Health IT, MedCity Influencers

4 ways to build a good relationship with your CIO to improve care transitions

If you haven’t met your CIO, you need to. Introduce yourself and get to know your CIO with the end goal of educating him/her on your care transition workflow.

For better or worse, technology will continue to evolve and, like it or not, we need to keep up with its rapid change. With so many regulatory changes like meaningful use and value-based purchasing impacting technology decisions, care transition workflows aren’t often considered when addressing these changes. This is frustrating for us clinicians, especially when we have to re-learn how to input necessary clinical information.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have a clinical say in these efforts?

The fact is, now more than ever, case managers and IT departments need to work together. As case managers, we play a crucial role in the day to day activities of patients so if you’re not regularly included in technology decisions, especially those that are aimed at addressing transitions of care and value-based purchasing it’s time to be proactive. Here are three steps to getting involved in the care transition workflow discussions:

Get to Know Your CIO

If you haven’t met your CIO, you need to. Introduce yourself and get to know your CIO with the end goal of educating him/her on your care transition workflow. Make sure your CIO and IT department understand that your team’s care transition workflow will be a key factor to your hospital’s success in meeting care transition requirements for meaningful use and value-based purchasing initiatives.

Homework helps

Educate yourself about your hospital’s systems to ensure you have a solid understanding of what elements would be beneficial to your workflow process. Make sure you have a brief explanation of your department and the care transition challenges you already face. Your CIO may not be aware of the discharge planning process or the work involved in securing post-discharge services for patients. Learn to tell your story in a compelling and succinct manner to show where there is room for improvement, supporting your case.

Ask your CIO to lunch

Listen to what’s important to your CIO: find out what his/her priorities are and ask questions. Can your clinical expertise help them on any projects? Can you connect them with any industry resources? Inquire about your CIO’s roadmap and learn what the pain points are for getting systems to work together. Find out the CIO’s goals and look for an opportunity to discuss where you think you can align to excel while in reason. Just a note to the wise: This meeting is about building a relationship and communicating common goals. It’s not the time to bend your CIO’s ear about IT issues.

Make yourself available

Offer to be involved in preliminary discussions as new software is evaluated. Promote yourself as a problem solver who can bring fresh ideas to the table while not being afraid to suggest an alternative solution. As you find out about industry news, share important rules and regulatory changes proactively to demonstrate that you are knowledgeable and a trustworthy source who is looking to bring success to the organization.

By combining these four tactics, you will be able to build a relationship with not only your CIO but other influencers in your organization. Voicing your thoughts on how to improve upon care transition workflows will enable collaboration and ultimately success.


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Cheri Bankston

As the Director of Clinical Advisory Services, Cheri provides a clinical perspective both inside and outside of the organization. The clinical advisory team has consulted hundreds of hospitals across the country and has a combined 65 years of clinical experience. Their expertise helps hospital leaders understand the need for care transition solutions and how to maximize their Curaspan investment. After several years as a customer, Cheri joined Curaspan in 2007. With more than 30 years of clinical experience, Cheri first learned about patient transitions firsthand in the emergency department. She further developed her knowledge in leadership positions in case management, utilization review and home health care before joining Curaspan. Cheri has an MSN from the University of Mississippi and a BSN from the University of Southern Mississippi.

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