Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/479065
64 Leadership & Management Q: Having managed such a huge project, what advice do you have for CIOs em- barking on similar initiatives? PT: Advanced planning and making sure the IT department is involved from the time of envision- ing the building is crucial, as is understanding all the expectations about how the workflows will operate in the new building as early as possible. There will always be surprises, but we were for- tunate to have had some experience constructing smaller buildings, so we had a pretty good process during pre-construction meetings. That helped tremendously. When you are building something as big as the New James, you have to do that pre-planning because everything happens all at once and by the time you realize you didn't plan enough, it's too late and you're in trouble. You have to get on the runway early. Also, creating partnerships with the leaders of construction is extremely important for a CIO. You need to understand them, understand what issues they have, have conversations with them about what to do when issues come up. Issues are going to come up, so building that relationship before there is a big ugly problem makes address- ing it that much easier. Another aspect we spent significant time on was figuring out the live support structures. The CIO has to make sure everyone understands the pro- cess when patients are moving onto a floor and there are problems with IT. Structures should be in place and everyone should know how those is- sues are managed and who should be called. Typi- cally, IT has more experience than operations in big project live events, so creating partnerships with operations is also useful. IT skills combined with operational knowledge can make sure a live event is a success. n