The trend toward omnichannel care in healthcare is dramatically changing the roles of chief information officers, chief diversity officer and other technology executives.
By Shelly Carolan and Nick Giannas
With the evolution of hybrid or “omnichannel” care in healthcare – in which care is delivered across a spectrum from hospitals to retail clinics to digital tools and technologies facilitating home care – chief information officers, chief digital officers and their teams must serve as catalysts for change within their organizations. Acute care is not going away, but how do hospitals and health systems stay relevant and offer new models of care and patient communication that improves patient outcomes while simultaneously reducing costs? How will the roles of the CIO and CDO change?
The jury is still out on these questions but we know the positions are evolving. At the recent ViVE event in Nashville (a collaboration between CHIME and HLTH), we had the honor of hosting a focus group of CIOs and healthcare technology leaders on what the trend toward omnichannel care means to their organizations – and their roles . While the names of our participants will remain confidential, we are happy to share some of the key takeaways they relayed to us. A few things became very clear from the executives we spoke with:
We appreciated and benefited greatly from hearing the challenges and opportunities facing our focus group members. They recognize that they are key players in shaping the future of the entire healthcare industry.