Becker's Hospital Review

55 55 PRACTICE MANAGEMENT THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Becker's 11th Annual Meeting Speaker Series: 3 questions with Centura Health President and CEO Peter Banko By Virginia Egizio P eter Banko serves as pres- ident and CEO at Centura Health in Centennial, Colo. Mr. Banko will participate in the keynote panel "Top Strategies for Health System CEO's" at Becker's Hospital Review 11th Annual Meet- ing, which is taking place virtually. As part of an ongoing series, Beck- er's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the confer- ence or have spoken. Question: Share one change brought on by the coronavirus pandemic that you'd like to see stick, especially in healthcare? Peter Banko: COVID-19 put a tru- ly immense burden directly on the shoulders of front-line clinicians and essential workers. Our care- givers worked very long hours with little downtime in the midst of un- certainty, fear, and anxiety about a virus we knew so very little about. Despite the economic impacts and personal health risks, they ran to the challenges when their communities needed them the most. Love, kindness, transparency and empathy need to continue to be at the heart of everything we do. As healthcare organizations, we must embrace the changes we have made in terms of how we think about our incredible people and reaffirm our investments in our workforce. My hope is that we always remember that the focus and heart of all we do — from our decision-making to our communi- Story continues on page 56 UnityPoint Health CIO on staying inspired, tackling COVID-19 vaccination tech challenges By Kelly Gooch L aura Smith has served as CIO of West Des Moines, Iowa-based UnityPoint Health since 2016, and she was promot- ed from vice president to senior vice presi- dent in early 2021. She oversees the health system's IT and analytics division, which includes about 600 IT and analytics professionals. Ms. Smith told Becker's Hospital Review she's passionate about empowering her team to serve the community. She shared her daily mantra, discussed challenges facing hospital CIOs and offered some advice for IT leaders. Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for length and clarity. Question: What is the biggest chal- lenge you're facing right now as a fe- male leader? Laura Smith: Especially early in my career, I struggled with self-confidence. I would ques- tion myself and seek approval of others as a measure of my success. It wasn't fulfilling, and it fed into a lack of confidence. If I did have advice for other female leaders especial- ly, I would encourage them to focus more on what makes you happy. It took some time for me to get there, but now that I feel like I'm there I have more confidence because I'm focusing on the things that are my defined measures of success. For me, that's making a difference in the community I serve and cre- ating an environment where my team mem- bers can feel like they're making a difference as well. Q: How do you stay inspired on hard days? LS: Hearing stories about how healthcare is making a difference in our patients' lives and being able to connect the dots between how our teams or technologies make a difference certainly helps. en also hearing of our team members' successes and what they're proud of — that gives me great satisfaction. Q: What is your daily mantra? LS: 'e hard is what makes it great.' e work we do is complex in a complex industry. at complexity makes it inherently hard. At the end of the day, the hard is what makes it great. Q: How is the technology side of Uni- tyPoint's COVID-19 vaccine rollout progressing? How have you solved any glaring challenges or system glitches? LS: From a broader than IT perspective, we had a strategy of reaching all populations we serve, understanding that some populations have more access to technology than others. We had to have a flexible approach in how pa- tients would ultimately be matched up or put on a schedule for vaccination. We had to do a multipronged approach, recognizing popu- lations and patients we serve. e scheduling, the administration, the tracking is all tech- nology-enabled, and some of the challenges with that have been the variation in different interpretations and groups that are eligible for different phases of the rollout. We've had to build our systems to accommodate that, and it's a complex build. We've overcome that by taking an agile approach with daily huddles. We're going to automate as much technology as possible, but we also recognize there is a subset of our population we need to reach out to in a more manual way, and that could be a phone call. Q: What advice do you have for other hospital health IT leaders encounter- ing technology challenges amid the pandemic? LS: My greatest career success is the team I've built. e team is passionate about health- care. ey're driven to achieve results, and just as important is their ability to li each other up. When I think of all the challeng- es we have had or will have, there's no one else I would rather serve with. So, my advice would be having the right team, surrounding yourself with the right people and leaning on those team members. n

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