Pamela Saechow serves as senior assistant vice president of the Epic Program for NYC Health + Hospitals
On Friday, Sepember 22, Ms. Saechow 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 Ms. Saechow's 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?
Pamela Saechow: Miscellaneous office items like coffee, tea, water and disposable dishware or utensils. Supplying these items in our break room provides hospitality to our staff and shows them we care. It helps staff members save money, prevents them from having to go outside of their work environment, allows the convenience of not having to bring their own supplies to work and offers a common place for them to take a break and have amenities to converse or collaborate with colleagues at a different level. It puts a human touch to the work environment and helps the staff feel valued and appreciated. When you drill into the employee engagement committee or employee surveys for experience of work, these are the examples people often share when rating how they like their work environment.
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?
PS: What inspires you to get out of bed to come to work? This gives me a good idea of who the person is and if it's a good fit for the culture/environment.
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?
PS: The typewriter was a necessity, but today it's almost an antique. We also used to have allocations to do team building events and staff development about two to five years ago, and it seems today, with the challenges we face on financial strength, these are the areas that are often eliminated.
Q: Tell us about the last time you were truly, wildly amazed by technology. What did you see?
PS: One of my teams developed a patient tracking system almost mimicking today's uber technology, tracking each detail to support a move of more than 200 patients from one hospital to another more than 5 miles apart utilizing more than 50 ambulances. I was in awe. Considering the outside labor cost of a few individuals over a couple of weeks to create the system, it provided huge value. It allowed the organization to account for the whole transition process to ensure smooth transition of every patient to their destination, no matter what the level of care was for each unique patient. It gave our executives the comfort of knowing that our patients are safe since they can see and manage all the activities.