Monie Phillips, PT, DPT, serves as Chief Information Officer at Jackson Parish Hospital.
On Thursday, Sepember 21, Mr. Phillips will speak on a panel at Becker's Hospital Review 3rd Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle Conference. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place September 21 through September 23 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Mr. Phillips' sessions, click here.
Question: Looking at your IT budget, what is one item or expense that has surprised you in terms of ROI? How so?
Monie Phillips: I would suppose the answer to this question for most would lean in the direction of software or a robust dashboard, but for our organization staff training has been beneficial these last few years. We have profited by remaining diligent regarding regulatory changes and staying on top of the ever present and constant tech evolution. The ROI from an IT standpoint is most often a preventative loss strategy from a risk standpoint; training has given us the edge in my opinion. From security to meaningful use changes, the training has been essential to success.
Q: Finding top tech talent is always a challenge. Say a CIO called you up today to ask for an interview question that would distinguish the best candidates from the mid- to low-performers. What question do you suggest he or she ask?
MP: "The healthcare industry has been resistant to embedding IT into their workflow; how would you go about bridging the gap?" The tech talent pool must embrace healthcare as much as the healthcare industry has had to embrace, or in some cases endure, technological advancements. Today's tech professionals must step out of the stereotypical reclusive network or systems administrator roles and demonstrate professionalism at every corner. If healthcare is to take tech and tech employees seriously, IT and HIT employees alike must be customer-facing, client-oriented experts willing to go the extra mile to promote and embed technology into the medical community.
Q: We spend a lot of timing talking about the exciting innovation modernizing healthcare. It's also helpful to acknowledge what we've let go of. What is one form of technology, one process or one idea that once seemed routine to you but is now endangered, if not extinct? What existed in your organization two to five years ago but not anymore?
MP: Fax machines, paper payroll statements and calling in to make an appointment with a physician are my picks. Electronic messaging and encryption coupled with increased HIPAA requirements should have everyone trying to retire their fax machines. Moving toward online payroll portals is a welcome change from having to FaceTime with accounting for your last check stub; much like booking an appointment with your physician should be as seamless as booking your air travel. A lot of people want to speak with a person for fear of their transaction going wrong, so it's very important that the systems we have in place work properly or the tech community will continue to feel resistance to the advancement.
Q: Tell us about the last time you were truly, wildly amazed by technology. What did you see?
MP: Automated functions and dashboards of any kind always catch my eye. However, machine learning, deep and/or convolutional neural networks that can identify photos of moles as melanoma with near 80% accuracy is amazing.