Q&A with Kate Pierce, Part 3: “You Have to Know How to Find the Answers You Need.”

“We’re pretty much on an island.”

For rural health organizations, it’s a harsh reality — especially ones like North Country Hospital, a critical access hospital based in Northeast Vermont where “the community is very dependent” on its facilities. In fact, NCH owns nearly every practice in the area, some of which are operating at a loss, just so patients won’t be left out in the cold.

Being a rural health facility means having to do more with fewer resources, getting creative with growing talent, and for leaders, having to wear many hats. To some it may seem daunting, but Vermont native Kate Pierce, who started with the organization 18 years ago as a systems analyst, wouldn’t have it any other way.

Recently, she spoke with healthsystemCIO about the transformation the organization is undergoing to improve workflow, how they’re working with other facilities to better manage costs, and how they’ve been laying the groundwork for the shift toward value-based care.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3



* The “opportunity” NCH offered

* Learning respect & discipline with the Army – “It was a lot more than I ever expected.”

* NCH’s evolution – “I feel privileged to have been part of the change.”

* The many hats worn at small organizations

* Controlling costs with approval system

* Eliminating waste – “That goes a long way in keeping us financially viable.”

* Rural health challenges: “Our community needs us.”



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Bold Statements

A large organization might have a whole team to address security needs; but for us, it’s part of my job. It’s part of my tech supervisor’s job. It’s part of a lot of all of our jobs — it’s a team effort.

You have to understand what is happening across the organization. You don’t have to be an expert at everything, but you have to know how to find the answers you need. It’s a great job; that’s why I’ve been here so long

If we need to replace a system that’s outdated, we look first to cloud-based vendors to see if there’s something viable that we can use, versus having to put something else in our data center. These types of things have really helped control costs.

We have to figure out how to do more with less. That’s what IT is about; making things more efficient; starting to fully utilize the tools you have at your disposal versus doing it the same way we always did it.

Rural facilities just can’t survive. And so one of my goals — and our organization’s goals — is to make sure we’re as efficient as possible, because our community needs us.

Gamble:  Are you from Vermont originally?

Pierce:  I am; I was born and raised here. I joined the Army after high school, so I was gone for about 10 years. During that time, I got married and had two children. For me, coming home to North Country Hospital was an opportunity to help the facility grow, and make sure that if my mom, uncle, aunt, or cousin needs to go to the emergency department, they’ve got a great place to go. I have a large family, and I’m probably about two degrees of separation from everybody in this community.

 

Gamble:  I’m sure it has its ups and downs, but it really does instill that sense of community.

Pierce:  It’s funny, people might think that since I work at the hospital, I must know that Uncle Joe, for example, was there the other day. It’s really not like that.