Precision in Adoption of Technology

Phillip Deleel Director - IS Adirondack Medical Center

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Phillip Deleel Director - IS Adirondack Medical Center

Challenges in technology to meet enterprise needs in 2013 and expectations

The biggest challenge faced by IT in healthcare is adoption. Deploying technology is the easy part but educating end user to the point where they are both willing and comfortable to these tools is difficult. For 2013 and beyond, I would love to see better standardization of system integration providing a complete patient story for the clinician and physician to utilize while treating. This will become even more difficult as we move into Health Information Exchanges (HIE) and Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIO) that share data regional, state wide, and eventually nationwide.

The areas in business environment where solutions do not yet exist or not up to the mark, and which if existed, would've made job easier

Security and mobile technology are the two biggest pain points moving forward. With regard to security, despite the existence of slick solutions such as biometrics, that works best within the enterprise. There are so many ways to remotely access data that leads to another pain point-mobile technology or ealth.

Manner in which data is used to head off problems and complications before they happen

Just by deploying an electronic medical record, physicians have greater access to a patient’s history which can be used to track and trend a patient’s progress. Another tool provided to physicians and providers is access to an HIE or RHIO. These services provide access to patient’s data regardless of where the services were rendered. Lastly, our EHR is equipped with evidence based order sets that ensures only the most appropriate lines of treatment are prescribed based on their efficacy.

Thoughts on how IT strategic planning supports organization-wide efforts to improve quality, efficiency and cut costs in the Healthcare sector

Aligning IT strategic planning with that of the organization has become paramount to ensure success. If deployed correctly, technology can increase efficiencies but deployment has to align closely with the overall goals of the organization as well as ensuring that any and all state and federal regulatory measures are being met. Business goals must first be identifiedthen the appropriate technology can be selected and deployed to ensure the goal is successfully met.

Technology trends impacting enterprise business environment

“Cloud” based services and virtualization will have significant financial and operational impact on the organizations. By embracing cloud technology, the need for large inhouse storage systems can be reduced. Virtualization is another trend which first and foremost helps minimize organizations’ environmental footprint by reducing the number of servers required to run the
enterprise.

My roles and responsibilities as a CIO

I now play an integral role in the strategic planning process ensuring that the organizational goals have appropriate tools required to ensure success. Furthermore, I am working closer with the community at large to understand what tools and services are needed to ensure they have easy and timely access to pertinent data and information. The role has transitioned from reactionary to proactively searching for innovative ways to align technology with the organizational goals while meeting current and future state and federal regulations.

Lessons learned and advice for fellow CIOs

As a CIO, I have come to realize two very important keys to success; listening to the needs of your customer and educating them on how to use the tools. It may be more successful to phase in new processes rather than unloading all at once. Lastly, and probably the most important piece of advice I could give a CIO is to remove the fear of technology from the physicians’ and clinicians’ minds.