Trinity Rehabilitation’s Dr. Robert Latz Wins CHIME Federal Public Policy Award for CIO Leadership
ANN ARBOR, MI, Nov. 11, 2021 – Federal policy on healthcare has taken center stage since the onset of the pandemic, as healthcare delivery has evolved through rapid changes necessary to save lives and protect public health. Senior leaders in digital healthcare play a vital role in the shaping of federal policy: their expert counsel to policymakers produces rules that protect patients and allow providers to function efficiently and safely.
Robert Latz, PT, DPT, CHCIO of Trinity Rehabilitation Services stepped up in 2021 as a leading proponent for healthcare technology policy that best supports providers and patients in combatting COVID-19. He also maintained focus on the long-running interoperability and health technology challenges facing long-term post-acute care (LTPAC) providers. Through these efforts, Dr. Latz became a champion for expanding access to telehealth during the pandemic. His work helped ensure that key services such as physical, occupational and speech language therapy were included in the federal pandemic flexibilities. For these contributions, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) has named Dr. Latz as winner of the 2021 Federal Public Policy Award for CIO Leadership.
The award is given to a member of CHIME’s Policy Steering Committee who has shown exemplary dedication to improving federal public policy through active engagement in the policymaking process.
CHIME’s Policy Steering Committee (PSC) is well-known among federal policymakers as a brain trust of digital health leaders that serves an expert source for critical feedback from the front lines.
“Dr. Latz continues to establish himself as a steady and strong voice in the health IT policy world,” said Scott MacLean, co-chair of the CHIME Policy Steering Committee and SVP & CIO for MedStar Health. “Dr. Latz is ever willing to jump into any policy discussion or project, no matter how great the effort or time required. We are delighted to honor him with this award for his service as an invaluable contributor to our work.”
“I am truly blessed to have the opportunity to work with this amazing CHIME policy team,” said Dr. Latz. “As any of us on this team will share, there is still a lot to do. We know improving transitions of care will reduce rehospitalizations, improve care, and lower costs. However, for this to happen, we need good systems for patient and provider matching across the continuum of care. We also know cybersecurity needs to be top of mind across the entire spectrum of healthcare. Providing optimal cybersecurity may necessitate more support, especially for smaller and more rural healthcare providers including those in post-acute care.”
Dr. Latz is Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Trinity Rehabilitation Services in Florence, Kentucky with offices in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Connecticut. He operates at the forefront of merging telehealth into physical rehabilitation services, known as TeleRehab. He has been the leader on audits and security review projects, strategic plan of shared networks, and optimization of software integration. Prior to his work at Trinity Rehabilitation Services, Dr. Latz was the Corporate Director of Technology Integration for both Select Rehabilitation, a physical and occupational therapy care provider, and EnduraCare Therapy Management, a provider of physical, occupational, and speech therapy professionals to skilled nursing and Assisted Living Facilities.
About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers (CIOs), chief medical information officers (CMIOs), chief nursing information officers (CNIOs), chief innovation officers (CIOs), chief digital officers (CDOs) and other senior digital health leaders. CHIME includes more than 5,000 members in 56 countries and two U.S. territories and partners with over 160 healthcare IT businesses and professional services firms. CHIME and its three associations provide a highly interactive, trusted environment that enables senior industry leaders to collaborate, exchange best practices, address professional development needs and advocate for effective use of information management to improve health and care in their communities. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org.
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Contact
Rosslyn Elliott
Editor, Communications & Media Relations, CHIME
734.275.0104