How SCL Health will optimize IT and invest next year

Broomfield, Colo.-based SCL Health's IT department will focus on optimizing current technology and investing in innovation next year, according to Chief Innovation and Digital Officer Craig Richardville.

Mr. Richardville discussed the big challenges in health IT today, team management and outlook for the future during a Dec. 11 episode of the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. Download the episode here and subscribe here.

Below is an excerpt of the conversation.

Question: What are the essential IT investments for 2021?

Craig Richardville: We plan on looking at the continued optimization efforts of our current investments. For the most part, as an industry, we have installed and implemented, but we also haven't fully taken advantage of the assets we already invested in. To be good stewards of our money and get all the juice out of the squeeze, we need to make sure we continue optimization efforts.

If we look at IT investments, we certainly need to advance our innovation thinking to imitate best practices and continue to take advantage of transformative opportunities. A lot of that will move around some of the buzzwords out there, so when you look at things like artificial intelligence and machine learning, the development of a digital workforce, using data for decision making, all those different pieces we will invest in. We want to make sure the importance of this digital transformation we are going through does drive our decision-making by using the data we're creating.

We need to simplify access to our resources, so a digital front door for our consumers and for our patients will allow people to have access to our health services.