Joey Sudomir, SVP & CIO, Texas Health Resources, Chapter 1

Most would agree that in order to be successful, CIOs need to have true partnerships with their vendors — where there is some dissent is what that actually entails. To Joey Sudomir, it means being providing constructive feedback while also being honest about what the organization can commit to. In this interview, he talks about his team’s strategy in rolling out Epic across the system, the population health partnership that could be a game-changer, and the principles that guide him in his role. Sudomir also discusses the challenge in knowing when to accelerate and when to brake — particularly when leading a large organization, and what qualities he values most in staff members.

Chapter 1



* Ultimate goals as CIO

* IT & the “black box”

* Guiding principles: transparency collaboration & trust.”

* THR’s Epic plans — “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

* Moving into more robust data centers

* “We needed to make a risk aversion play.”

* Importance of organizational support

* Making “non-emotional decisions”



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Bold Statements

What we do in IT is very much a black box to people who aren’t in IT. And it’s our responsibility to present any new initiatives or spending requirements in the most robust manner possible. But the reality of the situation is many people don’t quite fully understood what we do.

As we’ve become more dependent upon technology, our risk portfolio in those data centers has grown, and so it finally reached the point where as an organization, we decided we needed to make a risk aversion play and move to more robust data centers.

We made it a non-emotional decision for both us and our leadership by basically saying, ‘Here’s a simulation if we had a single data center loss. Here’s a simulation if we had a dual data center loss. Here’s what insurance would cover. Here’s what we would be on the hook for financially.’ Then it just became a cost benefit analysis.

I’m not really inclined to chase things just to create work for IT or because industry trends say you should do something. Hopefully, what that’s done over time — even prior to me being in this role — is build up the credibility that when we approach our leadership about any type of initiative, we’re bringing that based on a real need.

Gamble:  As some background, you’ve been in your current role since summer of 2015 but with the organization for quite a few years longer?

Sudomir:  Correct. I just passed nine years in January.

Gamble:  When you took over the CIO role at Texas Health Resources (THR), when you think about that time, what were the big projects you wanted to look at, or the primary goals you had in mind?

Sudomir:  Obviously, being an internal candidate is a little bit different in terms of the viewpoint you step into the role with. My goals then and now really are the same, and they’re not so much project-focused. It’s about creating a service delivery organization within THR that is based on transparency and collaboration and trust. At the end of the day, what we do in IT is very much a black box to people who aren’t in IT. And it’s our responsibility to present any new initiatives or spending requirements in the most robust manner possible. But the reality of the situation is many people don’t quite fully understood what we do, and so much of the success in any organization comes down to trust between the leadership and the department and CIO who’s serving in that role.

For me, it’s very important to continue to earn that credibility within our organization, and I think being collaborative and very transparent in everything we do and everywhere we spend our money is really the foundation for that. Those will always be my high level goals for our departm...