Christopher Childs, CIO of Evans Army Community Hospital, on why IT has to be in the business of healthcare and not the healthcare business, and why he tells leaders who text him about a broken computer that he is not the help desk. He walks through his four pillars of leadership and the Innovation Board he pushed for, built around one question: how do we get to right?
The skill Christopher Childs credits most for his success has nothing to do with technical ability: listening more than he speaks and meeting people where they are. The CIO of Evans Army Community Hospital, speaking for himself, explains how a master technician can also become a master isolationist, and why he tells his branch chiefs to use IT as a force multiplier and a healthcare enabler.
He describes telling his own leadership that he is not the help desk, why he asks every department for downtime procedures so nobody uses IT as a crutch, and the two questions behind his decisions: does it help deliver safe, quality care, and does it make the patient experience better. Then come his four pillars of leadership, compassion, passion, standards and discipline, and the Frankenstein IT you get when nothing is standardized.
Chris also pushed for the hospital's Innovation Board, a bimonthly meeting where anyone in the organization can bring an idea to the experts who would have to deliver it. It brought IT to the table before decisions get made, and it runs on one rule: how do we get to right? He closes with how he sells standardization when the payoff is slow, using Vocera badges that let the hospital drop five contracts, and with the legacy he wants to leave.
Key takeaways: Listen more than you speak. When someone seems distracted, offer to have a different conversation than the one you're having; Pick the framework your organization delivers on and run every decision through it. His: safe, quality care and the patient experience; When leaders treat you as the help desk, say so plainly, and send the call to the person whose job it is; Make every department keep downtime procedures, so a planned maintenance window doesn't stop the work; Standardize before you scale. Patched-together good ideas turn into Frankenstein IT that nobody can fix when it breaks; Give people a standing room to bring ideas, and steer the talk toward how to get to right, so a no costs nothing.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction: from the MLB draft to the Army
06:59 Listen more than you speak
14:04 Master technician, master isolationist
16:25 In the business of healthcare, and downtime procedures
22:13 "I am not the help desk"
26:36 Why technicians rarely get to learn leadership
33:21 Safe, quality care and the patient experience
38:17 Four pillars: compassion, passion, standards, discipline
42:14 Showing passion, and the Innovation Board
48:35 A seat at the table: how do we get to right?
55:12 Selling standardization, from Batman to Vocera badges
68:33 Words of wisdom: the legacy you leave
