Report: Role of CMIO, nursing execs evolves to support new technologies

A new report from HIMSS Analytics examined the changing roles and responsibilities of CMIOs and chief nursing officers (CNOs), particularly when it comes to medical device integration. The report, "Medical Device Integration: CMIO and CNO Perspectives," gathered the opinions of CMIOs, CNOs and senior nursing executives about their roles within the healthcare organization, their influence on IT decisions and their top IT priorities.

The study found that the roles and responsibilities of CMIOs will continue to evolve as new technologies are developed. CMIOs will have an immediate and distinct impact on decisions related to clinical roles and information systems, bridging the gap between clinical knowledgebase and technical know-how. Senior nurse executives also will continue to have involvement in the lifecycle of IT in any future decisions such as medical device integration, but will need to find a balance with the plethora of non-technology driven responsibilities.

“What was interesting to me was the fact that CMIOs are indicating that data collection and reporting will be long-term goals,” said Jennifer Horowitz, senior director of research, HIMSS Analytics. “That raises concerns about how to manage the data volume and synthesize all of that data into useable information. To achieve that type of goal, organizations are really going to have to focus on where they’re going with rollouts of computerized physician order entry and electronic medical records.”

Key findings include:

• CMIOs indicated that their most basic job function is to bridge the gap between clinical needs and IT; CNOs and senior nursing executives cited that their roles have evolved to be more inclusive of departments outside of nursing.

• Senior nursing executives also cite that they are involved in more strategic organizational meetings.
• Medical device integration plays an important role in driving EMR adoption and effectiveness, and in reducing documentation errors and improving patient safety. “Clearly, the data that comes from any of a host of medical devices within the hospital organization can play a really important role in populating a medical record,” said Horowitz.
• In the next one to four years, some CMIOs suggest that in addition to implementing EMR solutions, their goals and priorities will shift to include device integration.
• CMIOs recognized the important connection with senior nursing executives and physicians and indicated that they have frequent contact with other C-level executives within the hospital.
• CMIOs in particular recognized the pressing need of medical device integration and the value it will have on improved patient care, clinical data collection, increased patient safety and improved EMR adoption.
• When it comes to medical device integration, both groups of executives cite the important role of the technology in driving EMR adoption and effectiveness. Executives noted that EMR implementations without device integration are “foolish” because increasing workload among nurses can result in decreased adoption of EMR.
• Medical devices play an important role in meeting nurses’ priorities of improving patient care as with proper data validation, improved data accuracy and data collection, devices will allow more time for frontline nurses to interact with patients which can positively impact overall patient care experience.

“The executives in organizations should all be on the same page with respect to the goals of the organization,” said Horowitz. The good working relationship between CMIOs and CNOs will be to organizations’ benefit, she added. “Such close collaboration between CMIOs and nursing executives is only going to help an organization meet its objectives.”

The research report was sponsored by Capsule, which develops devices for medical connectivity. The data was collected during two separate focus groups with CMIOs at the 2011 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition in Orlando, Fla. This group included a variety of healthcare organizations, including national integrated delivery systems, single hospital systems, an academic medical center, an HMO, ambulatory centers and the military health system. HIMSS also developed a second focus group which included senior nurse executives and took place via conference call. All of the nurses in this group worked for a hospital with a minimum of 200 beds. Facility types represented in this group included both hospitals that were part of a regional delivery system and single hospital health systems.