Q&A with SUNY Downstate CIO Dennis Sutterfield: “It All Starts with the Vision and the Message.”

There’s been a lot of focus recently on the myriad challenges facing rural healthcare organizations – and for good reason. However, on the other side of the spectrum, urban health facilities also face uphill battles, whether it’s low adoption of digital tools or patients who can’t physically get to appointments.

In a recent interview, Dennis Sutterfield, CIO at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, shone a light on some of the struggles his Brooklyn, N.Y.-based organization contends with, and how a new leadership team (including a new CEO and new President) is turning the tide by making “strategic investments” and promoting transparency, which has helped build trust. Sutterfield also talked about the importance of “advanced storytelling,” what it’s like to wear multiple hats, and how his previous career experience helped prepare him to embrace challenges.

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Key Takeaways:



* On urban health challenges: With the patient portal, “which most organizations leverage highly through their EMR, we probably have less than 10 percent adoption, even though with information sharing, we are pumping out a tremendous amount of information for our patients to use.”

* On the “fragile equation”: “They want to call their doctor. They get confused by electronic opportunities. It’s hard to make them to feel safe without them feeling uneducated, and that’s certainly a really fragile equation; we never want to offend them.”

* On transitioning to a Covid-only hospital: “It has caused a significant impact on our operating income as a hospital. We’re working really hard to build back that volume and get that message out to our patients, and it’s working.”

* On SUNY’s turnaround: The key was “working with the senior leadership to find the why and the what, and put together the vision, the strategic plan, and the seven pillars. I think every employee now understands how they connect to the direction and the vision of the hospital.”

* On being the new CIO: “People can read my résumé, it doesn’t mean I did those things that I said I did them. Part of it is about showing my technical ability and my business acumen and that I keep my word — all the things we try to do.”





Q&A with Dennis Sutterfield, CIO, SUNY Downstate

Gamble:  Hi Dennis, I look forward to talking with you about the organization and what you guys are doing. Are you familiar with healthsystemCIO?

Sutterfield:  Yes. I pay attention on LinkedIn, and I certainly read and pay attention to what you guys are doing. Believe it or not, we actually get so few really tactical and poignant conversations. I’m always searching to hear what others are doing well and how they’re solving problems. The conversations I’ve heard about leaders that are managing similar challenges — I find that invaluable.

 

Gamble:  It really is. It’s so important to be able to share the good things everyone is doing, but to also talk about the challenges. We try to get a decent cross section of organizations, and so it’s great to be able to get the perspective of an urban medical center.

Sutterfield:  Usually no one programs toward us, and I’m always surprised given that we tend to face the greatest challenges and have some of the most needy people.

 

Gamble:  Absolutely. So, to start off, can you provide some information about SUNY Downstate Medical Center?

Sutterfield:  SUNY, which is the State University of New York, is a 64-campus organization. There are three academic medical centers: Stony Brook University Medicine in Long Island,