In a speech opening the CHIME-HIMSS Forum on Feb. 29, Marc Probst, the incoming chairman of the board of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), helped open the Forum Monday morning at the Venetian/Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas, by focusing on the association’s strategic initiatives, including around a National Patient ID, partnership with the OpenNotes Movement, and a growing involvement in partnering around precision medicine.
Speaking to an audience of over 700 (a record attendance for the CHIME-HIMSS Forum), Probst, after being introduced by CHIME president and CEO Russell P. Branzell, spoke enthusiastically about the horizon for CIOs in healthcare. He began by saying that “2015 was a difficult year in healthcare, with lots of work to do. But there are so many exciting things going on as we head into 2016. We’re moving beyond the check-the-box kind of meaningful use-related things, and into a space where CIO leadership will really be needed. We have the opportunity to really leverage healthcare IT to improve care, to make people’s lives better, to do population health, to improve quality and lower costs.”
Probst, the CIO of Intermountain Healthcare (Salt Lake City), went on to say, “It’s an honor to work with you and the board and staff of CHIME. This is a great organization. At the Fall CIO Forum, we introduced a new vision statement for time. I think it’s very relevant to what we’re doing: ‘Exceptional leaders transforming healthcare.’ We have a strategic responsibility,” he went on to say. “We have to do what we’ve been doing 24/7/365; the systems still have to keep working. But we also have to really engage with our fellow c-suite executives. And you all exemplify exceptional leaders. I know so many of you, and I’ve learned so much from you.”
Probst touted three recent announcements. First, he highlighted the announcement in January that CHIME had launched its National Patient ID Challenge. “I think that’s a really bold step for CHIME: to try to do something that bold, to really encourage something like that,” he said. “We officially opened the CHIME National Patient ID Challenge in January at the National Press Club. The Press Club was full, lots of press were there. And we had Dr. Tejal Gandhi to speak. Dr. Karen De Salvo was there as well. And we really appreciate her support. In fact,” he noted, “Dr. DeSalvo said the National Patient ID Challenge is an example of someone stepping up to solve a real problem. A National Patient ID will help save lives and improve care in the future. We already have 171 innovators who have formally signed up to take on this challenge, representing 15 countries around the world. This is a momentuous step for us to take as an organization. We should all be proud of what CHIME is doing.”
Probst also referenced an announcement made the week before that CHIME was partnering with the OpenNotes Movement to promote OpenNotes. “Our goal is to reach 50 million patients in three years,” he noted. “We think it’s exceptional. And he noted that CHIME was exploring partnerships around precision medicine, which he said he was optimistic would soon bear fruit.
Probst also welcomed Charles E. “Chuck” Christian, 2015’s board chair, who spoke of the achievements of the CHIME leadership in 2015, and the numerous opportunities head in 2016 for the association. Probst also referenced the very high level of member satisfaction (95 percent), and member retention (96 percent), according to recent analysis. He added that member engagement (at 42 percent) is an area that the CHIME leadership is strongly focused on going forward.
The speeches kicked off a daylong forum that represents one of CHIME’s two annual events, the other being the CHIME Fall Forum, held every year in a different city in October. As always, the CHIME-HIMSS Forum coincides with the HIMSS specialty symposia on the first day of the HIMSS Conference.
And--in the spirit of Las Vegas, Russ Branzell appeared initially as Elvis.
