| | October 20159UTLOOK Healthcare Tech "The IT department is no longer about knowing how to fix the machines, but about knowing enough of everything to make a differenceup and running again as fast as possible, and then try to fix the hardware issue later. Sometimes it is even cheaper just to replace a unit entirely. I have a triage room full of machines in my data center that will be salvaged when time permits. Again, an inside chuckle.I am one of the lucky ones. I have been the help desk technician, the programmer, the clinical and financial support person, the liaison with the clinicians, the trainer for the doctors, a data entry assistant, and a transport aide. I've also had many of my staff work in the same positions at different times. With a small department, you get to serve by doing many of the jobs in the hospital when needed, or at least be side by side with the users as they go through their day when determining how to help. We are not pigeon-holed into only knowing one set of modules, or one program as part of our titles, but get to see how they all relate and interact to keep the place running. I have a seat at the big table every week and work with my peers on the issues facing the hospital and the industry. I get to hear and see what they are struggling with and try to determine what my group can do to help make their life easier. I have learned many of the regulations, and I can answer some of the "why do we do it this way" questions. I've had a coworker state that he wants to put a USB port in my head and download what I know. I know it because I was involved and absorbed it. I believe any CIO at any hospital will have a similar story. Healthcare IT is not something you can fully learn in school, although it is nice to see that Healthcare Technology and Management is an evolving major in many colleges. It is a field that needs to be lived. I don't know if my son realizes that although mommy works in a hospital, that mommy has also dabbled in the financial, clinical, managerial, and even legal professions as part of that work. We can take the latest device out there and figure out how it could be used in the hospital. We can create new programs or apps that will help with our flow of information to streamline processes. We can observe a daily process that has been done the same way forever, and try to be the advocate of change to use technology to improve the process. We can be the outsider asking the question "Why" to understand, and then ask "Why not?" to propose change. The IT department is no longer about knowing how to fix the machines, but about knowing enough of everything to make a difference. I wonder if the students taking those majors in school know what they are about to get into, and how exciting it can be.There is email sent out daily by different groups letting us know what the hottest issues are in the healthcare industry. None of them ever really match. It could be security in this email, or it could be Medicare payment changes in the next email. No matter which one you read, it is all a concern for the hospital, and in particular for the CIO. We are the ones who are looked to for a response on how the next concern can be handled through the systems the hospital has invested in. We should know what the next good investment should be, or the direction we should take, or how we are going to give our hospital back the precious gift of time by using our knowledge and skills to make it work better. We do have constraints, usually involving timelines, personnel, budget and vendors, but we still need to use the technology at hand to make it work. Technology meaning our overall knowledge, skills, ability to think out processes and come up with new methods to make it better, that just might use that new device on the market to help the hospital be current and cool. Maybe one day my son will think that mom was cool too! HT Cathy Dwyer
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