Jason Williams brings more than 20 years of healthcare IT experience to his role as CIO at Los Angeles-based CHA Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center.
As CIO, Mr. Williams oversees the CHA HPMC's medical records system and IT infrastructure, which he says he has been able to enhance by introducing automation initiatives.
Prior to joining CHA HPMC in August, Mr. Williams served as the IT manager at Olympia Medical Center and in IT leadership positions at West Anaheim Medical Center.
Here, Mr. Williams discusses how CHA HPMC's clinical and IT teams collaborate to improve EHR usability.
Editor's note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: Which tech initiative has your hospital seen the biggest return on investment?
Jason Williams: Our IT automation initiatives have produced a significant ROI in terms of greater efficiency. By implementing automation, we can free up IT resources that were bogged down with manual mundane and time-consuming tasks.
Q: What initiatives have you taken to improve EHR usability?
JW: Our initiatives to improve EHR usability have been straightforward yet effective. Our IT team spends time with our clinicians and listens to their pain points to identify the biggest challenges they face. With that information, we are able to meet with our EHR vendor to work through our clinicians' issues to constantly improve the product to meet our specific needs.
Q: If you could eliminate one of the healthcare industry's biggest technology struggles overnight, which would it be?
JW: It sounds simple, but the challenges presented by downtime are actually quite complex and can happen in a number of different forms, including lack of redundancy, power outages, blue screens, cyber threats and hardware malfunctions. Eliminating or at least minimizing downtime could result in major improvements across the board for the healthcare industry.
Q: What has been one of your most memorable moments as CIO?
JW: One of my most memorable moments as CIO at CHA Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center has been watching my employees grow, move up the ranks and succeed at the new challenges they face. It is especially rewarding when those people who didn't have confidence in themselves, yet you knew they had what it takes to succeed, are able to achieve their goals.
To participate in future Becker's Q&As contact Jackie Drees at jdrees@beckershealthcare.com.