Darrell Bodnar serves as Chief Information Officer at North Country Healthcare.
Darrell will serve on the panel "What CIO's Need to Thrive in 2021" at Becker's Hospital Review 11th Annual Meeting. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place virtually from May 10-27th.
To learn more about the conference and Darrell's session, click here.
Question: Share one change brought on by the coronavirus pandemic that you’d like to see stick, especially in healthcare?
Darrell Bodnar: From a completely objective perspective the expansion and rollout of telehealth and virtual care is a game-changer. Serving a rural patient population, there are lots of challenges regarding access to appropriate and timely care. The pandemic really highlighted that. Although we still have challenges such as connectivity and technology acumen, we are in a far better place than we were prior to the pandemic. We just need to ensure the services continue to be reimbursed.
From a more subjective perspective, the ability for healthcare to be more agile and purpose-driven has been a welcome experience. Focusing sharply on patient care and business needs simultaneously showed our adaptability, resilience, and ability to collaborate. We realized that even though the circumstances were far from ideal for an extended period, there was always a way forward and the definition of what was truly important became evident.
Q: What is one essential trait leaders need to lead effectively in healthcare today?
DB: Agility. The ability to adapt to a rapidly changing environment with very little information is not the norm in a healthcare business environment. In care delivery, yes, but not so much from the business side. The new normal seems to be being comfortable with the uncomfortable. As a healthcare CIO, I spend a lot of time understanding and charting the waters our business finds itself in. Planning and building. This year has shown that we cannot only navigate and adjust our course, but we can avoid icebergs and launch lifeboats if necessary.
Q: What would you like to see as the defining theme of 2021 for your industry?
DB: “We are all in this together.” From patient to providers, child to parent, family to community, community to state, state to country, country to planet. In a digital world connected in ways we never fully understood, we all relied on each other to work together in isolation to save humanity from one of the deadliest challenges it has ever faced. We can disagree on many things—religion, politics, and lifestyle—but in the end, we all ran out of toilet paper at the same time.