[{"innerBlocks":[],"name":"core\/freeform","postId":126746,"blockType":{"name":"core\/freeform","keywords":[],"attributes":{"content":{"type":"string","source":"raw"},"lock":{"type":"object"}},"providesContext":[],"usesContext":[],"selectors":[],"supports":{"className":false,"customClassName":false,"reusable":false},"styles":[],"variations":[],"apiVersion":3,"title":"Classic","description":"Use the classic WordPress editor.","category":"text"},"originalContent":"I was lucky enough to spend some time with CIO friends across the country this year. I flew to several cities, and met with them in their offices. They took me on tours of their facilities. It felt great to meet their teams and see some of their operations.

These CIOs were so gracious in making time for me, and we talked about everything they\u2019re focused on right now. It\u2019s always a long list when you\u2019re a healthcare IT professional\u2014adhering to new government regulations, implementing new systems, figuring out how to parse the ocean of data they\u2019re now swimming in, and most interestingly, helping their organizations change for the future.

But as I look back now over these visits, it was the last item\u2014driving change\u2014that seemed to be connected to every other challenge they face.

CIOs might see the urgency to change more clearly than their fellow senior executives. And not to be too biased, but I think they might actually know how to adapt their organizations to the coming changes better than many other leaders.

Healthcare IT executives primarily see and understand every component of the healthcare operation. They have to\u2014it\u2019s a job requirement. What also comes with being involved in organization-wide healthcare operations, unfortunately, is a front row seat to the pervasive resistance to change evident in many healthcare organizations.

Healthcare leaders profess to understand the need to move toward fee-for-value and new healthcare models. But at the same time, they resist the change, and all the resultant impacts that it can bring to their organizations. Sometimes they resist actively, mostly it\u2019s passively. Change means risk. Healthcare is risk-averse, to put it mildly.

\u201cWe have organizational antibodies against change,\u201d said one of the CIOs with whom I visited. \u201cI think we got into line three or four times for the immunization.\u201d

I wonder if these \u201cantibodies against change\u201d are more prevalent in healthcare than in other industries? We\u2019re unique in so many ways (or so we like to proclaim), but my experience as a healthcare exec over the past 25 years tells me we are, as an industry, really great at moving as slowly as possible into an inevitable future.

We are overly in love with meetings. With building consensus before we move. With making sure nobody\u2019s feelings are hurt because they were left out of the decision-making process. With making sure we\u2019ve thought of everything that could possibly be a problem, and then making sure we\u2019ve explored (and resolved) how we\u2019ll deal with all those issues before making a final decision and beginning on any journey.

We take industry complexity, and we wrap ourselves in it like our favorite well-worn blanket. It\u2019s our favorite shield against change.<\/bsp-quote>In a nutshell, we\u2019re not agile. We\u2019re overly-cautious. \u201cPerfect is the enemy of good\u201d is something we say, but not something we actually do consistently.

We take industry complexity, and we wrap ourselves in it like our favorite well-worn blanket. It\u2019s our favorite shield against change. Well, Linus, I think it\u2019s time to give up the blanket.

I know I\u2019m over-generalizing here. Believe me, I\u2019m thrilled to see some organizations showing real agility. Those few are true broad-based innovators and risk-takers. They have grasped the fact that no one has all the answers yet, so we\u2019ll have to build the bicycle while we ride it. I appreciate what they are doing to pull the rest of us into the future.

Remember, (modifying a quote from Darwin here), \u201cIt\u2019s not the strongest healthcare organizations that will survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones that are most responsive to change.\u201d

Now, given the scope of what\u2019s facing the industry, it\u2019s time for HIT executives to go lead healthcare\u2019s change.","saveContent":"I was lucky enough to spend some time with CIO friends across the country this year. I flew to several cities, and met with them in their offices. They took me on tours of their facilities. It felt great to meet their teams and see some of their operations.

These CIOs were so gracious in making time for me, and we talked about everything they\u2019re focused on right now. It\u2019s always a long list when you\u2019re a healthcare IT professional\u2014adhering to new government regulations, implementing new systems, figuring out how to parse the ocean of data they\u2019re now swimming in, and most interestingly, helping their organizations change for the future.

But as I look back now over these visits, it was the last item\u2014driving change\u2014that seemed to be connected to every other challenge they face.

Fighting healthcare’s resistance to change

More for you