Healthcare IT News - February 2009 - (Page 12) 12 Healthcare IT News February 2009 ■ hoSpItalS & IdNs calls the “A-player” CIO “is going to be able to work a room,” she said. “A lot of this goes against what technologists do.” “ T h e p e r f o r - Joanne Sunquist mance demands are higher than ever,” Kirby said. John Halamka, MD, agrees that expectations are higher than ever. Halamka is the CIO of the CareGroup Health System in Boston and also CIO and dean for www.HealthcareITNews.com CIo Continued from page 1 Judith Kirby, principal of Snelling Executive Search in Altamonte Springs, Fla., said today’s CIO has to be on par with everyone else in the C-suite. Telling of the changes that have occurred in the role over time, she said, is that an increasing number of CIOs today report to the CEO rather than the chief financial officer. A recent CHIME survey showed that 35 percent of CIOs still report to the CFO while 41 percent report to the CEO. When healthcare systems and hospitals replace a CIO today, they are more likely to fill the position with a clinician, Kirby said. Some organizations hire a chief technology officer or a chief applications officer who handles the technology piece and reports of the CIO. “The CIO is removed from the B:8.375” day-to-day operations,” she said. T:8.125” “Then they can have the CIO be S:7” more strategic.” Also, the person that Kirby “over time, the role has changed dramatically.” – Joanne Sunquist technology at Harvard Medical School. “The job is harder now,” he said, “if you evaluate my success not on how long the server stayed up, but how do I achieve healthcare value.” Twelve years ago, Halamka said, he was writing code. Since then, he’s had to learn more skills. He’s not judged solely on whether he picked the right technology, but rather he is expected to foster adoption. “The metric of success,” he said, “is adoption and use.” As Kirby put it, “The bits and bytes piece” is less important to top hospital executives than leadership skills and a thorough understanding of the business. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: CIo 0209 l INfeCTIoN Continued from page 10 ©2009 OptumHealth, Inc. Health care should lead to healthier lifestyles. Leading a healthy life isn’t something you do alone. It takes help. Advice. Direction that’s as individualized as the person who receives it. No health care management approach is better at delivering that than the eSync Platform.SM It continually synchronizes hundreds of data points to deliver an accurate, holistic profile of every person in your population. So they get the right care, see the right providers and live the right lifestyle. And when every individual is healthier, your organization will be healthier and more productive. Discover the eSync difference at optumhealth.com/esync. country have already implemented technology to help them harness HAI data. Forty-six hospitals in Alabama are using benchmarking software called Medmined, developed by Cardinal Health. The software makes it possible to compare infection rates among hospitals around the country. “The real benefit from the benchmarking tool is in knowing how other hospitals perform and sharing knowledge and best practices to ensure continued improvement,” said Benja Morgan, infection control and employee health manager at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika, Ala. Sharp HealthCare in San Diego deployed Premier SafetySurveillor infection control and pharmacy modules to track and prevent infections. “Research has shown HAIs are often preventable if identified and isolated in time,” said Premier Epidemiologist and Director of Infection Prevention Salah Qutaishat. Leavitt said that in addition to the tremendous toll on human life, the financial burden attributed to HAIs is staggering. HHS’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that approximately 1.7 million HAIs occurred in U.S. hospitals in 2002 and were associated with 99,000 deaths. The CDC also estimates that HAIs add as much as $20 billion to healthcare costs each year. The HHS plan establishes national goals and outlines key actions for enhancing and coordinating HHSsupported efforts. These include development of national benchmarks, prioritized recommended clinical practices, a coordinated research agenda, an integrated information systems strategy and a national messaging plan. The plan also identifies opportunities for collaboration with national, state, tribal and local organizations. HHS plans to hold meetings in the spring of 2009 to provide opportunities for public comment. ■ B:10.875” T:10.625” More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: INFeCtIoN 0209 l S:10” http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/cios-move-boardroom http://www.optumhealth.com/esync http://www.optumhealth.com/esync http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/hhs-starts-infection-patrol
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