With the hundreds of CIOs that I’ve talked to over the years, I’m starting to see a real trend happening in their work life. Many hospital CIOs that I talk to are overwhelmed so much with the operations requirements that they don’t take the time to look at more strategic decisions. From the outside it’s easy to see how this is going to pose a problem, but in the heat of the work day it’s hard to recognize.
Think about all the operational pressures that exist for a hospital CIO today. The first on their list is likely meaningful use and the EHR incentive money. Some might question if this is an operational agenda item and I assure you that it is indeed an operations question and not a strategic question. This alone is quite overwhelming. However, there are many more government regulations that are sitting on their back and requiring a lot of work. 5010, ICD-10, ACA, are a few that are close to the heart of this. None of these operational requirements even takes into account things like desktop replacements, network upgrades, server maintenance, server upgrades, mobile device management, etc etc etc. Not to mention security and HIPAA.
The point is that it’s easy for a hospital CIO to get caught up in all the day to day operational requirements that they can’t see any room for a strategically important project. This is a really significant problem and one that ONC should be worried about as well. Are hospitals so overwhelmed with operational requirements that they’re not going to be ready for the future?
There’s an easy way for a hospital CIO to know how they’re doing with this. Sit down and take a look back at your schedule for the last week. How much was spent on strategic thinking and implementation for your organization? I think most hospital CIOs will find a severe lack of time spent strategically improving their organization.
The only way to get there as a leader of a hospital organization is to have people on your team who you trust enough to delegate important operational tasks. Yes, the operational tasks must go forward, but you have to delegate the operational tasks so you can focus on the strategic.
Great article, John. It really coincides with your posts about hiring people and loosening the reigns. It’s important for CIOs to surround themselves with good strategic thinkers who can offer a fresh perspective. Health care innovation will create much needed change in the system if you allow input from folks with a fresh set of eyes outside organizational culture. : )
Joan,
I hadn’t made the connection between the two posts, but I love that you did. I can definitely see some connection in the two.
[…] interacted with a few hospital CIOs at TEDMED. In fact, it’s what prompted my post asking if Hospital CIOs were overwhelmed with operations. I think this is a really important […]