Q&A with NorthBay CIO Christopher Timbers, Part 1: “What Can We Do Better?”

“People will find a way to use technology, whether we sanction it or not.”

It’s a harsh reality health IT leaders face on a daily basis. But it’s also an opportunity, particularly if you’re CIO at an independent health system residing in a sea of large IDNs. At least, that’s how Christopher Timbers chooses to view it. If NorthBay wants to remain competitive, it’s not enough to merely offer the latest tools and technologies — it must be done in a way that “truly enhances” both the clinician and patient’s experiences.

Recently, healthsystemCIO had a chance to speak with Timbers about how his team is working toward its goal of making NorthBay “an easy place to practice medicine,” which means communicating effectively with users and responding quickly to issues that arise. He also talks about the pros and cons of being a longtime Cerner shop, what he learned from his mentors Dr. Michael McCoy and Stephanie Reel, and why he relocated across the country (again) to come to NorthBay.

Chapter 1



* About NorthBay (2-hospital system located in northern CA)

* Mission to provide “compassionate, advanced care close to home”

* Independent in a sea of large IDNs – “It definitely has its challenges.”

* Cerner shop since 2003

* M*Modal’s voice recognition as “a big satisfier” with physicians

* Unofficial motto: “Let’s make NorthBay an easy place to practice medicine.”

* User experience – “We try to make sure we’re communicating and responsive.”



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Bold Statements

There’s no question that we miss out on some economy of scale, especially in a service like IT. But we try to balance that with some of the agility and other things that being a smaller, more nimble organization can bring.

‘Our implementation is 15 years old. What are some of the things we’ve learned since that point in time, and what are some of the things we can do better?’ There’s been a lot of effort to update our implementation to some of the current best practices.

If we’re not getting the benefit and we’re not getting improvements in quality, sometimes it’s going back and looking at workflow, as well as the system design, to get that whole piece together.

We have an unofficial motto in IT: let’s make NorthBay an easy place to practice medicine. Everybody’s going to have system issues. Everyone’s going to have problems. What we try to do is make sure we’re communicating well and we’re responsive.

Gamble:  Thank you, Chris, for taking some time to speak with healthsystemCIO.

Timbers:  My pleasure.

 

Gamble:  To start, let’s get some information about North Bay Healthcare — number of hospitals, some of the other offerings, and where you’re located.

Timbers:  NorthBay Healthcare is an integrated delivery network. We have two hospitals, and we have a physician foundation, because in California you can’t employ physicians directly. Our foundation has about 145 physicians, both specialty care and primary care. We also have an ambulatory surgery center, home health, and hospice — pretty much the full spectrum of health care. We sit about an hour north of San Francisco and about an hour west of Sacramento.

If you were to go back 20 or 25 years ago, we would have been your typical community hospital providing services here, but for any specialty care, you would’ve had to go out of the area. Over the past 25 years, there’s been a big focus to bring specialty care into the area, and so we’ve done that both on the hospital side and through our practices.

The mission of NorthBay Healthcare is compassionate care and advanced medicine close to home. I think that very succinctly states what we’re about and what we’re trying to do for the community we serve here in Sola...