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Profile: Spencer Hamon's Comfort Zone (Continued)
Luring a top IT executive to a tumultuous setting isn't easy, but Johnson convinced Hamons that the hospital would change its perspective on technology. "It begins with honesty in recruitment," Johnson says. "A match with our mission, culture and style of teamwork is critical. Having fun and a great sense of humor is a must. I have found that people at all levels of the organization are drawn to these qualities in a work environment. When they finally find them, they tend to stay."
Russ Johnson followed through on his promises. He freed up $866,000 over the next 18 months for IT infrastructural improvements and promoted Hamons, then director of IT, to the hospital's first CIO position. Today, the hospital has bar-coded patient armbands, electronic billing and partial electronic patient records. In the past three years, revenue has more than tripled to nearly $90 million. Roughly $20 million of the increase is attributable to back-end improvements: process changes in the business office, improved productivity and increased system effectiveness. The remainder has come from a clinic acquisition.
"Spencer holds the key leadership role to incredibly important strategies for our organization -- strategies that cut across business operations, service, quality, growth and workforce support," Johnson says. "We plan to spend significant capital dollars in this area over the next five years ... perhaps more than any other single department of our hospital."
Running an IT shop in a rural area does pose special challenges, such as a lack of IT talent and infrastructure. A T-1 line in San Luis Valley, for instance, costs almost as much as an OC-3 in Houston. As CIO sitting on the executive board, Hamons also has to deny requests from other executives. "A chief nursing officer wanted to get electronic nursing documentation, but I can't do that because that's No. 7 in the line," he says.
Hamons looks forward to the strategic challenges ahead. One goal is to make his organization a repository of patient data so providers can access patients' complete records anytime. "This is a long-term goal, but one that takes considerable focus to ensure we do not do something that will jeopardize our ability to implement this in a proper way," he says.
And Hamons contributes time to the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization to effect change in the way hospitals are run. At these meetings, his CIO title gives him some cachet. "You show up at meetings with a director title, and you weren't quite as welcome," he says.
"Once you have the CIO title, you're a strategic thinker and have the ear of the CEO. And so you can represent your organization in a different manner."
Tom Kaneshige was a senior features editor at CIO Decisions. To comment on this story, email editor@ciodecisions.com.
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