Dive Brief:
- A new report from the annual Scottsdale Institute Fall CIO Summit details how CIOs from eight healthcare organizations gathered in September to discuss the key challenges they're facing, and what successful strategies they see for next year.
- The top challenges they named fell under five categories: New payment models, optimization, mergers and acquisitions, security, and competing for consumerism.
- The report notes although the event took place just one week prior to the October 1st date for ICD-10 implementation, it was not named as a top challenge by any of the participants.
Dive Insight:
The summit’s CIO participants agreed on several priorities for the coming year. Among them were CIOs will need to be "true health system leaders" more than ever before, spearheading innovation and persuading systems to support initiatives in areas such as security.
As for security, the top priority was to implement the use of a standardized assessment tool, ideally by an objective, outside reviewer to help gauge progress and facilitate conversations with health system leadership. Another priority: Moving toward storing all healthcare data centrally and eliminating the ability for it to be stored on laptops or other devices.
In the area of competing for and retaining patients, engagement is the name of the game, with recommendations including maximizing provider time, funding innovation and differentiating the health system.
"For the year to come, security, optimization to prepare for value-based care, and innovation to help health systems compete for patients will need to be the key focus areas for leading CIOs," the report stated. "With much on the line, there is considerable risk. But without taking the risk to innovate, healthcare as we know it may quickly fade away, only to be supplanted by disruptors from other industries."