Healthcare IT News - November 2007 - (Page 18) 18 Healthcare IT News ■ November 2007 hOSpItaLS & IdNs www.HealthcareITNews.com Tennessee health system puts performance data on Web By rICHArd PIzzI, Associate Editor WIllIAMS Continued from page 15 - The Mountain States Health Alliance, an integrated healthcare delivery system in eastern Tennessee, has joined a small group of hospitals in the United States by placing their quality performance scores on the Internet. “By making our quality scores available to our communities, we are committing not only to transJOHNSON CITY, TN parency but also to being accountable to deliver quality patient care,” said Dennis Vonderfecht, MSHA president and CEO. “We want everyone to know that we take the safety and quality care of our patients very seriously.” Quality scores are available for each MSHA hospital providing care for heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgery. MSHA officials say the Web site will be updated each month and will eventually display additional safety measures. MSHA executives claim the healthcare system’s quality scores have passed audits by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and have recorded scores of 100 percent validity in many audits. “What we are working to do is give the public our safety and performance information compared to national and state averages so they can make informed decisions about their healthcare choices,” said Ken Marshall, MD, senior vice president of medical affairs for MSHA. “This is about more than just saying we are doing a good job." More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: teNNeSSee 1107 as business colleagues, providing responsible leadership in investment planning, business growth and strategic development of the mission. It is much, much less of a technical role than 20 years ago. Stats MORE than 20 years in healthcare IT ■ FORMER senior VP of information services and CIO at St. Joseph Health System, Orange, Calif. ■ CHIME’s Innovator of the year - 2004 ■ BS in business administration, Appalachian State University, Boone, N.C. ■ l ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ What do you view as the primary mission of today’s CIO? To create a clear and understandable strategic vision for the investment in technology, to communicate effectively, to build strong teams that deliver on our goals, and to be a businessperson first and technology expert second. What do you see as the greatest opportunity for healthcare information technology today? I believe that the appropriate use of information technology in healthcare may be the best (and last) significant hope to enable a safer healthcare environment for patients and their care providers. The greatest obstacle? The same as the greatest opportunity. It’s a shift in the mental model of who has responsibility to provide care. As the world globalizes and costs increase we’re still a skeptical industry when it comes to embracing fully the revolutionary aspects of shared accountability to transform beyond the incremental. Which one of your achievements as CIO gives you the most satisfaction and pride? Creating a model for all disciplines (medical staff, nursing, ancillary, administrative, technology, industry) to participate in the transformation of care delivery in a project known as Care ReDesign while at St. Joseph Health System was a real point of professional satisfaction. The team of selfless individuals that I worked with made the difference through creativity and innovation that made Care ReDesign a key strategic focus. What do you see as your most pressing challenge at CHW? CHW is wonderful organization with so many possibilities for information technology to help move the mission forward. Positioning IT as a key strategic component to better enable CHW is paramount. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: wILLIaMS 1107 l e l Connect: eLSeVIer 1107 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8041 http://www.clinicaldecisionsupport.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.clinicaldecisionsupport.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8035 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/eConnect.cms?id=8089
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