Staffing challenges and cybersecurity are the top challenges currently faced by health system CIO’s. They are struggling to keep up service levels with a shortage of staff and dwindling budgets. On top of that, they are being asked to standardize to a smaller number of vendors. Bottom line: healthcare CIOs don’t have time to waste with vendors who do not solve real problems, make outlandish claims, or who do not fit into their standardization efforts.
Health Connect Partners
It’s rare to get a group of health system CIO’s in the same room at the same time, but when you do, the insights they share is invaluable. The recent Health Connect Partners IT conference, a unique event built around a reverse-expo where CIO’s are at booths and vendors roam around to meet with them, featured over 30 CIO’s from providers across the country.
Healthcare IT Today was there in person and had the opportunity to speak candidly with many of the CIO’s in attendance. From those conversations, five surprising takeaways emerged.
All the CIO’s were willing to share their thoughts, but asked not to be personally identified.
Standardization over Features
One CIO of a 250 bed hospital that is part of a large health system told us that there is a push by the corporation to standardize on hardware, software and technology process.
“It’s all about standardizing our approach to technology,” he said. “For example, we’ve adopted thin clients and are phasing out laptops. Why? Because it takes me 2 hours to get a laptop configured and tested. It takes me 15 min with a thin client.”
When asked whether this push for standardization has reduced the number of vendors that they work with, he confirmed “Absolutely. That’s all part of reducing the complexity. Right now we’d take a functional solution in an out-of-the-box configuration over a feature rich solution that had to be specially configured or required out-of-the-ordinary maintenance.”
Several other CIO’s we spoke to echoed these comments.
This trend isn’t surprising when you consider the difficulty healthcare IT departments have in retaining and attracting IT talent. Standardization can reduce the need for additional resources.
CIO’s Taking Vendors Risk Assessments Seriously
One organization that we spoke with expressed concern over the lack of attention being placed on Vendor Risk Management.
“In order to be in compliance we all have to be doing vendor risk assessments,” shared this CIO. “But it has only been recently that the rule has been enforced. So now many organizations are scrambling to comply. As they are doing these assessments they are finding out all sorts of things about their vendors…how much overlap they have in functionality, how much they are paying for solutions they barely use, and how ill prepared vendors are to assist with the assessment.”
This CIO suggested using tools like RiskRecon and Third Party Trust. They used both to help with their assessments and it really streamlined their work.
Moving to the Cloud
For the past few years we have heard about the reluctance to adopt and lack of momentum towards cloud-computing in healthcare. That reluctance was nonexistent at HCP’s event.
Almost everyone we spoke with told us stories of successful cloud deployments at their facilities or of major cloud initiatives that ere underway. “We are 100% getting out of the data center business,” said one CIO. “We can’t afford to have our resources updating and patching systems all day,” said another.
One CIO was very proud of their recent deployment of a cloud-based imaging system for their ophthalmology department. “It took far less time to deploy and the vendor was good to work with. Plus the UI was designed to mimic an older system that our doctors were used to.”
It was definitely nice to hear enthusiasm for the cloud.
Saying No to Exhibit Halls
It was not surprising to hear that healthcare CIO’s do not enjoy exhibit halls. What was a bit surprising was how they actively avoid exhibit halls.
Three of the CIOs we spoke to shared stories of how they would purposely take a longer path back to their rooms just to avoid the exhibit hall. One even spoke about going out a back entrance and walking around the outside of the convention center in 90+ heat just to avoid bumping into vendors in the lobby bar.
The top reasons:
- CIO’s feel like they are pounced on by vendors
- They hate aggressive sales tactics, especially people who stop them in the aisles
- Most booths aren’t good for having an in-depth discussion
- It takes too long to walk to the various booths
- Most already have meetings setup with vendors they want to have discussions with
It’s Still All About Relationships
Every CIO we spoke with made a comment about how IT is still about relationships and the time it takes to build them.
“You can’t rush relationships,” said a CIO of a midwestern healthcare system. “You’re not going to make a sale after the first time you meet me. So don’t try. Just have a conversation. Use the opportunities at conferences to get to know me and my organization. People who try to sell me right away I never call back.”
Several CIOs warned about overdoing it on the personalization when it came to starting a relationship. One CIO shared a hilarious story of how one vendor blew it by sending her an email with “I really enjoyed your session at ABC Conference”, but she didn’t actually speak at the conference because she cancelled her appearance.
Another CIO shared a story of how one vendor used social media to find out that they were friends with James (name changed). While the vendor talked about how close they were to James and how James had suggested they should get together, the CIO texted James. He asked James if he knew this person/vendor and it turned out they didn’t know them at all – but might have met them briefly at a CHIME event. That vendor was shown the door.
On the flip side there were many stories from both CIO’s and vendors at HCP’s conference that told us how it has taken 2-5 meetings at the event before they did business together. One vendor said: “It’s not about golf or fancy dinners. It’s about showing up every time and having good conversations.”
The next HCP Reverse Expo for Health IT is happening in the fall of 2022: https://www.hlthcp.com/conferences/it
