Q&A with Anika Gardenhire, CDIO, Ardent Health Services: “Innovation Doesn’t Need to Be Flashy.”

As artificial intelligence continues to dominate strategic discussions, one of the biggest mistakes healthcare organizations can make is to jump too far ahead. Doing so, according to Anika Gardenhire, can result in incomplete data sets, which can then lead to bias. Instead, leaders must focus on ensuring the right infrastructure and repeatable processes are in place before turning on the tools. “Part of the difficulty of what’s happening from an AI perspective is that we keep wanting to skip steps,” she said in a recent conversation with Kate Gamble. “It requires real intentionality and work” – something she and her team have not shied away from.

During the interview, Gardenhire talked about the approach she has taken since becoming Ardent’s first chief digital and information officer in the fall of 2023, which started with a lot of listening and has progressed to exploring innovative initiatives such as virtual nursing. She also shared perspectives on what it takes to drive change successfully, what innovation should really be focused on, and what she loves most about being a leader.

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Bold Statements

I’m an operator, a nurse, and a technologist. And so hopefully, I get to bring all of that to bear in my daily life.

My opportunity was to come in and get an even deeper understanding of that; to understand the goals and business strategies of the organization. And then to say, how do we truly wrap a technology strategy, a digital strategy, a data strategy, and an EPMO strategy around that.

I think as we understand the things that we want to do from a front-end perspective, the backend becomes mission critical… we have this awesome art picture, and now we need somebody to create the actual city plan.

The biggest piece is ensuring that when we think about innovation and when we think about new technologies, we truly understand where they are on the hype cycle, and be prepared to understand how we’re going to support them.

Innovation doesn’t always need to be flashy. It needs to decrease friction. It needs to solve problems. And we need to think about ensuring that it’s doing exactly what it said it’s going to do, which is creating improvement.



Q&A with Anika Gardenhire, Chief Digital & Information Officer, Ardent Health Services

Gamble:  Hi Anika, thank you for putting aside some time to speak. I know there’s a lot going on, so we really appreciate it.

Gardenhire:  Absolutely, I’m happy to do it.

 

Gamble:  I’d like to talk about your role and what your team is doing at Ardent Health Services. It’s interesting; we’re seeing more and more chief digital and information officers in the past few years. That’s been a definite shift. But first, let’s get some information about Ardent. You’re a large system, about 30 hospitals and more than 200 sites of care, and you’re across multiple states, correct?

Gardenhire:  That’s right. We operate in six states across eight markets and have a very robust organization around caring for patients across the continuum. That continues to be the goal for [CEO Marty Bonick] and the executive leadership team and the board.

 

Gamble:  As far as your role, can you give an overview of what are your core responsibilities and what’s under your purview?

Gardenhire:  Sure. So, you mentioned there being more chief digital and information officers now. I find myself super excited about the formation of this type of role. I actually had a digital role prior to coming here which was all about the front end of digital and how pe...