Welcome to our new guest blog series – Voices of Value. This is a chance to hear from thought leaders and experts across our industry. The first in our series is from Michael Archuleta, Chief Information Officer, Mt. San Rafael Hospital.
Healthcare delivery is in the early stages of an extraordinary change. We have seen the acceleration of digital transformation happen in our industry. This change is being driven by the relentless movement to the value-based care model and the problems exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. A value-based care model introduces new and increased challenges for transformational CIOs. As a transformational CIO, we must pursue leadership strategies and tactics, which will position our organizations for successful outcomes. If we look at our industry as a whole, we see that healthcare information technology is extremely antiquated. Reprioritizing healthcare information technology is a key element to successful outcomes.
We must incorporate healthcare information technology as a core component to any organization’s IT strategy. We need to realize that this reprioritization of healthcare information technology isn’t a technology makeover but a business revolution to continue to accelerate our industry. We also need to play a vital leadership role in healthcare information technology enabled initiatives. Patients want more from their healthcare, pandemic or not. Healthcare is FAR behind other industries when it comes to delivering satisfactory IT enabled initiatives.
We need to remember that hospitals, physician practices and clinics are digital companies that deliver healthcare services, and our industry continues to accelerate and become more digital, which provides more opportunities for patients to be engaged in their care. As the healthcare industry continues to evolve from a fee-for-service to a value-based care model, patient engagement is going to play a critical role for successful outcomes. Organizations need to continue to incorporate healthcare information technology infrastructure as a key driving force and reprioritize on building healthcare information technology enabled tools that benefit the patients, both inside and outside of our organizations.
The more involved and invested patients are in their own healthcare and the more empowered physicians are with accurate data and actionable clinical insights, the greater the likelihood for successful value care outcomes. We need to realize that we all have new CEOs in the healthcare industry. Our new CEO is the patient and their decisions affect our revenue and their outcomes.
If we want their loyalty, we will have to earn their trust by truly knowing them and providing them with healthcare information technology enabled initiatives that meet their needs. Technology and the reprioritization of IT empowers the new era of healthcare because we know that technology has emerged as the driving force to achieve success.
About our guest author – Recognized as a Top Hospital and Health System CIO to know and named a Rising Star in Healthcare, Michael is a cutting edge, innovative, visionary leader who possesses strong leadership skills with extensive experience and a proven track record of driving increased levels of productivity, profits, high integrity customer relationship skills and expert problem-solving approaches. Michael is an active member of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, a technology and cybersecurity advisor to several startups and an active speaker within the field of Health Information Technology.
Under Michael’s guidance and leadership, Mt San Rafael Hospital became one of the leading hospitals in the State of Colorado for leveraging advanced technology to enhance the patient and provider experience. With Michael’s innovative, driven approach, the hospital met HIMSS Analytics Stage Six, a feat only reached by thirty percent of U.S. hospitals. Leveraging advanced Information Technology to improve performance for value-based health care in the areas of infrastructure, business, administrative management, quality, safety, and clinical integration the Information Technology Department has also been presented the 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 Healthcare’s Most Wired Award which is given annually to the top hospitals in the country making the most progress in the adoption of Health Information Technology.
To learn more about best practices for IT infrastructure, read our related blog – The Top Three Ways To Ensure Data Integrity in the Move to Value-Based Care – Curation Health (curationhealthcare.com)
