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CIOs have always played a central part in the planning, deployment, and maintenance of the IT infrastructure of many healthcare facilities. However, with the federal government's push toward EHR (electronic health record) adoption and meaningful use, the CIO will likely need to take on an even larger role within their healthcare organizations, and even the community at large.

Meaningful use requires each healthcare facility to exchange patient information freely and securely with other facilities external to the enterprise. This requires many CIOs to modify their working habits.

"While always busy, most CIOs historically focused on the IT projects and initiatives of their hospital or facility only," says DawnLynne Kacer, public sector healthcare practice lead for Keane. "With meaningful use, CIOs must reach beyond the four walls of their own enterprise and become entrenched in the larger healthcare ecosystem. They must work with neighboring hospitals on HIE [health information exchange] efforts to ensure their organization is on track to earn the Medicare and Medicaid incentive dollars that are tied to exchanging data with external parties."

In addition to serving as an ambassador for regional HIE initiatives, the CIO may now have to work more closely with the clinician community than ever before. Many hospitals only employ a small fraction of the physicians (e.g. ER and OR doctors) that practice in their facilities. The majority of physicians working at a hospital are often independent practitioners. To ensure a hospital achieves the CPOE (computerized physician order entry) benchmarks established by the federal government, the CIO will need to be entrenched with the clinician community to generate buy-in and support for the EHR system and ensure end user adoption.

There are several steps a CIO can take to build a positive perception of EHR technology within the physician community, and most of these steps revolve around creating a positive user experience for the clinician. First, the CIO must work to ensure that every EHR terminal in the hospital is easy for the physician to access and use. User authentication must be secure, but it shouldn't place an excessive burden on the clinician. For example, biometric system access may be preferable to requiring clinicians to remember multiple user names and passwords. Second, a CIO must ensure problems with an EHR can be quickly resolved when they inevitably arise.

"Keane recommends that CIOs establish Code IT teams for their healthcare facilities," says Kacer. "These swat teams will be similar to the Code Blue teams that most hospitals have on call for medical emergencies. These teams should be able to be dispatched to a problem site in a matter of seconds to address any issues a clinician encounters with the EHR system. With these teams, physician interaction issues with the EHR can be turned into a positive experience for the clinician because of how quickly the problem is solved."

Another new job responsibility for the healthcare CIO as a result of meaningful use will likely be in the area of community relations. Public knowledge of the dangers of medical identity theft is at an all-time high and has many residents hesitant to have their personal medical information exchanged electronically in a RHIO (regional health information organization) as a result. This can pose a problem in those states that have individual opt-in standards for electronic patient data exchange. CIOs may be required to educate their local communities on the benefits and safety of EHR systems in order to maximize the number of constituents that opt into these programs, ensuring their healthcare organization achieves the electronic patient data ratios required by meaningful use.

While the new responsibilities of the healthcare CIO community as a result of meaningful use may seem daunting, Kacer believes CIOs are up to the challenge. "I think the healthcare CIO community is much more up to the task of meaningful use than the healthcare community at large," she says. "CIOs have experience at adjusting to change as a result of the new IT technologies they have been faced with deploying over the years. CIOs must leverage these experiences to lead the healthcare community in the pursuit of meaningful use."

Ken Congdon is Editor In Chief of Healthcare Technology Online. He can be reached at ken.congdon@jamesonpublishing.com.