Notes from CHIME: Health IT Leaders’ Top Priorities
By Nick Giannas I was fortunate to attend – in person in Miami – the recent annual spring forum of CHIME, the College of Healthcare...
By Nick Giannas
I was fortunate to attend – in person in Miami – the recent annual spring forum of CHIME, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives. The event, ViVE, brought together many of the leaders in health IT from across the U.S. and beyond.
I left Miami with the understanding that health systems continue to improve and strengthen their technology environment at a foundational level by deploying new ERPs, enhancing infrastructure and security platforms. At the same time, IT leaders are focusing on the following top priorities:
Workforce Recruitment/Retention
The labor shortage remains one of the top challenges in healthcare IT. With a tight market, flexibility in recruitment strategies to include remote/hybrid roles and a commitment to diversity is necessary to compete for talent. For retention, it is a must for healthcare organizations to engage existing staff to gauge employee wellness (burnout) and satisfaction as well as offer training and development opportunities.
Digital Acceleration
Health systems continue to drive forward with digital innovation to improve the patient experience and outcomes overall. Trends such as care at home and remote patient monitoring are on the rise.
Health and Digital Inequity
The delivery of equitable care has become top of mind for health systems to combat disparities including those that are racial and geographical. Structured, actionable data and expanding access to digital technology have an important role to play.
Technology Partnerships
As health systems move forward with digital transformation, strategic investments and partnerships with technology startups are on the rise in healthcare. While return on investment is critical, trust and being clear and aligned on the problem to be solved are key to these collaborations.
Cybersecurity
The rapid move towards a digital environment comes with great benefits but also increased cybersecurity risk. The evolving threat landscape is requiring healthcare organizations to continue to invest and mature their cybersecurity programs to be proactive and resilient.
The top priorities articulated during the ViVE event align with what we are currently seeing in the market: Health systems are more open to remote and hybrid work than ever before, which is aiding their recruiting efforts. In terms of digital acceleration, they are increasingly looking to recruit Chief Digital Officers sometimes as a combined role with the CIO or as peers or close collaborators to their CIOs. And all systems are looking to innovate, as we see them invest in start-ups to closely partner with and be a part of frontline innovation. It’s an exciting time to be in the health IT world.