Q&A with Silver Cross Hospital CIO Teresa Andrea: “Technology Touches Every Part of Healthcare.”

Everyone has their number one.

Regardless of the size, scope or geographic location, every healthcare organization has one thing in common: competing priorities. Whether it’s clinical, revenue cycle, infection control, or any other area, “everyone has their number one.”

The challenge is that technology touches everything, and “IT can only have so many number one things they can work on at the same time,” said Teresa Andrea, CIO at Silver Cross Hospital. This is where solid governance and leadership can make an impact by “setting the rules of the road” and ensuring requests truly benefit the organization.

Recently, Andrea spoke with Kate Gamble, Managing Editor at healthsystemCIO, about the core objectives on her team’s roadmap, which is closely aligned to that of the business, and how they’re leveraging a “stair-step approach” to achieve them. Andrea, a nurse by training, also talked about why physician involvement is so critical, the keys to forming successful vendor partnerships, and her advice for aspiring CIOs.

LISTEN HERE USING THE PLAYER BELOW OR SUBSCRIBE THROUGH YOUR FAVORITE PODCASTING SERVICE. 



Key Takeaways:



* “Technology touches every single part of healthcare. Having a roadmap that runs in alignment with the organization’s strategic plan is really important to really ensure we are maintaining our true north.”

* One of the keys to a successful digital strategy is to “have a line of sight to the problem we’re trying to solve,” while also looking at the long term and having a stair-step approach. “You want to be able to stack your technologies so that they complement each other.”

* When it comes to clinicians, “being inclusive will fare you well, being exclusive will not,” said Andrea. “We’ve learned the hard way early on that as much as physicians will sometimes say, ‘I don’t have time, I don’t want to be bothered,’ you need to find the time and you need to bring them along.”

* The key to strong vendor partnerships is in “having clear expectations and communicating those expectations,” Andrea said. “Be transparent and honest. That way, we know where we stand.”

* “Success in the CIO role today is not about who has the biggest IT chops in the room. It’s about understanding the business need and being able to transcend the discussion such that the technology makes sense to executives.”





Q&A with Silver Cross Hospital CIO Teresa Andrea

Gamble:  Thank you for putting aside some time to talk about the work you’re doing at Silver Cross. Can you start by giving a high-level overview of the organization?

Andrea:  We are a 336-bed independent regional medical center. We used to be a community hospital, but we’re expanded our footprint. We have several outposts including a freestanding emergency room, urgent cares, and ambulatory sites for family practice and specialties.

We were recently awarded a 5-star CMS rating and a Leapfrog rating of A, which we’ve been successful in maintaining year over year. We’re very proud of that.

 

Gamble:  And you’re located in Illinois. Is it a suburb of Chicago?

Andrea:  Yes. We’re in New Lenox, Ill, which is a southwest suburb of Chicago.

 

Gamble:  You’ve been with the organization for a while, but you came into the CIO role a bit more recently, in 2020, correct?

Andrea:  Yeah, it was three years this past June.

 

Aligned IT-Business Roadmap

Gamble:  I definitely want to get into that. But first, can you talk about what you consider to be your biggest priorities at this point?

Andrea:  Sure. My priorities are aligned with the organization...