Steve Stanic, VP & CIO, Mississippi Baptist Health System, Chapter 2

Like many CIOs, Steve Stanic has a love-hate relationship with Meaningful Use. While he takes issue with patient engagement requirements and the lack of an identifier, he still believes “it was what needed to be done.” In this interview, Stanic shares his honest thoughts about the program that has helped revolutionize the industry, and discusses the biggest projects on his plate, including the migration to McKesson Paragon, and a statewide effort to create a clinical integrated organization. He also discusses his team’s five-point engagement strategy, the valuable lesson he learned during his time in consulting, and what drew him to Mississippi Baptist.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2



* Patient portals — “The toughest measure to hit.”

* His team’s 5-point engagement strategy

* Shifting responsibilities

* Mississippi Affiliated Network

* “We needed a strategy so we’re not always at the mercy of Medicare or Blue Cross.”

* Improving throughput — “That’s the name of the game now.”



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Bold Statements

It’s the toughest measure to hit, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the availability, the technology, the ease of use. It has everything to do with the patient setting up an account to log on to look at their personal health information.

I think my responsibility should be to set them up an account and maybe send them an email reminder with some instructions on how to log in. To actually be measured on if they log in or not, I guess I have an issue with that.

It was becoming very competitive in the market, so we needed to have a seat at the table or a voice, whereas before you’re just at the mercy of a Blue Cross taking what they’re offering you, with the negotiations getting tougher and tougher.

This gives another option for somebody to come in and help me manage the health of my employees and to move more to a preventive end as opposed to just managing them when they’re sick.

Gamble:  You talked about the portal and everything that’s going on there. I’m sure that with Meaningful Use, that’s going to be big in meeting all those requirements for patient engagement.

Steve:  I will tell you, that’s probably the one we have the hardest time with, and that has nothing to do with the product, the vendor, a magic bullet. The Meaningful Use requirement that 5 percent of the discharged patients from the inpatient setting log on to a patient portal and look at their records at least one time, is the toughest measure to hit, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the availability, the technology, the ease of use. It has everything to do with the patient setting up an account to log on to look at their personal health information.

We’re actually broaching that on five fronts right now. We’re visiting patients while they’re still in the room to set them up. We’re sending them email reminders. We’re giving them patient education on how to do it through our patient interactive TV system. We’re sending letters to their houses. We’re using our home health aides, because we own part of a home health entity that a lot of our inpatients, even though they have a choice, use once they’re discharged. If they need home health services, they use us.

So we’re working on five fronts, and we have such a hard time hitting that 5 percent measure. With stage 3, it’s going to go to 25 percent, and I’ll be honest with you, I have no idea if we’re going to be successful there. I guess, to graze down a personal track here, I can’t control what a patient does a lot of times once they get out of our care, and to be held responsible for a patient taking the initiative t...