Erik Pupo, CIO, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Chapter 1

“I tend to have a pessimism and skepticism around technology.”

It’s not every day a healthcare IT executive utters those words (at least, not publicly). But for Erik Pupo, who recently took on the role as CIO at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, it doesn’t mean being averse to technology, but rather, taking a more realistic approach to what it can and can’t do. At least, not until the right pieces are in place.

Recently, Pupo spoke with healthsystemCIO.com about the priorities on his plate, most of which revolve around plans to move to a single EHR platform, and creating the infrastructure and governance to make that a reality. He also talks about how his diverse background has helped prepare him for his first CIO role, the two-way street that needs to happen with change management, and the potential mobile health offers in improving care delivery.

Chapter 1



* About CUIMC

* Epic Together initiative w/ Weill Cornell & NewYork-Presbyterian

* CIO’s role in “helping clinicians understand the impact an EHR will have.”

* “Hodgepodge” of EHRs in physician practices

* Building IT governance from the base level

* Customer experience – “We want to have channels available to answer questions.”

* Positioning IT “as a major component of what we do.”



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Bold Statements

We’re doing a lot of the technical preparation, which involves doing inventory of, and understanding, our overall infrastructure — where we need to improve, and where we need to do perhaps a little more.

Much of our focus with workflow is on helping clinicians understand what they do now and how that will change. And so my role as CIO is not just to prepare, but to message and to assist and to be very closely aligned with what each of our clinical departments want.

A project like Epic is going to making some people happy and others not happy. And so we want to have channels available in IT to answer questions, make improvements, and do whatever we need to do to keep our customers happy.

Everything that goes into running a hospital day to day, I’ve tried to position technology as being a chief component of that.

Gamble:  Hi Erik, thank you for joining us. I look forward to speaking with you about the work your team is doing at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Pupo:  My pleasure, I’m happy to join.

 

Gamble:  Let’s start with an overview of the organization, and where you’re located.

Pupo:  We are located Upper Manhattan. Columbia University Medical Center serves the entire Manhattan community and we are part of the NewYork-Presbyterian health system. We also work very closely as part of that system with our sister institution, which is Weill Cornell Medicine.

 

Gamble:  And you have the School of Nursing and College of Dental Medicine, and also teaching hospital affiliates?

Pupo:  Yes. We have the School of Nursing, the College of Dental Medicine, Mailman School of Public Health, and the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. As part of that, we have departments that focus on various specialty areas — for example, cardiology and ophthalmology. We’re very well-known in several specialty areas. My role as CIO is to serve the entire institution, as well as work with my colleagues across the NewYork-Presbyterian system.

We also have about 1,800 doctors as part of ColumbiaDoctors. They work as part of a larger network with NewYork-Presbyterian, so many of them spend time in the hospitals and at the various faculty practice sites.

 

Gamble:  Columbia is involved with Epic Together, and initiative with Weill and NewYork-Presbyterian to create a single EHR platform.