Brian Thomas, VP & CIO, Swope Health Services, Chapter 1

When an opportunity presents itself, smart people jump on it. For Brian Thomas, that moment came a few years ago when Swope Health Services was restructuring its executive team. Seeking to learn more about the business, Thomas asked to take on a 90-day assignment as interim VP of operations, and in doing so, impressed the board enough to earn a new title. In this interview, Thomas talks about what he believes it takes to become a successful CIO, why leaders must “get in the trenches” to better understand user needs, and his philosophy when it comes to innovation. He also talks about how his team is preparing for the ACO world, the dangers of over-customization, and the strong foundation he was able to build during his time with the Marines.



Chapter 1



* About Swope Health Services

* Patient-centered medical home: “It’s a partnership between providers & patients.”

* From paper to paperless with eCW

* Dealing with “squeaky wheels”

* A “structured, disciplined approach” to change management

* HIE challenges

* Interoperability – “We’re just not there yet.”



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Bold Statements

It’s comprehensive, coordinated, and accessible for our patients here in the community. It’s a partnership between the providers and the patients, and it really helps patients ensure the decisions they make are in their best interest, and that education is provided to them so they can make those informed decisions.

When you start hearing the same issues surface over and over, you can’t just address those one at a time. You have to start looking at integrating other technologies or connecting with other partners within the system, to give not only a better customer experience for the patient, but also for providers.

You may have a squeaky wheel or provider that wants something, and that change they want may impact the rest of the organization. So we have a very structured, disciplined approach to change management, and we’re very communicative around that.

Right now the HIEs aren’t all talking to each other the way they probably should be, but we found that if we can at least get connected to all three, we’re going to share in the data that the providers around the city need.

Gamble:  Hi Brian, thank you so much for taking some time to speak with healthsystemCIO.com.

Thomas:  Hi Kate, thank you. I really appreciate the time.

Gamble:  To give our readers and listeners a little bit of background, can you give an overview of Swope Health Services — the type of care you provide, where you’re located, things like that?

Thomas:  Absolutely. Swope Health Services was established about 47 years ago in the basement of a community church. Since then, Swope has grown into the largest community healthcare center in the region, which serves the Greater Kansas City area on both sides of the state line, including seven counties.

We offer many specialties, including behavioral health, women’s health, radiology, optometry, dental, pediatrics, and several others. We’re a safety net health organization; we serve many of the inner city uninsured and underinsured patients in these communities. As our mission states, we improve the health and wellness of the community by delivering accessible quality and comprehensive patient care.

Gamble:  Approximately how many practices do you have at this point?

Thomas:  In addition to those specialties, we have our main location which is east of mid-town, and we have nine other clinic locations around the Greater Kansas City area, which include both Missouri and Kansas in several different counties. It’s about a 100-mile square radius. We also have some behavioral health residential facilities that we manage.