It is an understatement to say that Brad Reimer, CIO at Sanford Well being, has his fingers full.
Sanford Well being is a large well being system serving the Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska. Right this moment, Reimer is in the midst of a $350 million digital care initiative, working to beat well being IT workforce challenges, and constructing a contemporary knowledge ecosystem — emphasis on trendy.
Well being IT Information interviewed Reimer to debate these points and applications intimately, in addition to get some recommendation from him on one among his focus areas, data safety preparedness.
Q. Please focus on Sanford’s $350 million digital care initiative and the way it helps the group.
A. Sanford Well being not too long ago launched a $350 million digital care initiative to rework well being look after rural and underserved communities all through the Midwest by considerably enhancing entry to reasonably priced, high-quality well being care.
As the biggest rural well being system in the USA, let’s reimagine how we ship care. Individuals residing in rural America face distinctive challenges, and entry to care is among the most vital determinants of well being.
We’re dedicated to eradicating limitations to entry and addressing well being disparities by increasing our care and providers – making certain that sufferers profit from world-class care, irrespective of the place they stay or what challenges they face.
As a part of our digital care initiative, Sanford Well being will deal with increasing entry, enhancing the affected person expertise, advancing innovation by means of new analysis, attracting and coaching a brand new technology of clinicians, and sharing studying alternatives by means of an training institute.
Earlier this yr, our well being system broke floor on a 60,000-square-foot Digital Care Heart, which options devoted scientific workspaces outfitted with the most recent telemedicine expertise to supply on-demand pressing care, well being care behavioral and first care.
We additionally plan to construct 5 satellite tv for pc clinics to make sure it sufferers have entry to care and providers near residence. These satellite tv for pc clinics might be situated in cities with a inhabitants of two,500 or much less all through Sanford Well being’s footprint and can permit our sufferers entry to main care and pressing care providers, in addition to laboratory, radiography and pharmacy.
The satellite tv for pc clinics might be staffed by a nurse or nurse practitioner and can permit sufferers to attach instantly to a clinician or specialist situated in our Digital Care Heart if wanted.
In collaboration with our satellite tv for pc clinics, we are going to deliver a group of over 100 various clinicians along with revolutionary instruments and expertise to diagnose, monitor and supply care to our sufferers and aged care residents 24 hours a day.
We count on to spend greater than 350,000 outpatient visits a yr for care from residence, attain greater than 11 million lives, and lengthen care to greater than 275 clinics within the Midwest.
Q. On a special entrance, what are among the well being IT job challenges you face at this time, and the way do you overcome them?
A. The battle for expertise in well being care at this time is broader than the scarcity of docs and nurses. Well being IT groups face lots of the identical workforce challenges as others within the healthcare trade, together with a expertise scarcity in cybersecurity, digital, cloud and knowledge.
The demand for these roles is rising at a price quicker than the speed of latest faculty graduates getting into the workforce. We additionally compete for expertise with each different firm that wants expertise – it is not simply Google and Amazon.
Sanford Well being is properly positioned to navigate these challenges by means of revolutionary methods. For instance, we all know that many individuals are on the lookout for work that brings that means and function, and there’s no higher place to make a distinction each day than in healthcare.
We intend to make sure that our expertise group understands how their function connects to our group’s mission of offering first-class healthcare.
For instance, we created a reverse rounding program the place we invite caregivers and different leaders throughout our group to share their “day within the lifetime of” tales with our whole expertise group. These “scientific immersion classes” permit nurses, docs and different caregivers to debate how expertise intersects of their roles and impacts sufferers.
We obtained very constructive suggestions from our group that the classes weren’t solely empowering, however supplied deeper that means and function to their roles. This has been a differentiator for Sanford Well being that has strengthened our recruitment and retention efforts.
Our individuals are our most essential asset, so we’re additionally deliberate in ensuring that our group will get recognition for all of the little issues, not simply the large tasks.
As we glance to the long run, our expertise workforce wants will proceed to broaden, significantly as we spend money on new methods to ship care, together with distant affected person monitoring, digital care choices and different digital instruments. We stay dedicated to making a extra seamless digital expertise to satisfy the wants and expectations of our sufferers and enhance the well being of our communities.
Q. I am massive on data safety preparation. Please share some ideas together with your fellow CIOs and their CISOs.
A. Investing in cybersecurity preparedness is important to defending our folks, sufferers and communities. The funding can also be a lot broader than simply having the fitting technical instruments, software program and expertise. It requires shut collaboration and assist from operational leaders.
This consists of updating downtime procedures, offering ongoing training and persistently protecting finest practices in thoughts for workers. Now we have discovered that it may be very efficient to speak about cyber safety preparation within the context of the private lives of our workers. It helps construct good security habits that carry over into the office.
Sanford Well being can also be centered on constructing a brand new pipeline of significant, paying and rewarding careers in healthcare cybersecurity. In 2020, our group shaped a Strategic Cyber Well being Alliance with Dakota State College (DSU), a nationwide chief in cyber training and analysis, which can allow us to handle data safety wants and broaden the cyber workforce.
DSU educates among the most in-demand college students for nationwide safety companies and main expertise firms around the globe. Sanford Well being’s strong investments in well being expertise, analysis and innovation present a super platform for the partnership.
Initially, our alliance will deal with the present wants and pursuits of Sanford Well being and DSU, together with expertise acquisition, growth and retention. For instance, we are going to present scholar enrichment alternatives and cyber govt training to strengthen the pipeline and appeal to international expertise.
DSU college students have the distinctive alternative to be a part of a hands-on, real-world course of, working side-by-side with Sanford Well being college, researchers and IT professionals, wrestling with issues and creating options.
Q. You could have been centered on constructing a contemporary knowledge ecosystem. Please describe the ecosystem and what you imply by trendy.
A. There’s a lot occurring in healthcare proper now – from AI to the Web of Medical Issues, to digital care and consumer-centric digital well being instruments.
Essentially the most important alternatives and the frequent forex in all of them are given. Knowledge is the lifeblood of the way forward for digital well being and offering a contemporary and adaptable knowledge ecosystem is extremely essential. This consists of knowledge governance, knowledge accessibility, interoperability, AI and machine studying.
There are lots of elements that lead well being programs to acknowledge the necessity for an up to date and trendy knowledge ecosystem. For the previous 20 years, there was a major deal with the digital well being document, which has been the frequent middle of gravity for knowledge. With the proliferation of digital well being options, there’s increasingly knowledge that’s created exterior the well being document and never all that belongs to the well being document.
So the place ought to I’m going? When contemplating the breadth and quantity of latest knowledge coming from digital instruments, cell apps, distant affected person monitoring programs, social determinants of well being screenings, wearable affected person units, well being client behavioral knowledge, and many others. conventional well being knowledge ecosystem capabilities require. to broaden to take care of.
All of those programs have to work in live performance with one another to reap the advantages of enhancing the standard of care and enhancing the affected person and supplier expertise. It’s each an enormous want and a chance for organizations to create partnerships with well being programs, universities and third-party distributors.
Whether or not it is harnessing this knowledge to enhance affected person care plans, help analysis, conduct analysis or present a extra customized expertise for sufferers, constructing a contemporary knowledge ecosystem and offering entry to this knowledge to researchers, knowledge scientists, synthetic intelligence and superior predictive analytics fashions. be a sport changer that can revolutionize healthcare for our sufferers and communities.
Observe Invoice’s HIT protection on LinkedIn: Invoice Siwicki
E mail the author: bsiwicki@himss.org
Healthcare IT Information is a HIMSS Media publication.
