Becker's Hospital Review

32 CIO / HEALTH IT The biggest IT threat to health systems goes beyond cyberattacks By Laura Dyrda A few years ago, many healthcare IT executives would have considered cyberattacks to be among the top threats for their organizations. While ransomware attacks and cybersecurity are still top of mind, new issues are boiling up from the IT perspective as the top threat for hospitals and health systems. CIOs and technology leaders are now more cognizant than ever of their role in helping their orga- nizations lower costs and deliver value-based care. How technology evolves to improve the patient experience as retailers and big tech companies move into the healthcare space is another potential competitive threat. Here are six hospital and health system IT ex- ecutives answering the question: What is the biggest potential threat to your organization for 2020? Leo Bodden. Vice President and CTO of NewYork-Presbyterian (New York City): Dis- ruption, for me, is a major concern. Healthcare has not been disrupted, unlike every other in- dustry on the planet. Aer every disruptive event, the organizations in the industries dis- rupted cease to exist as they were. I see that as a major concern. As an industry, we've been protected and insulated from competition and from new entrants into the market due to reg- ulation; that same regulation kept the industry from evolving and moving as fast as tech moves. As technology evolves, it is becoming easier for new groups to enter the healthcare market. On one side, we see competition from hospitals that are providing services across state lines as tech makes it possible to get close to patients without being physically adjacent. You have urgent care centers popping up everywhere. We also have a political landscape that makes it easy for everyone to go aer healthcare. Technology companies, whether you are talking about Apple, Google, Amazon or startups – they are also getting into the healthcare space. We have to pay attention to what these potential disruptors are doing and respond appropriately if we are to remain relevant in years to come. Phyllis Teater. CIO of e Ohio State Uni- versity Wexner Medical Center (Columbus, Ohio): e most visible threats come in the cybersecurity space. ose threats are very real and we spend a lot of energy on them, as do all organizations in today's climate. But a bigger long-term threat is how we prepare for the future of healthcare and for the change to value from the fee-for-service world. What you wish for is that the healthcare industry would pick a day to change from fee-for-ser- vice to value-based care and have one big go- live and be done; that is not the way it works. For us, the biggest threat is that our timing or preparation is not in line with the speed at which the industry is changing. We need to pay attention to our value proposition and make sure it's in line with market changes. Tamara Havenhill-Jacobs. CIO of Bozeman (Mont.) Health: We consistently believe that the biggest threat is the cost of healthcare itself. As we look at all the initiatives that we have, we are going to continue to build and focus our organization so that our core mission is improving community health and quality of life in everything that we are doing as we seek to provide value-based care so we can take on risk-based contracts. Our biggest competitor at all times is the cost of healthcare. Kristin Darby. CIO of Envision Healthcare (Nashville, Tenn.): Our biggest challenge, and opportunity, is the evolving healthcare land- scape. roughout the years, we have grown with and adapted to the changing healthcare environment, and this ability has enabled us to be a leader in healthcare. As we enter 2020, we must continue to strike the appropriate bal- ance between executing the immediate opera- tional imperatives and driving the innovative work that will shape the future of our organiza- tion and advance the delivery of care. Jeffrey Sturman. Senior Vice President and CIO of Memorial Healthcare System (Hol- lywood, Fla.): Security continues to be an area of focus for us. We have a very sound and focused security program. My two major priorities there are security around PHI and business, and an overall disaster recovery/ business continuity program. e biggest threat will continue to be and has been secu- rity and ensuring our systems are secure. We don't want our patients to be compromised, so we have the right tools and technology in place to protect us. Our system also does a lot of education around preventing cyberattacks. Secondly, this isn't a threat around technology, but we are seeing the level of competition in- crease and non-traditional players like payers, Walgreens and CVS are creating new ways to access healthcare in our area. Everyone is try- ing to find new avenues to create more patient access, and we are looking to potential part- nerships or technology to help us increase our access points and ultimately engaging our con- sumers where and how they want. Jason Williams. CIO of CHA Hollywood Pres- byterian Medical Center (Los Angeles): New adventures can be daunting for all of us and one challenge will be getting everyone to adopt and learn new systems. We are ready to tackle the challenge with education so that our clinical force has a smooth onboarding to adopt quickly to positively impact patient experience. n South Carolina health system forced to reschedule procedures after malware attack By Mackenzie Garrity G eorgetown, S.C.-based Tidelands Health worked to restore its IT net- work and computer systems after being hit by a malware attack on Dec. 12, 2019, according to local NBC affiliate WMBF. "Our hospitals and outpatient locations are still seeing patients. However, a limited number of procedures are being rescheduled, and we are doing our best to contact directly affected patients as soon as possible," a spokesperson at Tidelands Health told WMBF in December. Clinicians and staff used paper records. Although portions of the IT network were temporarily offline, Tidelands Health said that no data or protected health information was compromised. Tidelands Health contacted forensic experts to investigate the incident and restore its systems. n

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