Warner Thomas, president and CEO of Ochsner Health System, made a call for health information technology vendors to act more as partners to their customers than sellers of technology, in the opening keynote address to the HIMSS 2013 Annual Conference & Exhibition, in Ochsner's hometown of New Orleans.
Vendors urged to act more as partners
Thomas
“I put a challenge out to you,” Thomas told the audience of health IT executives. The industry needs the assistance from its vendors as it deals with probable cuts to Medicare reimbursement, as well as the host of changes designed to improve healthcare quality and more efficient, Thomas said.
Ochsner partners with companies such as GE and with insurance companies.
The insurers can help Ochsner paint a broader picture of patients' health. “If we don't partner with insurers, we don't know what happens when they go other places,” he said.
Thomas said now is the time to be optimistic and energized about the changes taking place in healthcare, otherwise, “we will not be successful.”
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