Three months into the year, one health system CIO is warning healthcare organizations to double their cybersecurity spending amid the Change Healthcare ransomware incident.
What else have become top priorities for the next 12 months? Here's what 29 healthcare leaders are focusing on.
The executives featured in this article are all speaking at Becker's 9th Annual Health IT + Digital Health + RCM Meeting: The Future of Business and Clinical Technologies which will take place Oct. 1-4, 2024, at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago.
If you would like to join this event as a speaker, contact Randi Haseman at rhaseman@beckershealthcare.com.
As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who will speak at our conference. The following are answers from our speakers at the event.
Question: What are your top priorities for the next 12 months?
Tina Esposito. Senior vice president and chief data officer at Advocate Health (Charlotte, N.C.): Given recent events, we would be remiss not to mention cybersecurity. This will remain a priority for all as we continue to grapple with evolving threats and the increasing magnitude of implications.
Another area of focus for Advocate Health will be artificial intelligence from the lens of how best to harness for enterprise value. AI can certainly do a lot, but the question we will be looking to answer is: What can it do for us?
Patrick Healy. IT Director, Digital Engagement at Mount Sinai Health System (New York City):
- Creating and clarifying the business case for all of our digital efforts
- Gaining alignment on the performance metrics we are tracking that define project success
- Critically assessing our efforts with respect to the two points above to prove our impact or build a case for divestment
Ruth Schleyer. Vice president and chief nursing informatics officer at Legacy Health (Portland, Ore.): Across Legacy Health’s clinical, nursing and provider informatics teams, shared top priorities are to enhance our customers’ experience with the EHR and rekindle their joy in practice by decreasing burden, optimizing efficiency and supporting safety.
For our nursing team system-wide, this includes a multi-faceted improvement plan in response to key findings from a recent KLAS Arch Collaborative Nurse EHR Experience survey which identified documentation burden reduction as the respondents’ top priority.
A provider-focused top priority is exploring use of AI-assisted tools, including launch of a targeted Dragon Ambient eXperience Copilot project for employed primary care and specialty providers designed to improve the patient-provider experience and save clinical documentation time. Our clinical informatics Thrive team's work continues to prioritize optimization for outpatient clinic care teams and hosting intensive training conferences for ambulatory providers.
Mac Marlow. CIO at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Southwestern Health Resources (Dallas): At Southwestern Health Resources, we have been reviewing our business model to ensure that we are properly serving the needs of northern Texas.
From an IT priority perspective, we are focused on the following:
- Overall clinical network and operations efficiency, inclusive of process improvements and cost avoidance/savings
- Product and service alignment with our outstanding parent organizations, UT Southwestern and Texas Health Resources
- Strengthening the position and placement of our Medicare Advantage health plan, Care N Care and our CMS ACO program
- Unlocking the potential and leveraging the responsible use of automation and artificial intelligence within existing platforms
- Evaluating and refreshing our multi-year strategic plan to ensure proper protection, sustainability and growth for the future
Ann Cappellari, MD. System vice president and chief medical information officer at SSM Health (St. Louis): Establishing two to three generative AI solutions to test, pilot and expand while leveraging a system-wide multidisciplinary governance group to solidify our technology strategy to support healthcare initiatives. With these initiatives we will continue to explore and educate our business to promote safe but continued use. There continues to be significant and appropriate reticence with what feels like a lot of unknown while recognizing the amazing potential of these innovations.
Thomas M. Maddox, MD, MSc. Vice president of digital products and innovation at BJC HealthCare (St. Louis) and Washington University School of Medicine: Expansion of our virtual nursing program is a key priority. It’s been very effective in helping with our bedside nurses’ workload and experience, and we are excited to expand it further. We are also focused on innovations to improve patient throughput in our EDs and inpatient units. We see many options to improve the visibility and efficiency of moving patients through our inpatient environment in a clinically appropriate, but efficient, way. Finally, we are investing in the use of AI for both clinical care and healthcare 'back office' operations. The initial efforts will focus on AI-assisted documentation, coding and other administrative tasks that create unnecessary workforce burdens and errors.
Will Landry. Senior vice president and CIO at Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System (Baton Rouge, La.): Improve user experience across all platforms and revenue cycle technology optimizations.
MariJo Rugh. Vice president and CIO at UCHealth Affiliates (Aurora, Colo.): Improving our employee experience by making it simpler and easier for our employees to do their job. We’re going to start by implementing an enterprise service management platform that will provide a single front door for employees to get service for whatever they need.
Ebrahim Barkoudah, MD. System chief and regional chief medical officer at Baystate Health (Springfield, Mass.): In the coming 12 months, my primary focus will be on leveraging advanced healthcare IT, digital health solutions and robust revenue cycle management systems to enhance patient care, streamline workflows and optimize resources. Recognizing the transformative potential of these technologies, my team is committed to implementing data-driven strategies to address current healthcare challenges. This includes harnessing artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve diagnostic accuracy and incorporating blockchain technology to secure patient data. In terms of RCM, the goal is to achieve greater financial efficiency, minimize billing errors and enhance the transparency of medical transactions. As we navigate these priorities, we should focus on ensuring that technological advancements align with our overarching objective of improving patient outcomes and provider satisfaction. Ultimately, the integration of business and clinical technologies presents an exciting opportunity to redefine healthcare delivery.
Jasmine Bishop. Managing director of MedStar Telehealth Innovation Center at MedStar Health with Ethan Booker. Chief medical officer for telehealth at MedStar Health (Columbia, Md.): Over the next year, MedStar Health’s telehealth and care innovation priorities will further enhance access, reliability, equity and user experience through the work of our MedStar Institute for Innovation and its MedStar Telehealth Innovation Center.
Alongside our system and external collaborators, operationally our teams advance:
- Intuitive, multi-channel and on-demand digital care delivery resources that support patients and providers
- Post-acute care continuity through messaging, video, virtual monitoring and in-home visits
- Automations that provide critical support given national workforce challenges
- Leading research, education and training efforts
We are also developing new competencies with remote monitoring via wearables, asynchronous peer consultation and an ecosystem of patient-facing messaging tools to more reliably reach patients where they are. To inform regulatory and reimbursement decisions across the nation and within the communities we serve, we continue to actively engage in advocacy and policy efforts
Jeffrey M. Hoffman, MD. Chief medical information officer at Nationwide Children's Hospital (Columbus, Ohio): One of my most important priorities for 2024 is finding new and creative ways to decrease provider burden when using the EHR and other health information technologies. These systems have become pervasive throughout a provider’s professional life and often bleed into personal time outside of normal work hours. The amount of time and effort required to interact with these systems and satisfy all of the requirements of these systems, often placed on the shoulders of providers, has become difficult for many and intolerable for some. This contributes to the current epidemic of provider burnout and leading many to leave medicine altogether. My physician informatics team is working to better quantify individual provider burden, identify those providers who show significant inefficiencies and develop targeted interventions with an eye towards lessening the likelihood of burnout among our provider community. While large scale provider wellness programs are already in full swing at my institution, I have found that it is often the dozens of little annoyances that occur throughout the day ('pebbles in one’s shoes') that do the most damage and are often the easiest to relieve with concerted effort.
In furthering those goals, we are actively exploring how best to implement the latest AI tools to streamline and automate clinical workflows to further reduce the burdens placed on providers and staff. For many years, we have leveraged our in-house clinical informaticists and data scientists to develop a number of highly effective predictive algorithms currently in active use across our organization. However, the new generative AI tools we’ve seen explode onto the scene over the past year or so have turbocharged our efforts. In addition to AI tools now being baked into everything from routine business applications to the EHR itself, our teams are working on developing our own generative AI tools specific to the unique and often nuanced needs of pediatric healthcare. We hope to have our first generative AI tools deployed later this year with many more ideas and plans in the work after that.
Scott MacLean. Senior vice president and CIO at MedStar Health (Columbia, Md.): Our top priorities for the next 12 months are to ensure resiliency in our technical infrastructure and applications. Like others, we are now building higher-order clinical and workflow interventions on our platforms. We are doing this methodically and helping our business and clinical people solve problems. We know there needs to be time and support for adoption, so we can obtain full value of our investments.
Tom Consalvo. Vice president and site CIO at Northwell Health (New Hyde Park, N.Y.): My main priority is getting our organization ready for EPIC in which we are in the first wave for Northwell (early 2025). We are also going live with a new cancer center and women and newborn buildings in a few months, so getting all the IT, telecom and communications in place has been a top priority.
Robert Flannery. CFO at UW Health (Madison, Wis.): A top priority for UW Health in the next 12 months is to open and operationalize a new 470,000 sq ft. ambulatory facility on the east side of Madison, Wis. We continue to focus efforts on clinical documentation that reflects the care and condition of the patients that we are privileged to serve. We continue to look for efficiencies in the way we deliver care to increase quality and/or lower cost. We will continue to make needed investments in workforce innovation.
Stephen DelRossi, MSA. CFO and Interim CEO at Northern Inyo Healthcare District (Bishop, Calif.):
- The main trend is reimbursement and reimbursement trends. A hospital’s lifeline is cash, and insurers are making reimbursements extremely difficult – lower reimbursements, higher denials, longer waits for reimbursements. I am bringing in experts to fully analyze denials and to appeal wrong decisions.
- The second trend that I am watching is artificial intelligence. Currently, the market is too immature for a small hospital to invest, with some carve-outs (documentation support and patient access). As the market matures, we will vet the appropriate technologies.
Shefali Mookencherry. Chief information security officer and chief privacy officer at University of Illinois Chicago:
- AI security/privacy tools and workflows
- Identity, access and management processes
- Strengthen security operations center capabilities
- Phishing campaigns
- Security and privacy education, training and awareness
- Move towards zero trust
Jeanne de Vries Sands. CIO at Summit Behavioral Healthcare (Redlands, Calif.): At Summit BHC, our top priorities for the next 12 months focus on leveraging the capabilities of technology to deliver increased value and to uncover new opportunities. Storytelling will be key as we continue to mature our systems and environments to take advantage of emerging technologies like AI. Significant investments have been made in our core systems (CRM, HCM, EHR and ERP), and we will optimize and extend these platforms to continue to meet maturing workflows and changing regulations while reducing our overall application portfolio.
Mandy McGowan, RN, BA. Director of home-based care programs at UWHealth (Madison, Wis.): For the past several years, the priority has been to build and launch a successful home-based hospital care program. With the launch behind us, we now turn our focus to scaling our program and increasing the positive impact that we can have on constrained capacity. Our team knows that providing acute care in the home produces positive clinical outcomes and provides a high level of patient and provider experience. For a subset of patients, we should be flipping the admission conversation and proving why the patient needs a bed in the brick and mortar, not the other way around. Our team will be there to provide the education and spark the conversations to move us in that direction.
Zafar Chaudry, MD, MS, MIS, MBA, CITP. Senior vice president, chief digital officer and CIO at Seattle Children's: Here are some of my top priorities in the next 12 months.
- Enhancing patient experience and access including addressing health equity to bridge the digital divide and ensuring technology solutions are inclusive for all patients, regardless of socioeconomic background or geographical location
- Data-driven transformation to include data interoperability
- Advanced analytics, cybersecurity and cloud adoption
- Workforce challenges and talent acquisition; clinician burnout and IT talent shortages as well as green IT initiatives
- Artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things
John Prunskis, MD, FIPP. Medical director and principal at DxTx Pain & Spine (Chicago): My top priorities over the next 12 months are to focus on solutions for the rising rates of insurance, company denials and delays in pre-certification and payment. Insurance companies are enjoying record profits at the expense of physicians and patients.
Monique Diaz, MD. Chief medical information officer for physician enterprise at West CommonSpirit Health (Chicago): My top priorities for the next 12 months are:
- RPA implementation to close ambulatory care gaps and address PCP burnout
- Building up our cross-venue services to provide TCM visits and minimize readmissions
- Last, but definitely not least, ensuring equitable quality care delivery with respect to race and ethnicity
Nasim Eftekhari, MS. Executive director for applied AI and data science at City of Hope (Duarte, Calif.): Over the next 12 months, my top priorities are to integrate and apply City of Hope's oncology-specific large language model into our patient care frameworks, precision medicine initiative and daily operations. These key areas have the potential to transform healthcare through improved efficiency and precise, real-time decisions. At the same time, I aim to establish a comprehensive mechanism for continuously monitoring the performance, success and real-world impact of this next-generation technology. Another significant area of focus for me and my team over the next 12 months will be AI governance and leading the way in establishing policies, guidelines and best practices for responsible and ethical use of AI in healthcare.
Jeetu Nanda, MD. Senior vice president and chief medical information officer at Cone Health (Greensboro, N.C.): Some of my priorities are:
- AI-driven auto scribe solution for our providers
- AI-driven point of care decision support tool
- Referral management platform to facilitate referrals into our system (imaging, specialty consults, procedures)
- Push for payers to join a payer platform to streamline prior authorization and monitoring of the requests and include denial management
Tinu Tadese, MD, FACHE. Chief medical information officer at UH Lake Health (Lake County, Ohio); associate chief medical information officer at Community Hospitals, University Hospitals (Cleveland): This year, as the associate CMIO for our community medical centers within an integrated academic health system, my focus is on striking a careful balance between innovation and tradition. I aim to ensure that the academic environment enriches our community centers without overwhelming them, fostering an atmosphere where the unique cultures of these centers are preserved and celebrated. Central to my role is enhancing the adoption and optimization of the EMR system, positioning it as a tool for empowerment rather than a hurdle. By thoughtfully integrating academic advancements, my goal is to improve patient care in a collaborative manner that honors and leverages the distinct identities of our community centers.
Judith Wolfe, MD. Enterprise associate chief experience officer and academic emergency physician at Cleveland Clinic: The patient experience team at Cleveland Clinic is redefining performance metrics with a fresh perspective. Since 2020, we've been diligently evaluating the 'ease to get care at Cleveland Clinic' across all care settings, making it a central focus this year. While concepts like ease and effort have long been staples in tech, hospitality and retail sectors, they are relatively novel in healthcare. We thoroughly reviewed our scores and assessed their impact on traditional performance metrics. Furthermore, our team delved into tens of thousands of patient comments, leveraging large language models to discern the factors contributing to easy care and how this ease influences patient trust and loyalty within the system. Our mission involves enlightening the organization about the significance of ease and actively working towards empowering caregivers of all types to facilitate high-quality, safe, and easy-to-get care.
Carol Yarbrough. Business operations manager for Telehealth Resource Center at UCSF Health System (San Francisco): Top priorities:
- Continuing to communicate with our federal legislators the importance of telehealth and their need to act prior to the extensions afforded the CAA of 2023 expiration in December of this year. Telehealth in all its forms needs to continue in all geographic locations and in patients’ homes
- I’d like to see a new place of service for 100% of virtual providers: the current POS’s= do not work for CCM and other care management services for vendors who do not have contractual agreements with PCPs who work out of POS 11, 21 and 22
Karyn Baum, MD, MSEd, MHA, FHM. Adjunct professor for medicine and adjunct professor for the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis): My top priorities over the next 12 months are likely no different than many of us in healthcare – to work on delivering care in our new world of fewer front-line staff, cost constraints and emerging (though not emerged) AI. How can we, for example, help people who face barriers obtaining care when we are not always able to have an individual on-site with that person? When, where and under what circumstances can we use AI to help with relatively automated data gathering and patient aid? Where must a person be in the loop?
Crystal Broj. Chief digital transformation officer at Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston, S.C): Our main goals are making it easier for patients to book appointments and get the info they need online, straight up and simple. We're also bringing in AI, like ambient scribes, to cut down on the paperwork and make things run smoother in the clinic. Plus, we're ramping up our use of RPA robots for the behind-the-scenes stuff to make our operations slicker, cut down on mistakes and let our team focus on what really matters. All this is about making our healthcare system quicker, smarter and more tuned in to what our consumers need.