Becker's Hospital Review

62 HEALTH IT When you need it We have it COMPLETE REVENUE CYCLE SUPPORT AR Projects | Self Pay | CBO | HIM Audits | Coding | ICD-10 | Consulting | Staffing "Since partnering with HRG we have more than doubled our cash collections and seen extraordinary growth that is sustainable." Joshua Gilmore TCC Health Services Finance Director 800.695.8171 | hrgpros.com BENCH S T R E N G T H But in addition to tech-based solutions, the roundtable addressed the need for policy and cul- tural changes surrounding EHRs. Some resistance to health IT and inconsistencies in its use within a system can be attributed to a need for guidelines on who inputs what information and when. In other instances it may be helpful for IT leaders or EHR- point people to demonstrate that the technology can actually make the lives of care team members easier, rather than complicating patient care with clerical work. With a handful of top vendors dominating the majority of the EHR market and challenges with in- teroperability, the emergence of new tech companies and solutions will likely continue. Experts agree that striving toward IT optimization will involve adopting soware accessories to better power larger, existing platforms, and getting to know the technology better so that staff members at all levels experience its ben- efits. 11. Health IT becomes a core competency. Hospitals and health systems are investing more and more into their IT departments, establishing them as pillars of critical support instead of the department that keeps computers running. e evolution of this mindset can partially be attributed to government regulations and mandates. But as healthcare organi- zations venture into big data, analytics, clinical deci- sion support tools and even telemedicine, health IT is becoming more embedded in hospital operations. In a previous interview with Becker's Hospital Re- view, John Halamka, MD, CIO of Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said his role has significantly evolved from when he joined BIDMC. "When I started in 1996, being a CIO was keeping the bits and bytes flowing," Dr. Halamka said. "Now, it's strategy, tactic and budgets." To keep up with the evolution, Dr. Halamka appointed three other lead- ers, a CMIO, CTO and CISO, to help tackle the grow- ing responsibilities and reach of the IT department. Additionally, as health IT becomes more central to the organization's strategy, the question of whether to outsource certain functionalities becomes more pressing. e "2014 HIMSS Workforce Survey" did identify a "notable decline" in organizations' plans to outsource IT functions, which could signify a shi to more in-house IT operations. According to the survey, 70 percent of respondents said they planned to outsource at least one area of IT operations, com- pared to 93 percent in the previous year's survey. n

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