The new CIO of Dallas-based Medical City Healthcare plans to leverage AI, as well as his health system’s ties to HCA Healthcare, to advance digital innovation at the organization.
Jason Ickert was named CIO of Medical City Healthcare on June 27, having worked for the organization for more than 25 years. The 22-hospital system is part of Nashville, Tenn.-based hospital giant HCA.
Becker’s caught up with Mr. Ickert to ask about his plans and goals for his new role, and the big IT challenges and opportunities he intends to address.
Question: What are your plans/goals for your new role as CIO of Medical City Healthcare?
Jason Ickert: Medical City Healthcare has a proud legacy of leveraging technology to enhance both the clinician’s and the patient’s experience. My vision is to build upon that solid foundation by driving innovation and ensuring technology is a strategic differentiator for exceptional care, operational excellence and long-term sustainability.
A key priority will be to continue partnering closely with our clinical colleagues to ensure that every technological solution is designed with their workflows in mind. Streamlining processes and reducing administrative burden using technology smartly empowers our clinicians to spend more time where it matters most, at the bedside caring for patients. This requires cultivating and supporting a culture where innovation and exploration of emerging technologies thrive and collaboration is second nature.
Q: What IT project are you most proud of in your time at Medical City Healthcare?
JI: As part of HCA Healthcare, we have the unique opportunity to participate in the enterprisewide Coding for Caregivers Hackathon, a three-day innovation event focused on listening to the voices of our nurses and solving real-world challenges faced by our care teams.
In collaboration with our nursing colleagues at Medical City Healthcare, we developed Revive, a mobile iPad application designed to streamline the documentation of cardiac, respiratory arrest or other life-threatening medical emergencies called “Code Blue” events in real time. The primary goals of Revive were to improve the efficiency of the associated documentation, eliminate redundant paperwork, enhance communication among care teams and provide greater visibility into Code Blue data for analytics and reporting.
The result is a digital solution that transmits Code Blue documentation directly into the EHR, improving both accuracy and timeliness. Revive is now being rolled out across our parent company, HCA Healthcare — demonstrating how innovation at the local level can scale to drive enterprisewide impact.
Q: What unique opportunities does being part of HCA present on the IT side?
JI: Being part of HCA Healthcare allows Medical City Healthcare to tap into the scale, resources and collective expertise of one of the nation’s leading healthcare systems. This affiliation enhances care delivery and operational excellence at Medical City Healthcare when it comes to IT in unique ways:
Shared innovation and best practices: We benefit from a vast network of peers across HCA Healthcare who are constantly evaluating and refining modern technologies. This allows us to adopt proven solutions more quickly and avoid duplicating efforts.
Enterprise-grade infrastructure and security: HCA Healthcare’s investment in robust IT infrastructure and cybersecurity frameworks ensures that we have access to leading-edge tools and protections that are often out of reach for other organizations.
Data-driven insights at scale: With access to one of the largest clinical data sets in the country through HCA Healthcare, we can leverage advanced analytics and machine learning models to drive better decision-making, improve patient outcomes and identify trends that inform strategic planning throughout the Medical City Healthcare system of care in North Texas.
Q: Where does AI fit into your IT strategy at Medical City Healthcare?
JI: Medical City Healthcare is actively leveraging AI initiatives to enhance both clinical and operational performance, guided by HCA Healthcare’s Responsible AI framework, which ensures our use of AI is ethical, secure and equitable.
One of the most impactful areas is clinical documentation. Medical City Healthcare is using generative AI and ambient documentation tools to reduce the administrative burden on clinicians. For example, our hospitalists can use hands-free devices to capture patient interactions, which are then converted into structured medical notes. This allows our providers to spend more time with patients and less time on paperwork.
Medical City Healthcare is also exploring AI to improve nurse handoffs, generating automated reports that consolidate key patient data like medications, labs and clinical notes. This helps ensure continuity of care and reduces the risk of communication gaps during shift changes.
On the operational side, AI is helping us optimize staff scheduling by forecasting patient demand and aligning workforce resources accordingly.
Q: What is the biggest challenge in health IT nowadays, and how do you plan to address it?
JI: Cybersecurity is a critical challenge. At Medical City Healthcare, we utilize a layered security strategy, leveraging HCA Healthcare’s vast cyber defense systems with advanced threat detection, while continually training colleagues at all levels on the signs, symptoms and response to such threats. Aligning cybersecurity standards to ensure consistent and rapid response aims to protect patients and colleagues and ensure care continuity.
Q: What is the biggest opportunity in health IT, and how do you plan to take advantage of it?
JI: The greatest opportunity in health IT today is the ability to harness AI and data-driven technologies to transform how care is delivered, documented and managed. At Medical City Healthcare, we are focusing on tools that reduce administrative burden, enhance clinical decision-making and improve operational efficiency.
When we embrace all aspects of innovation and leading-edge technology, we elevate patient safety and improve more lives. That ensures our expert care teams spend more time with their patients, where they excel and the healing happens.
