One of the best decisions I made before taking on the CEO job at BIDMC was to meet with John Halamka to make sure he would be staying on as chief information officer. Once he said yes, I knew it would be safe to sign on, confident that our clinical and administrative information systems would be best of class.
As you read this blog post by John, you can get a sense of his wisdom and common sense. The closer:
Policies are good. Policymakers are well meaning. Timelines are set in such a way that none of these activities - Health Insurance Exchange, ICD-10, Meaningful Use Stage 2, or HIPAA Omnibus Rule have enough time for testing, piloting, and cultural change.
I'm not yet at that time in my life when I resist change or innovation. I'm simply an IT leader and physician in the trenches who knows that 9 women cannot create a baby in a month.
As you read this blog post by John, you can get a sense of his wisdom and common sense. The closer:
Policies are good. Policymakers are well meaning. Timelines are set in such a way that none of these activities - Health Insurance Exchange, ICD-10, Meaningful Use Stage 2, or HIPAA Omnibus Rule have enough time for testing, piloting, and cultural change.
I'm not yet at that time in my life when I resist change or innovation. I'm simply an IT leader and physician in the trenches who knows that 9 women cannot create a baby in a month.
2 comments:
Good points. However, what is your stance when somebody tells you things will be done and working well i.e. HIE rollout? As a former CEO you are acutely aware that responsibility must lay with somebody.
So true. Even those in favor of transformational reform (like John Hamlaka) know that the avalanche isn't going to smooth out the snow. Just because the system is far behind where it should be doesn't make it productive to suddenly demand unacheivable goals in 19 different dimensions, especially when almost none of these initiatives have been vetted enough for widescale implementation, leave alone nationwide accountability and reimbursement adjustments. I am actually a supporter of sensible centralized decision making for certain healthcare domains, but this is just crazy- the convergence of all the punitive incentives by CMS- some already started, some yet to take effect- is going to cripple our system in about two years to the point where half or more of these requirements will arbitrarily be withdrawn to no benefit for providers or patients. Meanwhile cost-effectiveness of publicly paid for treatments will remain unaddressed because the debate is now just political. Ironic that hypertension is among the leading performance measure drivers- because our docs and nurses will be killing those ratios soon with their personal health...
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