Say that Brad Reimer, CIO at Sanford Health, has a lot of work to do.
Sanford Health is a large health system serving the Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska. Today, Reimer is working on a $350 million virtual care initiative that strives to overcome health IT workforce challenges and build a modern data ecosystem – press strong in modern.
Healthcare IT News interviewed Reimer to discuss these issues and programs in detail, and got some more advice from him on one of his focus areas, information security preparedness. believe.
Q. Please discuss Sanford’s $350 million virtual care initiative and how it is helping the organization.
ONE. Sanford Health recently launched a $350 million virtual care initiative to transform healthcare for rural and underserved communities across the Midwest by significantly improve access to convenient, high-quality healthcare.
As the largest rural health system in the United States, We are re-imagining the way we deliver care. People living in rural America face unique challenges, and access to care is one of the most important determinants of health.
We are committed to removing barriers to access and addressing health disparities by expanding our services and care – ensuring our patients benefit from world-class care regardless of their needs. tell them where they live or what challenges they face.
As part of our virtual care initiative, Sanford Health will focus on expanding access, improving the patient experience, driving innovation through new research, engaging and training a new generation of clinicians, and sharing opportunities. learning association through an educational institute.
Earlier this year, our health system broke ground on a 60,000-square-foot Virtual Care Center that will feature dedicated clinician workspaces equipped with telemedicine technology. latest to deliver on-demand urgent care, behavioral health, and primary care.
We also plan to build 5 satellite clinics to ensure patients have access to care close to home. These satellite clinics will be located in towns with populations of 2,500 or less within Sanford Health’s operating area and will allow our patients to access primary care and care services. as well as laboratory, x-ray and pharmaceutical services.
The satellite clinics will be run by a nurse or nurse practitioner and will allow patients to instantly connect with a clinician or specialist in our Virtual Care Center if needed.
In partnership with our satellite clinics, we will bring together a diverse team of over 100 clinicians with cutting-edge tools and technologies to diagnose, monitor and provide care. care for our patients and senior carers around the clock.
We hope to transition more than 350,000 outpatient visits each year to home care, reach more than 11 million people, and expand care to more than 275 clinics across the Midwest.
Q. On the other hand, what are some of the challenges the medical IT workforce is facing today and how are you overcoming them?
ONE. The battle for talent in healthcare today is broader than the shortage of doctors and nurses. Health IT teams are facing many of the same workforce challenges as other groups in the healthcare industry, including talent shortages in cybersecurity, digital, cloud, and other areas. cloud and data.
Demand for these roles is growing at a faster rate than new college graduates enter the workforce. We’re also competing for talent with every other company with a tech need — not just Google and Amazon.
Sanford Health is well positioned to address these challenges through innovative strategies. For example, we know that many people are looking for a job that gives meaning and purpose, and there is no better place to make a difference every day than in healthcare.
We have intentionally made sure that our technology team understands how their role connects to our organization’s mission of providing world-class healthcare.
For example, we created a round-up program where we invited caregivers and other leaders in our organization to share their “day in life” stories with the entire team. our technology. These “clinical immersion sessions” allow nurses, doctors, and other caregivers to discuss how technology interferes with their role and impact on patients.
We have received very positive feedback from our team that the sessions are not only empowering but also bring deeper meaning and purpose to their roles. This is the Sanford Health differentiator that underpins our recruitment and retention efforts.
Our people are our most important asset, so we also take great care to ensure that our team gets recognition for all the little things, not just projects. big.
As we look to the future, the need for our technology workforce will continue to expand, particularly as we invest in new ways to deliver care, including follow-up. telemedicine, virtual care options, and other digital tools. We remain committed to creating a more seamless digital experience that meets the needs and expectations of our patients and improves the health of our communities.
Q. You are very concerned about being prepared for information security. Feel free to share some tips with your fellow CIOs and their CISOs.
ONE. Investing in cybersecurity preparedness is essential to protecting our people, patients, and communities. The investment is also much broader than just having the right technical tools, software, and talent. It requires close cooperation and support from operational leaders.
This includes updating downtime procedures, providing ongoing training, and keeping best practices in mind for employees. We’ve found it can be very effective to talk about cybersecurity preparedness in the context of our employees’ personal lives. It helps to build good security practices to be applied in the workplace.
Sanford Health is also focused on building a new system of meaningful, rewarding and rewarding careers in healthcare cybersecurity. In 2020, our institution formed a strategic Cyber Health Alliance with Dakota State University (DSU), a national leader in cyber education and research, which will enable us to address information security needs and expand our cyber workforce.
DSU trains some of the most in-demand students for national security agencies and major technology companies around the world. Sanford Health’s strong investments in healthcare technology, research and innovation provide an ideal platform for partnerships.
Initially, our alliance will focus on the well-aligned current needs and interests of Sanford Health and DSU, including attracting, developing and retaining talent. For example, we will provide student enrichment opportunities and network operator education to strengthen the system and attract world-class talent.
DSU students will have a unique opportunity to engage in real-world, hands-on practice, working alongside Sanford Health faculty, researchers, and IT professionals, grappling with issues and develop solutions.
Q. You have focused on building a modern data ecosystem. Please describe the ecosystem and what do you mean by modern.
ONE. There are many developments in healthcare right now – from artificial intelligence to the medical Internet of Things, to virtual care and consumer-centric digital healthcare tools.
The most important opportunity and common currency across all of that is data. Data is the lifeblood of the digital health future, and providing a modern and adaptable data ecosystem is critical. This includes data governance, data accessibility, interoperability, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
There are many factors that make leading healthcare systems recognize the need for a modern and up-to-date data ecosystem. Over the past two decades, there has been a significant focus on electronic health records, which are the overall focus of data. With the proliferation of digital health solutions, more and more data is being generated outside of the health record, and not all data belongs to the health record.
So where should it go? When you consider the breadth and volume of new data coming from digital tools, mobile apps, remote patient monitoring systems, social determinants of physical examination , patient wearables, healthcare consumer behavioral data, etc., the traditional capabilities of the healthcare data ecosystem need to expand to keep up.
All of these systems need to work together to benefit from improved quality of care and enhanced patient and provider experience. It is both in great demand and an opportunity for organizations to forge partnerships with health systems, universities, and third-party providers.
Whether it is leveraging this data to improve patient care plans, aid in diagnosis, conduct research, or provide a more personalized experience for patients, building data ecosystems modernize and provide access to this data for researchers, data scientists, artificial intelligence and advanced predictive analytics models will become game changers that will revolutionize health care for our patients and communities.
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