Health IT Influencers: Bill Spooner, Former Sharp Healthcare CIO, Chapter 3

When Bill Spooner stepped down as CIO at Sharp Healthcare in 2014 after spending 35 years with the organization, he had mixed feelings. Although he was ready for a change from the frenzied pace of the CIO role, he hesitated to leave because “there were so many exciting things going in healthcare.”

Fortunately, Spooner found a way to remain involved in the industry — and pass on some of the wisdom he gained from his tenure — through his work as an advisor with Next Wave Health Advisors, and as an active participant with CHIME’s advocacy initiatives. In this interview, he offers insights on a number of pertinent issues, including why workflow is still a significant challenge for many organizations, the factor that most slows down the optimization process, and the surprising area in which healthcare is still far behind. Spooner also reflects on his own career, where we stand in terms of interoperability, and why perspective can be the best gift for leaders.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3



* CHIME Advocacy efforts: “The work we’re doing is rewarding.”

* Interoperability – “It seems like we’re trying to boil the ocean.”

* CCD-A’s slow but notable progress

* The flawed ATM comparison

* Patient matching – “It’s scary from a patient safety standpoint.”

* Physician dilemma – “They weren’t taught to be robots.”

* Retired, but still involved

* “There are so many exciting things that I continue to want to be a part of.”



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Bold Statements

The ATM has one unit; it’s called dollars. In healthcare, you’ve got a few thousand data elements that need to be standardized across organizations. That’s a much more challenging job.

We’ve been proclaiming the potential for IT to improve patient care for so many years, and then HITECH came along and that really accelerated it. But the expectations weren’t very realistic in terms of how fast you could get to some of the standardization that’s required to exchange data effectively.

When you’re looking at this idea of a trusted framework that embraces the whole nation, you’re likely to get some really dangerous data matching with patients that are totally different and have different conditions. That’s scary. We need a solution for that.

They weren’t taught to be robots. They were taught to be resourceful and innovative and find a way to heal patients, and we’re trying to move them into a model where their data become more standardized.

Gamble:  When you look at the policy work you’re doing with CHIME, I imagine interoperability is something that comes up a lot. Do you think the industry is taking steps in the right direction to deal with what has been an enormous challenge?

Spooner:  If you look back 5, 10, or 15 years ago, it’s night and day. Clearly, we’re not there yet, and sometimes I get disappointed because it seems like we’re trying to boil the ocean. Some of these policy groups come together and try to think of every single use case, as if we’re going to solve it all before we solve anything. But when you look at the basic exchange of data, it’s happening so much more, and it’s so much more effective than it was. Of course, it’s still far from perfect. The CCDA document is a large chop of the data rather than the precise data physician may need to treat their patients, so it’s a little bit cumbersome, but it’s still making progress. You don’t realize just how much work it takes to get to a stand...