Is the CIO role waxing, waning or just hanging out? In our cover story, “Governance Guidance,” page 46, HCI examines the CIO role in light of different governance models for reporting. Is one model better than the other? Does each say something about the values of the organization in question? And what are the benefits and challenges of each? We also look down the org chart to find out who should be reporting directly in to the CIO — and how many is too much. We also get to the bottom of the formal relationship between the CIO and the CMIO or CMO.
Two non-profit Massachusetts healthcare groups came out swinging in favor of CPOE. And BCBS followed close behind with an announcement that it will require hospitals to install and use CPOE systems to receive extra payments. When cash gets involved, people listen. In “BCBS and CPOE,” page 16, HCI investigates whether this could be a model that insurers throughout the country embrace — or a nightmare for CIOs.
In 2006, participants in the HIMSS Leadership Survey predicted that single sign-on (SSO) would become the most prominent technology that providers would look to adopt in the next two years. That forecast proved to be fairly accurate. According to a recent KLAS report, the functionality is starting to really make a difference for busy clinicians. Without single sign-on, it can be one username and password after another, leaving adoption rates somewhere in the basement. In “Sign of the Times,” page 28, HCI talks to CIOs that have embraced the simplifying technology.
Think it's tough trying to integrate RIS, PACS, and an EMR across a single hospital? Imagine that you've got 12 hospitals, 14 clinics, 20-plus imaging centers, and 1,800 salaried physicians to manage. That's what the clinical and IT leaders at the Cleveland Clinic integrated health system have been working with, as they pursue their RIS/PACS/EMR integration plan. Read “A Massive Undertaking,” page 40, to see the one main lesson Cleveland Clinic executives have learned.
