At the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) 2018 Fall CIO Forum in San Diego, health IT executives were recognized today for their transformational and innovative leadership.
Omer Awan, senior vice president and CIO, Navicent Health in Macon, Ga., joined the patient care organization two years ago, but in just that short amount of time, he has changed the culture in his department and has elevated the profile of IT within the ranks of Navicent’s executive leadership, giving him a seat at the table as they carry out Navicent’s vision, according to CHIME officials who presented Awan with this year’s Transformational Leadership Award.
Awan said he institutionalized a framework that called for simultaneously strengthening their IT foundation, advancing the culture and innovating, always keeping in mind Navicent Health’s business needs. IT staff embedded themselves within other groups to better understand their programs and get more involved in problem solving and decision making. This process changed mindsets within the IT department and throughout the organization.
“IT has broken out of the shell of technology,” Awan said. “It is all over the place. It is in business; it is in the clinical areas. All of my IT managers and directors rewrote their job descriptions. They are not just managers and directors, they are solution partners. It was incumbent on them to know as much about their respective clinical and business areas.”
One of the organization’s specific IT-related successes has been the rollout of a real-time care coordination platform that serves as a one-stop shop for surgical staff and patients. The program, utilized for OrCarestra, Navicent Health’s surgical patients, has eliminated the use of faxes, phone calls and hand-written requests and added standardized processes. OrCarestra has shortened scheduling times, decreased scheduling errors, sped up financial clearances and allowed them to complete more cases faster, according to CHIME officials.
Also this morning at the Fall CIO Forum, CHIME presented Simon Lin, chief research information officer at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, with its Innovator of the Year Award, citing Lin’s innovative approach to help pediatric burn victims through their recovery.
The Ohio patient care organization collaborated with the Center for Pediatric Trauma Research and the Pediatric Burn Unit at Nationwide Children’s to develop and pilot test a virtual reality app that immerses young patients in a game while clinicians remove and replace dressings. Preliminary results showed a dramatic reduction in reported pain scores compared to controls—a reduction achieved without altering pain medication.
Burn patients already are in distress from the pain that can occur during dressing changes, Lin said. Watching the process may intensify children’s trauma. The game, which requires patients to wear a headset, distracts them while the headset shields their view of the clinical activities going on around them. Patients can passively watch the game or they can actively engage in it using breathing controls that substitute for hand consoles.
The app itself has been well received, based on study results: 96 percent of patients reported satisfaction with the game; 100 percent of parents were satisfied; and 83 percent of physicians reported that virtual reality is helpful. Lin and his group are now conducting a larger study that stratifies children into three groups: active participants, passive watchers and a control group that will receive standard care. The long-term goal is to be able to reduce or eliminate the use of pain medications such as opioids in this patient population by using innovation.
“Simon’s virtual reality app is a perfect example of patient-centered care,” said CHIME Board Chair Cletis Earle, senior vice president and CIO at Kaleida Health. “They developed a tool that children will respond to–a game– and worked with clinicians to make sure it fits within their work flow. The result is a better experience for the patient with no added burden for clinicians. This is a win for everybody.”
