Q&A with CIO Reid Stephan, Part 2: “There has to be an inexhaustible supply of curiosity.”

When asked the all-too-common question of ‘what keeps you up at night,’ most CIOs cite data breaches, or a similar cybersecurity nightmare. For Reid Stephan, however, that isn’t the case — not because he isn’t tuned into the threats that seem to lurk around every corner, but because he has “incredible team members and colleagues who are experts in that space.”

The biggest concern for Stephan is the culture and well-being of the staff, who had been accustomed to working side by side and engaging in water cooler discussions. As the pandemic dragged on, he worried that “the credits of good will and trust” team members built would start to fray at the edges. And so he has made it a key priority to ensure he has “the right touch points and a firm finger on the pulse to measure and assess the culture,” whether that’s done through cross-sectional group meetings, or simply asking managers to check in.

Recently, Stephan spoke with healthsystemCIO about the “incredible work” St. Luke’s has done throughout Covid to make sure clinicians have the tools and support they need, why he thinks it’s time to retire the phrase ‘work-life balance,’ how coming up through IT security has shaped him as a leader, and how he believes the CIO role will continue to take shape going forward.

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Key Takeaways



* By partnering with Epic, St. Luke’s was able to build better workflows to support the vaccine rollout, including a registry that notified patients when doses became available.

* Hewlett-Packard, where Stephan worked for 10 years as an IT Security Manager, provided “a great environment to refine and shape how I thought about things.”

* The best career advice Stephan can offer? Don’t let complacency or self-preservation stop you from pursuing challenging roles.

* Achieving real growth as a CIO requires two things: be vulnerable and curious, and seek out a group of peers who will tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear.

* Healthcare leaders must have “an inexhaustible supply of curiosity,” and a willingness to bring forward and take on new ideas and new business capabilities, and provide oversight and leadership.”





Q&A with CIO Reid Stephan, Part 2 [Click here to view Part 1]

Gamble:  In terms of what you had to do to create workflows for things like rolling out vaccines, how was your experience working with Epic and some of the other vendors? How has it been through the pandemic?

Stephan:  There’s been some great dialogue. I think everyone is leaning in, from the government to St. Luke’s to other healthcare providers in our community, to our vendors, there’s been some great examples of healthcare providers cooperating working with each other. And that really has been a great example for our community.

Here’s one example. We had a vaccine clinic that was short on doses for the Moderna vaccine. This was when the southeastern part of the US was hit with some bad weather, and it impacted the flight that was carrying the product. We faced potentially having to close the vaccine clinic that day, which was problematic, because for many of these folks, it was their booster shot.

Then, a local clinic stepped up and offered to give us 2,000 doses of Moderna. We had a handshake agreement that when we got our shipment in the following week, we’d replenish their stock.