Inside CHIME: The Value Proposition Behind CHCIO

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Tim Stettheimer_web 12.3.15 by Tim Stettheimer, PhD, FCHIME, CHCIO
Vice President & Regional CIO, Ascension Health Information Services 

 

Whether found in job posting requirements, education credentials or simply on a business card, the CHCIO credential continues to shine.

Next February, a group of healthcare IT executives will sit for a 125-question exam testing their knowledge of the industry and readiness to address the complicated situations they face on a daily basis.

As the Certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO) program moves into its seventh year, I thought it would be helpful to provide some perspective on why this is such an important initiative for our profession.

Elected to the CHIME Board of Trustees in 2008, I was assigned member education as an area of focus. While I was familiar with many of CHIME’s education efforts, especially since I served as a Healthcare CIO Boot Camp faculty member, I wasn’t aware of some broader strategic planning initiatives that the board had been discussing. That quickly changed when, at my first board meeting, I was alerted to a plan to create a credentialing program for our profession. With the Board’s consent, I agreed to lead the effort.

Over the course of the next year, we engaged a consulting firm familiar with credentialing programs, assigned CHIME staff to support the effort and enlisted a small group of CIO members in the planning and design phases. Frankly, we were all surprised by the heavy lifting needed to actually launch and sustain a credentialing program, yet as we all began to understand the potential benefits for members and our profession, our commitment to the program grew.

We learned some valuable lessons in those early days through talks with consultants, members and representatives from Foundation firms:

  1. Value: CHIME members, as well as the broader industry, had no interest in a program that didn’t deliver value. As we wrestled with defining value from those perspectives, we heard significant criticism about existing credentialing programs, let alone developing a new one. Therefore we knew that the value proposition had to be significant. It was critical that, all things being equal, the CHCIO designation would make CIOs more valuable to an employer. The hiring value is related directly to the legitimacy of the credentialing program and its marketing. We not only engaged experts in developing credentialing programs, but ensured that the exams would be created by CIOs for CIOs.
  2. Quality: As mentioned, the credential had to have industry gravitas. The only way to attain the level of recognition and sustain the program was to assure that the principles, governance and approach were above reproach. To achieve this, in partnership with our credentialing experts, we established committees, processes, and requirements and assured that the documentation steps involved in ongoing program operations met every benchmark. One example of this rigor involves questions that make it to the CHCIO certification examination. For a question to be on the exam, it must come from documented industry literature, proceed through multiple writing and review steps by teams of CIOs and then pass through statistical reviews. And even after making it to the exam, each question continues to undergo repeated editorial and statistical review for relevance and utility.
  3. Awareness: The credential had to have recognition or it would be meaningless. Our conversations with CHIME Foundation members, particularly recruiting firms, was especially helpful. While we would partner to publicize information about the credential, without a solid message to the right audiences, our communications would have limited effectiveness. We engaged with other professional organizations to reach key parts of the C-suite — CEO, CFO and COO. At the same time, we pressed forward with the message that a CIO with CHCIO after their name was heavily committed to education and advancing the profession.

Hundreds of CIOs have been involved with the program and today we boast 245 CHCIOs. The credential, designed and sustained by healthcare CIOs, is the preeminent recognition of knowledge, skill and experience for the healthcare IT leader. In the years to come, the credential will increase in visibility and value, especially as CIOs continue to become more integral to the overall strategic direction of their organizations. Whether found in CIO job posting requirements, education credentials or simply on a business card, the CHCIO credential continues to shine.

Click here to learn more about becoming a CHCIO and to sign up for the February exam in Las Vegas or April exam.

More Inside CHIME Volume 1, No. 6: