Daniel O’Connor, RN, is someone you don’t meet every day – a CIO who also happens to be a nurse. As a result, he has a unique perspective when it comes to engaging clinicians in the field of health IT – a topic that interests him greatly.
O’Connor is vice president of customer experience at HCTec, a health IT staffing and managed services company. Previously, he was vice president of Stoltenburg Consulting, CIO at United Memorial Medical Center and clinical information systems manager at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
We interviewed O’Connor and talked about what it’s like to be a CIO who’s also a nurse, and why he feels having Clinicians involved in the health IT team, the difference between having physicians and nurses involved in the IT team, best practices for engaging clinicians in help desk support, and tips on how CIOs who want to formally hire doctors or nurses for their IT teams can justify the cost of these expensive clinicians.
Q. What is it like to be a CIO but also a nurse? How does your clinical background influence your IT decision making?
ONE. Understanding the nuances and challenges of IT in any health system operation requires a deep understanding of technology. However, it’s equally important to understand what’s going on day-to-day in the facility you’re serving as well as all the nuances employees experience and their IT needs.
Being a CIO with nursing expertise has helped me and my organization understand what these systems need and how they need to be supported. As an RN, I understand the need for quick responses and solutions that provide a true perspective and understanding of the clinician’s needs communicated to them at the same level .
Championing your system by bringing clinicians into your IT team brings clinical insight, empathy, and practical knowledge that informs and significantly enhances decision-making. IT decisions. This unique perspective ensures technology implementation is aligned with clinical practice, resulting in better patient care, higher satisfaction of healthcare providers and IT initiatives are more successful.
Ask. Why do you feel it is so important to have clinicians on the health IT team? How can they impact things like deployment, training, application support, service desk, etc.?
ONE. Clinicians bring insight, expertise, and credibility to the health IT team. Their involvement ensures systems are functional and support clinical workflow and patient care. By participating in implementation, training, support, and service desk operations, clinicians help maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of EHR investments, ultimately delivering better outcomes for patients and higher provider satisfaction.
Pull them in Every aspect of the EHR is important throughout development, implementation, system upgrades, and helpdesk support. You only have one chance to get it right during a new system implementation or major upgrade. If you don’t succeed on the first try, vendors will question the investment and adoption will slow down.
Having people who understand the processes and how vendors interact with the EHR in every use case is critical to its success. For example, peer support is especially important when you go live with a system. The go-live experience represents the vendor’s view of the system. And as new residents and providers arrive, experienced clinicians will serve as seasoned champions to assist clinicians with usability and workflow job.
Q. Is there a difference between doctors and nurses being part of an IT team? If so, what are they and what does each one bring?
ONE. Yes, there are nuances to clinical peer support for each profession. Each team brings unique perspectives, expertise, and strengths that can significantly benefit the development, implementation, and support of health IT systems. For example, nurses have completely different workflows and recording styles. Nurses need to be involved in both teaching and supporting colleagues as they roll out the system and support it over time.
Nursing documentation requirements: Must have good order entry pathways and easy access to order groups based on patient issues. Correlating information should be sent to the clinician to proceed with the workup. Additionally, integration with telemetry and all other data collection systems will speed up the nursing documentation process.
Supplier time is harder to come by. IT teams must be fully prepared and use doctors’ and nurses’ time efficiently. Efficiency is another valuable strategy to continue to attract their support. Both are equally important due to differences in practice.
By leveraging the power of both physicians and nurses, healthcare organizations can create more efficient, effective, and user-centered health IT systems that ultimately deliver better outcomes for patients and Higher satisfaction of both doctors and nurses.
Ask. What are your best practices for engaging clinicians in help desk support, and why are they important here?
ONE. Include clinicians on teams to ensure end users have access to a broad group of experts who understand how to use the EHR in various clinical situations. Make sure that whether doing so internally or leveraging external support, you are striving for the highest levels of customer satisfaction and know what it takes to maintain them.
Clinicians want EHR issues resolved as quickly as possible. Whether the caller is a care technician, nurse, or clinician, patient care is the #1 priority. The importance of the acute care environment must be recognized.
Use metrics related to two criteria:
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Can we help the clinical end user?
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Can we do that in a way that is helpful, understanding, and supportive when they are upset?
If you are leveraging third-party support services, make sure its model reflects how the health system delivers its support services. For example, don’t use people and services from other industries or environments. The support team must have employees who are knowledgeable and passionate about health care.
Q. Any advice on how CIOs who want to formally hire physicians or nurses for their IT teams can justify the costs of these expensive clinicians?
ONE. By presenting clear, data-driven arguments and aligning clinician engagement with organizational goals, CIOs can effectively save on the costs of hiring physicians or nurse for their IT team. These clinicians bring expertise that can lead to significant improvements in clinical outcomes, operational efficiency and financial performance.
To further justify this important investment, be sure to express the value IT nurses and clinicians can have in your CFO’s language. It’s always important to Build an ROI model with specific numbers and cost/benefit scenarios both ways – with and without these experts on the IT team. Shows how a quality support model is profitable with both tangible and intangible impacts.
Also, don’t be afraid to be upfront about the numbers. Frame nurses and clinicians joining the IT team as an investment, not as a cost.
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