The biggest healthcare CIO challenges and how to solve what’s next

When it comes to healthcare, we are all patients with our own story. Whether the experience is yours or close to home, your healthcare journey is unique and needs a personalized approach for optimal care.

Offering exceptional healthcare also comes with unique challenges compared to other industries. To be effective, CIOs and IT staff must consider and address the following top concerns:

1. Security

Healthcare organizations must share their data with a myriad of different doctors’ offices, pharmacies, ambulatory organizations, and outpatient care facilities. Patient data needs to be interoperable, compliant with strict laws as well as HIPAA and GDPR, and secure throughout – if one domino falls, they all do.

2. Interoperability

Not only do healthcare orgs need to share data with different healthcare partners, but there are also core systems unique to healthcare, like Electronic Health Records (EHRs) where hospital systems need to be connected. There are also clinical technologies like computerized tomography (CT) scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which require elaborate IT infrastructure that needs to be connected to main IT systems.

3. Legacy systems and infrastructure

Similar to what many government agencies face, health systems still rely on outdated legacy systems and infrastructure. CIOs need to navigate the complexities of upgrading or replacing these systems to support modern healthcare requirements while minimizing disruptions to patient care.

4. Technology adoption and optimization

How care is delivered is radically transforming. The pandemic accelerated a shift, moving healthcare from hospitals to patients’ homes. This means hospital CIOs must quickly adapt their IT methodologies around telemedicine to include new devices, IoT technologies, and AI while creating IT-driven services based on patient outcomes.

5. Change management and stakeholder alignment

Implementing new technologies and processes in healthcare requires significant organizational change. CIOs are being identified as the central figures within their hospitals to create and initiate these changes. We see CIOs also take on the role of ‘Chief Innovation Officer,’ where they now need to work with other C-suite partners in new and different ways.

6. Talent acquisition

The healthcare system is currently facing significant hiring and retention issues. Many hospitals’ lack of competitive salaries has skilled IT professionals shying away from open roles, causing healthcare CIOs to hire people outside their local areas and bring in managed services from partners like SHI.

7. Staffing and budget management

While talent acquisition struggles are straining the healthcare industry’s ability to attract new employees, layoffs are causing losses to their existing workforce. Since the start of the pandemic, many healthcare organizations have struggled to maintain staffing while their budgets are squeezed, pressing them to do more with less.

Dedicated support – from a team that cares

Patients and their health are central to the healthcare industry. In turn, SHI follows a focused approach to help your organization tackle these top challenges and accomplish your cause.

It’s not about finding any solution for our customers relative to technology. It’s really about finding the right solution that will help you achieve your outcomes and most importantly, save lives.

We have made specific investments in resources to directly address your needs; our tightly connected, purpose-built healthcare team includes:

• Field CTOs to help healthcare CIOs navigate the growing complexity of the role as Chief Innovation Officer.
• Clinical IT professionals who can consult and bridge the technology divide between clinical and traditional IT teams and systems.
• Healthcare policy experts who can help guide you around regulations and grant funding.
• Experienced healthcare field sales executives who are regionally based and can work with you to bring all SHI’s resources together.
• Dedicated healthcare partner marketing teams that are directly connected to healthcare counterparts within major OEMs like Cisco, Dell, and Microsoft.
• Procurement staff who can provide guidance and consult organizations on how to best use our major contract vehicles and cooperatives, like HealthTrust and Vizient.

At SHI, we understand improving the clinician and patient outcome is the goal of every engagement. We are passionate about creating a team that is truly unique and focused on successful patient outcomes.

From the very first call, we’re here to support your unique needs and align the right resources. Leverage our technical and procurement experts to build out your technology plan, find the right contracts, and advance your innovation goals. Whether you need guidance on funding programs and grants or help implementing digital strategies to deliver direct patient care beyond your walls, our multi-faceted team is equipped to have that dialogue, today.

Your patient-centered technology projects are crucial, but you don’t need to face them alone. From cybersecurity solutions to next-generation infrastructure and end-user computing, connect with SHI’s dedicated healthcare team to solve what’s next for your organization.