Halamka: Every hospital larger than 50 beds needs a CMIO

Jeff Byers | | Health Exec | EMR/EHR
John D. Halamka, MD - 10.05 Kb
John D. Halamka, MD, CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Every hospital larger than 50 beds should have a full or part-time designated CMIO due to increasing demands for clinical workflow automation, meaningful use and healthcare reform, stated thought leader John Halamka, MD, CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, CIO at Harvard Medical School, both in Boston, on his blog posting Jan. 17.

“Given the daunting array of clinical IT requirements over the next five years, CMIOs will be increasingly important,” he continued.

Halamka, drawing from a varied career which includes the current roles of CIO, CTO and CMIO, shared some of his thoughts on the role of the CMIO:
  • Clinical applications are only as good as the processes they automate. Clinician stakeholders working with a CMIO should re-engineer workflows, document requirements, then begin software implementation.
  • Achieving consensus among clinicians is challenging. The role of the CMIO, as a trusted practicing clinician, is to create consensus around software configuration and decision support roles.
  • Selecting new applications can be daunting. The CMIO can weigh pros/cons, cost/benefits and the overall integration into the enterprise portfolio during application selection.
  • "Nothing is perfect and clinical systems implementation will always be a journey, balancing compliance, security, ease of use, automation of manual processes, and safety,” Halamka wrote. “The CMIO can run processes which engage clinicians in priority setting and resource allocation decision making. Although the projects they want will likely be done at a slower pace than they'd prefer, they will understand the balance of time, resources and scope because they were involved in creating the plan.”
  • The CMIO can advise senior management how to phase an endless stream of projects so that the greatest good is done for the greatest number over the long term.

Halamka added that every organization is different and who the CMIO should report to should be a function of where the CMIO can have the greatest impact, visibility and support.

Jeff Byers

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