Joel Taylor, SVP & CIO, CarePoint Health System, Chapter 3

When Joel Taylor sees people who are out of place and talking to someone in a completely different role, he doesn’t mind at all. In fact, he finds it to be inspiring, because it shows people are curious and willing to step out of their comfort zones. In this interview, the CIO at CarePoint Health System talks about what his team is doing to create growth opportunities in IT to make sure they’re able to retain top talent. He also discusses the multi-phased coordinated care initiative at his organization, the challenges in engaging with elderly patients, the power of organic mentoring how his team is working through data sharing hurdles with acquired physician practices, and how he’s working to make innovation part of the overall strategy, and not just “the next toy.”

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3



* Staff engagement — “I see people that are out of place, and it’s inspiring.”

* Organic mentoring

* 2 years as medical group CIO

* “Anytime you change careers, you have a pause.”

* Handholding to foster innovation — “No idea goes unheard.”

* “You have to find a leadership style that matches your personality.”



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Bold Statements

Ambitious, hard-working people do things on their own. And when they know they can and they’re empowered to do so, and they’re encouraged and supported, it just happens.

They saw me as the person here that had the right skills set and was demonstrating the right rules and doing the right things. It certainly wasn’t something that I was looking forward to do when I came here, but just kind of organically took its course.

If you’re not innovating, you’re failing. You have to be looking at the things you can do that give you a competitive advantage in your marketplace; that give you a more exciting way of providing care for your patients.

From an adoption perspective, handholding seems to be the best practice. You’re going to have to guide people to see why they need to do something, as opposed to just coming into a meeting and making a demand that this is something we need.

Leaders that are very successful have some pretty good clarity about who they are and how they behave and integrate strategies around that. Just saying, ‘I want to be like this guy or I want to be like that guy’ — the lack of individuality really breaks it.

Gamble:  I would think it makes a difference if people can see that others are advancing and kind of know that the possibilities are there when the right opportunity arrives for them.

Taylor:  It’s a funny thing. When you first have these conversations when something like this isn’t in place and you bring it up to people, there’s a lot of, ‘yeah right,’ and ‘yeah, that’s not going to happen.’ And then you do it once or twice, it blows people’s minds. And it’s kind of funny because then everybody starts running; everyone’s like, ‘Wow, this is actually real. I want to get on this train.’ You see a heightened level of engagement that didn’t exist before and a lot of excitement. As I walk around between meetings and pass by staff — I have to walk past my team to get to anywhere in the organization just based on where my office is — and I see people that are out of place, and it’s inspiring. I’m like, that’s the helpdesk person and he’s engaging with a business analyst. The helpdesk person, he’s engaging with a report writer. So you actually see it playing out and it makes you want to do it more.

Gamble:  Is there a formal mentoring process set up or is it something where p...