Highlights From CHIME09 Fall CIO Forum

The Renaissance Esmeralda Resort in Indian Wells, California, made for the perfect setting for the CHIME09 Fall CIO Forum, held October 27-30. Approximately 555 CHIME and CHIME Foundation members attended the event this year – the highest attendance record to date.

CHIME09 provided attendees with a variety of opportunities to learn about the many changes coming from stimulus funding, the meaningful use of electronic health records and the rising importance of health information exchange. The Forum also included a variety of keynote speakers, including Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for the Office of Healthcare Information Technology.

Even before the Forum officially began, professional development activities were in high gear. CHIME conducted its 13th Healthcare CIO Boot Camp from October 24 to 27, with 52 attendees, bringing the alumni total to over 600.

In addition to the CIO Boot Camp, a pre-Forum workshop on stimulus funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and implementation issues for CIOs, attracted 47 attendees. The landscape has changed with the government’s involvement in promoting the adoption of electronic health records, said John Glaser serving as senior advisor to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and CIO of Partners HealthCare.

Also before the start of the Forum, 24 CIOs took the first-ever test for the purpose of certifying healthcare chief information officers. Another 40 CIOs attended a sunrise informational meeting a couple days later to learn more about the certification program.

The CHIME Certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO) program is the first certification program developed and designed for CIOs and IT executives in the healthcare industry. The certification designates more than just knowledge about the use of IT in a healthcare setting; it also is intended to demonstrate the commitment and experience required to master the core skills needed by successful CIOs and IT executives.

Traditional recreation events also shared the stage on Tuesday before the formal start. The golf outing was held at Indian Wells Golf Resort, while another group participated in a tour of the San Andreas Fault. The evening ended with a poolside reception dinner.

On Wednesday morning, before the start of the Forum, several dozen runners participated in the CHIME 5K Charity Fun Run, an event run in partnership with Vitalize Consulting, which helped raise $3,350 for the Special Olympics of Southern California.

Wednesday kicked off CHIME09 with a welcome from Board of Trustees Chair Joanne Sunquist who outlined the year’s highlights and also unveiled CHIME’s new logo. The redesigned logo is part of is a rebranding effort intended to better reflect CHIME’s mission, values and initiatives.

Opening Keynote Speaker Dr. David Blumenthal then took the stage where he stressed partnerships and professional responsibility as the driving forces that will bring about the changes necessary to achieve widespread use of electronic health records.

Blumenthal also fielded questions from the audience ranging from concerns about the degree of certainty that providers will be adequately reimbursed for installing electronic health records to inquiries about what the federal government plans to do to help healthcare organizations meet an expected surge in need for IT staffing.

Morning Keynote Speaker Lowell Catlett, PhD, related how consumers’ views on healthcare will be transformed by their perceptions of their needs, which he related to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Wednesday through Thursday, attendees engaged in town hall meetings, raffle drawings, track sessions and focus group activities. The focus group sessions, held by CHIME Foundation members, allowed vendors to get straight, honest opinions about their products from leaders in the HIT field. Over the course of both days, the Forum accommodated 70 focus groups. CHIME09’s town hall meetings addressed the HITECH act with Wednesday’s, “Meaningful Use and Beyond” and Thursday’s, “Practical Solutions toward a Nationwide, Interoperable Infrastructure.”

Thursday CHIME had the chance to formally recognized exemplary performance in healthcare information technology with the CHIME Awards Ceremony. With CHIME President and CEO Rich Correll presiding, the following awards were presented:

Lifetime Achievement Award:
Ivo Nelson, Chairman of Encore Health Resources

Collaboration Award:
Providence Health & Services, GE Healthcare and McKesson Corporation

Transformational Leadership Award:
BayCare Health System

Stoltenberg scholarship:
Jeanne Fallon, director of clinical information systems and VNA, South Shore Hospital and South Shore VNA

Susan Schade CIO Scholarship:
Vince Vitali, VP & CIO, BroMenn Healthcare

Peter B. Strombom CIO Scholarship:
Richard Gibson, MD, Senior VP and CIO, Legacy Health System

Healthcare CIO Boot Camp Minority Scholarship:
Fernando Martinez, CTO/CSO, Broward Health
Arthur Clark, VP & CIO, Haven Hospice

Women’s Healthcare CIO Boot Camp Scholarship:
Mary King, Director – System Applications, Rex Healthcare
Pamela Chaplin, Information Technology Department Head, Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital

John Glaser Scholarship:
Patricia Manna, Director of IT/Clinical Services, Orange Regional Medical Center
Adnan Hamid, Application/Project Manager, Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital

CHIME-AHA Fellowships:
Donna Nobbe, IS Director, Margaret Mary Community Hospital
Heath Bell, VP & CIO, Kish Health Systems
Marco Ruiz, Director, PMO and Applications Services, Broward Health
Terry Jackson, Director – Information Services, CarolinaEast Health System

Later that evening, attendees enjoyed an evening reception and tried their luck with CHIME’s Night at the Races, complete with video horse racing, poker and craps tables.

The final day of the Forum began with Morning Keynote Speaker Thornton May, Executive Director & Dean, IT Leadership Academy, who shared his views on the future role of the CIO. He said in order to become great leaders, CIOs need to dispel the “Horror-scopes” [pessimistic visions of non-performance and role irrelevance], dial down the “Fantasies” [there are some things that can’t be done] and fine-tune the “Forecasts”.

Closing out the event was Keynote Speaker Boris Brott, a conductor who’s led orchestras around the world, with a hands-on demonstration that showed how many organizations bore similarities to the various performers who need to come together as a team to play in orchestra.

CHIME would like to extend special thanks to Gerald Greeley and the Fall CIO Forum Planning Committee, CHIME members in attendance, as well as the CHIME Foundation member firms who participated, who made this event one of the highest rated Forums in CHIME’s history.

For more information and photos of the events, visit www.cio-chime.blogspot.com.