Cindy Peterson, VP & CIO, Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, Chapter 2

For today’s leaders, it really is all about collaboration — both with vendors and the executive team, says Cindy Peterson, who has been CIO at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital since 2001. With vendors, it means engaging in ongoing communication and being involved in each other’s strategic planning processes, and with the executive team, it means earning trust by being consistent and delivering what is expected. In this interview, Peterson talks about how her team is working to deliver data more effectively to clinicians, the one question leaders should ask with any application, and what she has found to be the key in maintaining a successful partnership with Meditech.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2



* Showing value of IT — “It’s my team’s responsibility.”

* Consistent results

* “You have to give stakeholders what they expect.”

* Workflow analysis

* The lean journey — “It doesn’t end.”

* Growing leaders from within



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Bold Statements

It’s my team’s responsibility to make sure that they show value and make sure that the projects we bring forward are truly going to have a positive impact on the facility.

You have to look at it like you’re not just implementing the system and training on that system, but you’re actually looking at the workflows and how you can improve them. Are there opportunities to reduce costs? Are there opportunities to improve care? You have to really analyze it to that level.

You think once you get everybody trained, then it’s just going to be part of the process. And you want that to happen, but it doesn’t happen that way. It’s slow to kick in and a little bit happens at a time, so it truly is a journey, and it’s a journey that doesn’t end.

It’s like I tell all of my team, they all are leaders. No matter what position they hold, they’re a leader in some way, shape or form. We need to all have that mindset that we are all leaders and that what we do affects others, and so that’s how we try to move forward with the development of leaders.

Gamble:  When you talked about everything that’s been done on the IT side, it’s a big commitment and a big spend. I wanted to talk about how it changes the perception of IT — and the CIO and other executives — when the organization is making a significant investment in IT?

Peterson:  I’m lucky that the executive team here has always supported IT and has always supported the dollars being spent, because they’ve seen value. I think it’s my team’s responsibility to make sure that they show value and make sure that the projects we bring forward are truly going to have a positive impact on the facility. And so, I’ve been fortunate to be able to get a lot of projects approved because they have been able to see the value.

I think it’s also important to be very consistent with your ability to be on time and on budget, where you’re truly taking the time to analyze and plan out those projects so that it doesn’t look like every project’s over budget or takes longer than what was planned. You have to really plan those out appropriately so that expectations can be met and you are giving all of your stakeholders what they expect to receive.

Those are the type of items that we try to follow through with. We have an IS steering committee here where projects are approved through the steering committee. They review the changes and give updates on our projects, and all of our projects are measured at 6, 18, and 36 months to make sure that we were effective with those projects. So I think it’s having that collaboration as well with your stakeholders and understanding what their needs are,