Health system C-suites are turning over at a rapid clip, and several large health systems have changed CIOs this year.
Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare appointed a new CIO in February after P. Martin Paslick retired. Mr. Paslick spent 38 years at HCA Healthcare and oversaw a huge transformation within the IT department. HCA partnered with Google in recent years and enabled mobile capability for the organization's 93,000 nurses. He also played a key role in transitioning to the Cloud for a more dynamic data analytics platform.
Chad Wasserman, an HCA veteran in is own right, succeeded Mr. Paslick. He leads more than 6,700 team members in the IT Group with oversight of IT strategy and solutions to support inpatient and outpatient care sites. He previously served as senior vice president and COO of ITG, and served in leadership positions to improve performance.
Cleveland Clinic's former CIO Matthew Kull left the system in August 2023 to become the CIO at Fairfax, Va.-based Inova and the system named Sarah Hatchett to replace him in May. Ms. Hatchett stepped up to serve as interim CIO when Mr. Kull left, previously managing Cleveland Clinic's enterprise applications and growth portfolio. She had previous experience at two other health systems and Epic.
Kristin Myers left her role as chief digital and information officer of Mount Sinai Health System in New York City to join New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health as the system's first chief digital officer in January. One of her big responsibilities is transitioning Northwell to a single instance of Epic.
Renton, Wash.-based Providence and Salt Lake City-based Intermountain are both now without CIOs after Craig Richardville and B.J. Moore exited in recent months. Several other health systems have reported CIO changes this year as well. Lynnette Clinton has also made a few changes in the last year, leaving Clearwater, Fla.-based BayCare Health System to become CIO of University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville for about nine months before returning to BayCare in September after the CIO role opened up.
What's behind the moves?
Executive exits happen for a variety of reasons. Healthcare executive teams across the board have seen higher turnover in the last year as financial challenges persist and operations become more complex. The CIO's role is also changing, with cybersecurity threats increasing, artificial intelligence integration, telehealth and remote work. CIOs are also elevating to more strategic leadership and need the "soft skills" in addition to technical expertise to build teams equipped for modernizing their organizations.
"Today, IT is an absolute partner. We are not just the deliverer of technology, but a full participant in discussions around our need and technology solutions to meet them," said Mr. Paslick in an interview with This Week Health. "It's a day and night scenario from 30-some years ago. And it's more than just delivering a solution to meet a need. We come to the table now and say, have you ever thought about doing this with our patients, Have you ever thought about this technology and how it could improve workflow? That is really powerful, and it says a lot for how far we've come."