and health system investment was tied to revenue and as a result the dominant investment was directed towards the acute care setting, i.e., the OR, inpatient medical imaging, bedside barcode scanning, CPOE, large-scale desktop deployments, etc. We will continue to see increasing investment and improved technology dedicated to the primary care space and improved communication. Moving the ambulatory sector onto a par level with hospitals’ technology solutions will afford increased access to shared data resulting in improved patient safety.

Media Partner: CIOReview | B2B Online 2020

CIOReview Clients: FORCAM , CSR

Check This: CIOReview | Crunchbase

                      CIOReview | Owler