Health system IT leaders are entering a new era of leadership amid transformational technology platform purchases, artificial intelligence integration and cybersecurity advancements. But being the most technically proficient no longer guarantees leaders the top role.
Eight years ago, James Forrester thought about his role as chief technology officer at University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center much differently.
"I would have thought about myself as a technology leader first, meaning I would have started with architecture. Today, I think of myself as a talent leader first," he said. "I often quip that 'CTO' stands for 'chief talent officer.' Certainly I need to stay current on technology and architecture, but I really start with talent. We've had a strong focus on talent for the last few years in particular, focused on acquiring and retaining talent and building talent pipelines within the organization."
And he has been successful. Mr. Forrester's team has a 5% turnover rate for the last 12 months, compared to the industry average of around 12% to 14%. What makes the difference?
"We've really focused on fair compensation, quality of managers, tying our work to the overarching missions of clinical care, research and education, as well as the 4th area of workforce flexibility," he said. "I think the next evolution in talent will continue to maintain all of those four factors of compensation, quality of managers, drive intrinsic value and workforce flexibility. But I think the next evolution will really focus on effectively leveraging talent and also partnering the IT talent with operations at every level to gain those positive synergies and full return."
Mr. Forrester sees the importance of business relationships continuing to evolve and his ability to work more closely with the COO and other divisional and hospital leaders as paramount to success. As technology expands to every aspect of the health system, so does his responsibility and influence.
"Healthcare is a digitally enabled business and most everything requires some form of technology," Mr. Forrester said. "The earlier that the IT leadership is partnered in the strategy and decision-making process, frankly, the better the results are going to be. That's another area of evolution for me, and then the technology architecture is always there."
Donna Roach, CIO of University of Utah Health in Salt Lake City, is taking time this year to listen more. While she has years of experience and training, she is taking time to really listen to what her peers are asking about and concerns from clinicians before proceeding from the pilot to the implementation phase.
"I've learned taking that time and being very thoughtful and mindful is key," she said. "There are a lot of solutions to a lot of problems, and the solution I may come up with may be technically the best one, but it may not be the right one for the organization and the culture. I've learned to slow down a bit. Don't be the 'type A,' and really understand and be thoughtful about my approach to create better partnerships with my executives."
She is also honing her communication skills. Every leader brings biases into a conversation based on their experiences, and Ms. Roach sees the need to break them down to find the best solutions. Sometimes she thinks she's communicated well when in reality she missed the other person's point.
"Then we take a step back and I ask them to walk me through it," said Ms. Roach. "I've grown and I always have the opportunity to grow more in that space."
Christopher Hutchins, senior vice president and chief data and analytics officer at Lifepoint Health in Brentwood, Tenn., is also paying more attention to his teammates and colleagues, as well as patients to understand what's really important to them.
"I've grown up around healthcare and I always have that 'inside of healthcare' perspective. I think I know what's good and what's not so good in terms of how to access it and how do you navigate inside of it," said Mr. Hutchins. "The reality is, I know how to do it because I've been inside of it for so long. I'm trying to remember when we're talking about how we design and develop solutions that we need to try to involve some people who are not looking at things from the insider perspective."
Healthcare IT leaders can become distracted by the bells and whistles of new technology and move forward without considering the patient experience.
"For me, being somebody that's been involved with data and technology for a long time, I can get really excited to do a fit pump if I can make a formula work cool and work well on a spreadsheet, or make a dashboard look cool," Mr. Hutchins said. "But it's an important thing to remember that in the healthcare field, what we're all about is taking care of people, fulfilling the mission of making people healthier in our communities. It's not about technology or dashboards. Those things aren't going to make people want to come to our healthcare organization."
Staying close to the health system's mission is critical for IT leaders, and Mr. Hutchins ties the technology back to patient care. He prioritizes his teammates and colleagues, listening carefully to what they need.
"[Healthcare] still comes down to taking care of people, and for me, that also means taking care of the people I'm surrounded by and listening to my colleagues and teammates, remembering that we don't need any of the data if we're not taking care of people," he said. "It's all about people and relationships, whether it's our patients or our friends, colleagues and family members. Those are the most important things."