In collaboration with CHIME, Becker's Hospital Review's "Life of a Healthcare CIO" series features leading hospital and health system CIOs from across the country who are sharing their experiences, best practices and challenges.
To recommend a CIO to be featured in this series, please contact Akanksha Jayanthi (ajayanthi@beckershealthcare.com) or Elizabeth Earl (eearl@beckershealthcare.com).
An interview with Mark Richard, CIO of McLaren Port Huron (Mich.) Hospital.
(Note: Interview has been edited for length and clarity).
Question: You have been CIO of McLaren Port Huron Hospital since 2012 but have been in the IT industry since 1990. How have you seen the industry change in that time?
Mark Richard: With all the federal mandates, meaningful use has put a lot of pressure on the hospitals, not only in IT but also in the whole market. With reimbursement being cut, it's making meaningful use very expensive. Even though you're getting dollars back from the federal government, it's still very expensive and very difficult to implement because you've got to get buy-in from the physician community. In the case with us, we were in bed with one vendor, and they sunset their product in between stages of meaningful use. We had to determine if we're going to use another one of their products or do a system selection. We did a system selection. When you replace your EMR system, you have to do it between stages of meaningful use. The timelines are very difficult. We had a 14-month window to replace every system in the hospital.
Q: In your time at McLaren Port Huron Hospital, what has been your biggest accomplishment?
MR: WE did a system selection process where we chose a new EMR system and implemented it between meaningful use stages. This was replacing a whole bunch of standalone systems and partly integrated systems with one integrated solution, MEDITECH. We did that in a 14-month period. We went full [computerized physician order entry] during that, implemented voice recognition and eliminated most transcriptions. We went live in May 2014.
Q: What do you see as your biggest misstep or mistake?
MR: My biggest misstep recently in my role involved integrating with physician offices with an HIE. I was probably overenthusiastic on how well that was going to work. It's still really difficult, and we're behind on that. There were a lot of expectations that we have not met.
Q: What is the biggest challenge you are facing right now?
MR: Right now in the market, mid-sized hospitals are all being acquired by larger systems. We were acquired by a larger system and now we have to integrate into their system.
Editor's note: In May 2012, Flint, Mich.-based McLaren Health Care acquired Port Huron (Mich.) Hospital.
Q: What is your favorite part of the health IT industry?
MR: Hospitals are like 50 businesses under one building, so I love solving problems associated with maintaining a more integrated solution to provide better patient are. I find the industry is really behind at times compared to other industries, but it's the fact that it's way more complex than most industries that just have one product.
Q: What is one lesson you've learned that you would like to share with other CIOs?
MR: In doing a big project, you need to have buy-in at all levels. You need buy-in by the core stakeholders of the departments, you need buy-in by the executive team, you need buy-in by the physician community and the board. If you don't have that you will fail.
More articles in the Life of a healthcare CIO series:
Life of a healthcare CIO: Valley Health System's Eric Carey
Life of a healthcare CIO: University of Mississippi Medical Center's David Chou
The life of a healthcare CIO: Sparrow Health System's Thomas Bres