Becker's Hospital Review

63 PRACTICE MANAGEMENT THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Some of my favorite MLK Jr. quotes include: "The ultimate mea- sure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and contro- versy," and, "If you can't fly, then run; if you can't run, then walk; if you can't walk, then crawl; but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward." Those two sum it up for me in terms of his leadership abilities. Q: If you could eliminate one of the healthcare industry's problems overnight, which would you target first? MU: If I had a magic wand that would eradicate something in the industry overnight, it'd be cancer. It's a dreadful disease we struggle with. It is no coincidence that when you see the word cancer, even in ads for organizations, there is always a fight behind it. Fighting cancer. It's become a battle, so to speak, and it's one I would really love to see eliminated. In a more practical sense, I'd love to eliminate what I would call poor compliance. Dismal patient compliance with regimens is baffling. More people could be saved if they complied with physicians' orders, regimens, medications and things of that nature. Very few patients listen to doctors when they say they need to change their lifestyle or lose weight. And speaking of change, one of the things we've embarked on at Methodist Le Bonheur is zero harm to patients. We started our jour- ney as a high reliability organization in June. Several years ago, we started tracking hospital-acquired conditions and things of that na- ture. We've made progress in some areas but not in all categories. ere is now a much more intentional effort to achieve these goals. It's bad enough that patients have issues they are seeking care for; to compound it with unnecessary harm in the hospital — there is no excuse for it. n 5 Questions With Deanna Wise, CIO of Dignity Health By Erin Dietsche S an Francisco-based Dignity Health CIO Deanna Wise believes CIOs need to look beyond technology in the hospital and instead readjust their focus on what the consumer wants and needs. Ms. Wise has served as executive vice president and CIO of Dignity Health since 2011. She previously held the CIO role at numerous other health systems, including Phoe- nix-based Maricopa Integrated Health System and Nash- ville, Tenn.-based Vanguard Health Systems, which merged with Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare in 2013. Becker's Hospital Review caught up with Ms. Wise to discuss what she looks for in a leader, the last memorable thing she read and what CIOs should keep an eye on in 2017. Note: Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity. Question: What other CIOs do you look up to and why? Deanna Wise: For fear that I will miss someone in my an- swer, I'll describe what I aspire to be in a leader. I look for someone whose communication is extremely strong, no matter what level of leadership you're at. I look for someone who's a collaborator, outcomes-driven and compassionate. You have to have a team that keeps moving to the next ini- tiative, but you also have to be compassionate toward the people you work with. I also think about blend. People have different needs at dif- ferent hours, and in this day and age, we need to realize that team members are going to have different needs at differ- ent times. In addition, I aspire to be a leader that empowers my team. I realize that I just described Lloyd Dean, Dignity Health's CEO. I have the luxury of working for a leader I aspire to be. Q: What's your biggest challenge as a CIO from a day- to-day perspective? DW: Figuring out how to do more with less but always be innovative. It's challenging to always be trying to outwit your competitors. Q: What's the last memorable thing you read? DW: The first thing that comes to mind is The Patient Will See You Now by Eric Topol, MD. It's extremely relevant. Be- ing a patient-consumer is interesting because everybody's a consumer of healthcare. We've spent a lot of time focus- ing on how to deploy EHR records, but how do we ultimate- ly focus on the consumer? The book is about moving toward the consumer side of things. Part of meaningful use was to deploy a patient health record. But does it really do what I need it to do as a consumer? Not really. Am I really driven to leverage it? Not really. Q: What do you think the healthcare IT industry lacks most right now, and what do you see as a solution to fix it? DW: A focus on the consumer. For example, as a consumer, you want to get test results as quickly as possible. A solution could be a comparison tool of sorts. We are per- sonally trying to drive toward that as we get our provider schedule online. We've been so busy focused on getting our EHRs online. But now we need to answer the question, "What do we do with the information and how do we use it to change the lives of our patients?" Q: What is one thing CIOs should focus on or look for- ward to in 2017? DW: As all healthcare organizations look for ways to reduce costs, improve the ease of EHR use for physicians and clini- cians and innovate for our consumers, we need to focus on how we can get information into the hands of patients so they can be engaged in their health. n

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