Women In Health IT

My fourth grandbaby was born this week. I helped out by taking care of his 19 month old big sister while his parents were at the hospital. Being able to be present to give this support to my daughters is one of the reasons I started my next chapter back in January. Why is it so important for me to spend time with my family as my four grandchildren grow up?  My father died when I was just 4 years old. His death left my mother to raise my 3 older siblings and me alone. Her parents lived 3 hours away.  We only saw them a few times a year – a 3 hour drive for a mom and four kids was a big deal back then. My father’s parents had died before my parents were married. And my own daughters grew up without grandparents. By the time my husband and I were in our 30’s, all of our parents were deceased. None of them lived to age 70. As a professional woman, I have worked far more than 40 hours a week since my late 20’s and been in management since 1984. When I had babies, a 6-week maternity leave was the norm. Both my daughters went to infant programs in daycare centers when I went back to work. I learned that babies start to smile at their parents (and it’s not just gas) at around 6 weeks old. I realized that I would miss her first smile being back at work. I treasure the times I have now with my grandkids. My daughters are appreciative of the help I can give but don’t want it to be a burden. I have heard people my age say being a grandparent is great but it’s really nice to be able to hand the kids back to their parents. Yes, kids are demanding and tiring when you are no longer young. And as the grandparent there is so much we don’t know about their specific routines even though we successfully raised our own kids many years ago. My 19 month old charge this week has had a fever and an ear infection. I had to figure out how to get her to take her medicine on top of the normal routines. I’ve quoted various articles and leaders in previous posts, but never a children’s book. As we read the popular and prize winning book “Olivia” by Ian Falconer at bedtime last night, the closing struck home: When they’ve finished reading, Olivia’s mother gives her a kiss and says, “You know, you really wear me out. But I love you anyway”. And Olivia gives her a kiss back and says, “I love you anyway too”. I hope to be a positive role model for my grandkids as they grow up. I look forward to all the fun times we’ll have together. As I watch the debate about gun control in Congress, I hope that our leaders will do the right thing and help move us toward the safe and loving country we want for our children and grandchildren. One of the most powerful health care organizations, the American Medical Association, took a big step last week in calling gun violence a public health crisis. I applaud them for that. Blog originally posted on www.sueschade.com.

This week we all grieve for the families and victims in Orlando.

We define “health” broadly in Health Populi and in our work at THINK-Health, so I am thinking about health disparities today that people in the LGBT community face every day. Let’s call them out.

Putting patients at the center of preventing mortality from blood clots, and being more aware of them in recognizing their onset, is key to stemming the disease burden. We can do more to engage with information, tools and other patients and programs to help monitor this condition.

Picture this. One of your IT leaders tells you they have been pulled into a project by a senior executive; they are trying to figure out who in IT owns it. You tell them that another of your leaders owns it. They are working out the specific issues with yet another leader. The first person says it’s still not clear. So you pull all three of them together for 15 minutes and try to sort it out. With a collaborative team that works well together, that 15 minutes is relatively easy. Your first question is who’s on first? You want to know who owns it and what’s going on. My team has learned that one of my questions about problems is “who wakes up in the morning worried about it?”  Not that I want people worrying and losing sleep. But, it’s a way to identify who owns something and is accountable for it. “Who’s on first?” is another one of those questions. It may be a messy, complex project. It may be off to the side or on the fringe but it still needs a clear owner. After just 15 minutes, my three leaders and I confirmed the right roles for each of them, and next steps. And of course we talked about lessons learned. So what did we learn again in this situation? Role clarification – this is critical for all projects, small or large, high priority or not. Clarifying and communicating sponsor, business owner, project manager, and decision makers is key. Communication – proactive communication throughout the life of a project to all members of the core team and the stakeholders is another key. Setting and managing expectations – this is especially true when dealing with many concurrent efforts with the same set of users and stakeholders. It’s also important when a project that seems simple actually has a lot of complex issues:  technical, operational, legal or something else. I’ll bet you can think of a messy project in your experience that swirled or stalled. You might have some bad memories. Most likely, what went wrong ties back to one of these basics. So clarify roles, communicate, and manage expectations, but make sure you know who’s on first. Blog originally posted on www.sueschade.com.

At the start of 2016, the current installed base of wearable activity tracking devices was just over 33 million in the U.S.

The first three months of my interim CIO engagement at University Hospitals has flown by. I’m fortunate to be working with a very talented IT team and we recognize there is always room for improvement. We have already made some very positive changes and improvements. We are tightening up how we manage and monitor the production environment to reduce preventable incidents. We do a root cause analysis on every major incident and review them as a team at our bi-weekly leadership meeting, tracking all subsequent action items. We are making progress on numerous major priority projects and there have been several system upgrades and go lives during this period. We are doing detailed planning for our new hospital integration efforts. We are launching our visual management board and leadership huddle next week as part of our lean efforts. And we have re-established an executive level IT steering committee addressing the critical need for IT governance. Our third IT steering committee will be Monday evening. Our CEO and other senior executives are engaged – exactly what we needed. They are developing a deeper understanding of our current work and the many new requests we have received since this year’s budget was approved. We have reviewed with them how our work aligns with UH strategic goals and ranked the projects in relative priority order. At the upcoming meeting we will discuss our strategy for new hospital integration. In particular, we will look at the impact of system-wide requests before all hospitals are on the core systems. And we will look closely at the new requests – why are they needed this year and how do they align with UH strategy. There is an insatiable demand for IT at UH — just like at every other organization I’ve worked for.  But the “yes machine” can’t continue unless there are tradeoffs. IT leadership teams appreciate it when executives say “it’s OK to say no” and that “there can’t be back doors and end runs when something is not approved”. And that approving new projects at this stage in the year means making tradeoffs –  something has to come off the list or get pushed down to make time for a new project. The scope of responsibilities for our executive IT steering committee is not unique or earth shaking – it is the basics you would expect to see: –      Primary governing body for IT strategy and operations –      Communication ambassador for IT –      Planning for future initiatives and direction –      Balance conflicting priorities –      Guidance on specific projects as needed –      Approve unplanned projects –      Provide input and oversight on IT policies Basic but needed. One of the 4 questions I asked in every executive meet and greet session was: how can I have the greatest impact as an interim?  IT governance was a common response. Just over three months on the job and we are having our third steering committee. I listened and they were ready. For a CIO, that’s a good place to be. Blog originally posted on www.sueschade.com.

Carla Smith, MA, CNM, FHIMSS, Executive Vice President, HIMSS, shares her advice on how qualified job seekers can stand out when looking for a senior-level position in today’s marketplace.

Now in its 27th year, the HIMSS Leadership Survey covers a variety of topics designed to capture responses to fixed longitudinal challenges facing health IT leaders as well as dynamic time-specific concerns.

Findings from the HIMSS’s December 2015 Compensation Survey and the 27th Annual HIMSS Leadership Survey raise questions surrounding the efficacy of the sector’s IT staff recruitment and retention practices.