Inside CHIME: Scholarships Help CIO Turn Hospital’s ‘Couldn’t’ into ‘Did’

Inside CHIME - header

7.20.17
By Candace Stuart, Director of Communications & Public Relations, CHIME

Keith Robison, CIO of a community hospital in New York’s Chautauqua County, faced a dilemma in 2006. His employer, now called UPMC Chautauqua WCA, eliminated the hospital’s travel budget, a move that potentially cut him off from the educational opportunities he benefited from as a CHIME member — unless he paid out of pocket.

Despite that hurdle, Robison has attended three CHIME CIO Forums and one CHIME Healthcare CIO Boot Camp™ since the ongoing freeze. How? He was awarded four scholarships totaling $10,500 through the CHIME Education Foundation.

“You really gain insights from hearing people discuss topics and being able to ask questions and get responses,” Robison said. The CHIME 2017 Fall CIO Forum, for instance, will showcase three keynote addresses plus four track sessions with each featuring four presentations presented by CIOs and other industry leaders. Track sessions include leadership, integrating IT into clinical care, emerging healthcare IT trends and clinical informatics. The forum also offers a plenary session, focus groups and Leadership from the Edge, three short “moon shot” presentations on the future of healthcare.

Robison added that beyond the educational sessions, the forums allow him to share and learn from the CIO colleagues around him. “The most valuable part is talking and networking.”

He had the opportunity at forums to reach out to CIOs who work in similar environments and, like him, wear many hats and sometimes wrestle with staffing and financial constraints. He credits the knowledge he gained at these events as well as his growing professional experience for the achievements his department and hospital have made over the years.

As a manager, he has learned how to place staff in suitable roles with challenges that inspire them to stretch, and to collaborate with clinicians to maximize their healthcare IT resources. He also learned budgeting tips such negotiating with vendors to lease rather than buy equipment to stretch his budget. And despite lacking the resources of a large urban healthcare system with deep pockets, he and his team managed to transition the hospital from paper to electronic records in 12 months.

They also made strides improving the hospital’s IT infrastructure. “We were given the opportunity with meaningful use funding,” he said, referring to EHR incentives offered through the Affordable Care Act. He applied his CHIME training to the task and the hospital qualified for payments for all four years. In addition, they have earned HIMSS Stage 6 status, thanks to a small but effective staff.

“We are the little engine that couldn’t but did,” Robison said.

Editor’s note: The CHIME Education Foundation has opened enrollment for scholarships for the 2017 CHIME Fall CIO Forum and for the CHIME Healthcare CIO Boot Camp™. Applications are available here; the deadline for submissions is Aug. 9. To donate to the scholarship fund, go here.

More Inside CHIME Volume 2, No. 15: