Becker's Hospital Review

49 CIO / HEALTH IT Top IT trends influencing hospital purchasing decisions: Survey By Naomi Diaz H ospitals and health systems are facing a major hurdle in 2025: retaining and budgeting for qualified IT resources, an April 2 survey from Stoltenberg Consulting, a healthcare information technology consulting firm, found. Stoltenberg Consulting surveyed 45 healthcare CIOs — all members of CHIME — to identify the top health IT trends influencing purchasing decisions in 2025. Here's what the survey found: • irty-nine percent of respondents cited retaining and budgeting for qualified IT resources as their top operational IT challenge. • Sixty-two percent of CIOs identified "getting the most out of existing IT purchases" as their leading financial goal. • Fiy percent of CIOs ranked "clinician end-user education and knowledge transfer, including workflow optimization" as their top priority for improving IT support amid ongoing workforce challenges. • On the end-user side, 35% said "onboarding and lack of continuous technology training" was their biggest IT-related frustration. • Artificial intelligence and machine learning continued to gain momentum, securing 46% of CIO votes — up from 32% in the previous survey. • Cybersecurity, privacy and risk management measures emerged as the top IT investment area, accounting for 23% of total budget priorities. n Generative AI's biggest opportunities, per health system C-suites By Giles Bruce W hile 83% of healthcare executives are piloting generative AI, fewer than 10% have the infrastructure necessary for enterprisewide deployment, Accenture found. Still, leaders recognize the technology's potential benefits, according to the IT consulting firm's March report. Here is what healthcare C-suite executives consider the biggest opportunities for generative AI at their organizations: 1. Increase employee efficiency: 83% 2. Drive revenue growth: 82% 3. Increase market share: 18% 4. Improve medical decision-making: 17% 5. Encourage innovation: 13% 6. Implement social-determinants-of-health programs: 7% 7. Empower patients: 6% Accenture surveyed 300 C-suite leaders — including CEOs, CFOs and CIOs — at healthcare providers with at least $1 billion in revenues. n Improving the CIO-CFO relationship: 6 notes By Giles Bruce C IOs and CFOs can drive "transformational success" when they partner to steer technology toward meeting business needs, KPMG reported. Here are six things to know from the professional services firm's March 19 report on CIO-CFO collaboration, which surveyed 102 C-suite leaders from $1 billion-plus organizations across industries, including healthcare: 1. Ninety-two percent of CIOs and CFOs deem their relationships collaborative, with a majority calling them "very collaborative." 2. Forty-nine percent of CIOs and 39% of CFOs view the definition of technology ROI as a point of contention. 3. Sixty-one percent of CIOs and 59% of CFOs say they are in charge of AI and technology investments. 4. Sixty-three percent of companies allocate more than 20% of their annual budgets to innovation, which nearly a third of CIOs say is excessive and a similar proportion of CFOs consider insufficient. 5. Fifty-seven percent of CFOs and 37% of CIOs believe collaboration significantly improves operational efficiency. 6. Fifty-one percent of CFOs and 29% of CIOs think collaboration enhances risk management. n

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