At HCI, we rely on our readers to help make our stories deeply useful and effective. Please take a close look at the lineup below. If you are a C-suite technology leader, consultant or analyst interested in participating, please send me an e-mail. Inquiries regarding these stories are welcome until Sept. 15.
And, as always, if you’ve got other story suggestions for us, let me know.
Thanks,
Anthony Guerra, Editor-in-Chief
NOVEMBER LINEUP
COVER STORY
The Nurse Factor and IT Implementation Success
Nursing executives, managers, and nursing informaticists are becoming more and more critical to the success of all types of clinical implementations, from core EMR rollouts to medication management go-lives, to IT-facilitated patient safety and patient care quality initiatives. Smart CIOs have always understood this; but pioneering organizations are putting the concept into practice. The main focus of this cover story will be the IT/nursing relationship, in particular how smart CIOs are successfully cultivating strategic partnerships with nurse executives and managers for ultimate clinical IT implementation success. We’ll ask how smart CIOs can best work with nursing to be effective. The main sidebar will look at the CNIO role, one with growing importance.
CLINICAL
Laboratory Information Systems — Connecting the Pieces
Anyone who’s ever been in a hospital or physician practice knows that the first thing that’s ordered is lab tests. But are those results getting back in to the electronic patient record, and to the doctor, in a timely fashion? Healthcare Informatics will take a look at what innovations are available in laboratory information systems — and find out who’s using them. How can a LIS integrate with the electronic record, improve physician workflow, and help ensure safe and accurate care. And what happens what an ED doctor needs lab results — fast?
FINANCIAL
Budgeting for Mandates
CIOs are facing a slew of new government mandates like the ICD-10 codes and mandatory CPOE in the state of Massachusetts. While it may be tempting to push those items to the back burner when it comes time to prepare a strategic plan, what’s the impact on the budget? Are CIOs prepared for the expense of training new coders? And what about implementing CPOE? How can CIOs prepare for mandates in order to keep from surprising their CEOs and CFOs at budget time. Healthcare Informatics will get ideas from CIOs who are not being caught unawares, and speak to industry organizations to learn their best advice.
ADMINISTRATIVE
Disaster Recovery
As critical care becomes increasingly reliant on electronic systems in today’s technology-saturated environment, data protection and disaster recovery planning are becoming a higher priority. Health systems have too much to lose — literally. Therefore, CIOs are employing innovative strategies to assess the current level of readiness in their institution and developing procedures to enable continued operations in the event of an interruption. In this article, we will examine scenarios for which every CIO needs to be prepared and, based on that, determine what types of technologies can be used to maintain continuity; what plans are in place to upgrade and enhance data back-up and recovery options; and how executives can ensure that they are doing enough to be prepared for the worst-case scenarios.
WIRELESS
How Much is Enough?
Among many hospital executives, going paperless is the ultimate goal; but what about going wireless? As wireless technologies become more sophisticated and hospitals become increasingly wired, the question arises of just how wireless hospitals should be. In this article, we will explore what the desired level of wireless is for most healthcare systems, how the benchmarks may vary from one institution to the next, and how these goals can be achieved. We will also look at how clinicians fit into the strategy, specifically how important an effective wireless plan is in attracting clinicians and keeping them satisfied, and we will examine effective strategies for being as appropriately wired as possible, while still maintaining a high degree of safety.
IMAGING
Surgery PACS and IT
With market competition heating up, and reimbursement straitened, CIOs are in the hot seat as never before to help their organizations optimize surgery workflow. This means providing surgeons with images in real time, and also optimizing patient flow across the perioperative, OR, and post-operative suites. We'll look at how CIOs are strategizing to put their hospital organizations on top in their markets, and satisfy the needs and demands of the C-suite and clinicians, while ensuring that their organizations survive and thrive.
POLICY
CPOE Mandate in Massachusetts
After a pilot project involving six hospitals, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts estimated that if all its hospitals adopted computerized physician order-entry systems, the annual savings could be $170 million, and 55,000 adverse drug events could be prevented every year. Now the Bay State has passed a law mandating the use of CPOE by 2012, offering grant funding to help with implementation. Healthcare Informatics will ask CIOs in Massachusetts what challenges the mandate presents. Could it be a model for other states or the feds?
