Mike Mistretta, CIO, Virginia Hospital Center, Chapter 2

When most people are asked to name to top traits of a leader, the same responses often come to mind — adaptability, vision, and communication skills, to name a few. But one that is often overlooked, especially in health IT, is the ability to “make sound decisions based on the needs of users and patients,” says Mike Mistretta.

In this interview, he talks about why listening and knowing your team is so critical for leaders. He also discusses his team’s strategy in rolling out Epic, why he didn’t hesitate to join an organization that was headed for a transformation, how Virginia Hospital Center has worked to develop (and retain) in-house expertise, and the surprising factor that’s become a recruiting tool for the organization.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2



* Facilitating teamwork with ‘huddle rooms’

* “Overlooked” leadership qualities

* Focusing on growing from within, not recruiting – “Most of our directors are homegrown.”

* Leading through change: “This is the type of work I like to do.”

* Key attributes of successful CIOs

* The “underground network” of Epic users

* Social media as a recruiting tool



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Bold Statements

The key is in setting clear objectives, giving them the tools and the resources they need, and creating an environment where they want to work and are able to be successful. It goes a long way.

From a leadership perspective, we’ve done more internal building from within than outside recruiting. We did bring in a few managers, but most of the directors we’ve had here are homegrown.

It’s important to at least have an idea in the back of your mind what direction you might go, and get a feel for who the key decision holders are so that you can build the appropriate relationship when the time comes.

Any CIO in any organization is required to be collaborative in nature. That’s where you need to focus to be successful in the long term. If you can build the relationships.

Gamble:  You talked before about being a community hospital. I imagine there’s a lot of emphasis on that community perspective, especially when you’re surrounded by some of the larger systems. Is that something that’s a big part of the organization’s philosophy?

Mistretta:  It is. We actually have a Patient Experience Director that a lot of things go through. When they’re there, we do patient groups for various topics, whatever it happens to be at the time. So we focus quite a bit on that. Every week when we have our CEO staff meeting, we review our HCAHPS scores by nursing unit to see where we might need to do something different in a particular area. We take that patient piece very seriously.

 

Gamble:  Right. Now, with the Epic go-live happening, I’m sure a lot of the focus has had to be on that. Once things are somewhat stabilized, are there other priorities that need to move up the list?

Mistretta:  It’s interesting. We’re working on a deal with Spok to upgrade our communication systems and integrate back to the Epic module now so that we can get some clinical workflows for STEMIs and things like that running through there. It also gives us an app to be able to do some secure communications internally.

We’re looking at integrating nurse scheduling and incorporating acuity, which we can pull out of Epic, and upgrading that with the Kronos modules. So yes, there’s a whole suite of projects on the docket now we’ll start on once we get stabilized.

 

Gamble:  And you said population health is not a priority right now, but is that something you’re looking at down the road?