Q&A with Memorial Healthcare CIO Tom Kurtz, Part 2: Collaboration “Is Incredibly Important.”

When Tom Kurtz was interviewing for the position of CIO at Memorial Healthcare, it was made clear if he accepted the role, he’d be spearheading a major EHR transformation. But instead of balking at the idea — which would have been understandable, with this being his first foray into healthcare — Kurtz seized the opportunity to “help guide the organization.”

Five years later, Memorial has an integrated platform in place, something that has certainly come in handy in battling the myriad challenges stemming from Covid-19. Recently, Kurtz spoke with healthsystemCIO about his team’s multipronged strategy to maintain care continuity during the pandemic, the hurdles they faced implementing an EHR during a period of significant growth, and the tremendous pride in being an independent hospital.

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Key Takeaways:



* For the IT team at Memorial, being involved in the planning of a new facility and thinking about how it should be designed from a patient experience perspective has been “an extraordinarily fun project to be a part of.”

* Rolling out an EHR system during a period of rapid growth has required a balance that can be difficult for any organization — particularly a community hospital.

* One of the keys to success with the EHR was to ensure all areas were “actively involved in the process, from system selection to implementation and post go-live.”

* No leader ever wants to pause a major project, but if doing so can make a go-live less obtrusive to the end users — and ultimately the patients — “it’s an easy decision.”

* Optimization isn’t a one-time initiative; it’s an “ever-present project for us to continue to make the system work for our providers more effectively, make it more efficient, and make it more user-friendly.”





Q&A with Tom Kurtz, Part 2 [Click here to access Part 1]

Gamble:  In terms of the building and design of the new facility, has IS been able to contribute to the process?

Kurtz:  Absolutely. We’re making that building a spotlight for technology enhancements for healthcare, particularly in the wellness center, to create systems to track your own performance, set your own goals, and measure your progress, whether it be cardiac rehab, physical therapy or occupational therapy, all the way onto the wellness side.

Every piece of equipment is going to be connected into a singular tracking system within that building, from access control to patient entertainment systems to the different entertainment pieces in the wellness center itself. It’s going to be highly integrated and highly technical.

We have a 75-seat auditorium going into the building with an attached kitchen to where we can do teaching or cooking demonstrations, we can do remote learning, and we can do conference presentations from that facility. We’ll be able to do patient engagement in the room by sharing imaging studies or different education materials on screens within the patient rooms. It is going to be a very high-tech facility, and so the IS and IT teams have been heavily involved in the creation and the design of that building.

 

Gamble:  I’m sure it’s very exciting to be involved with that, and a great opportunity to watch it come up and really a footprint there.

Kurtz:  It’s a fun project. It really is. When you’re able to think about something new from the ground up and how you would design it from the...