CHIME Time: Dealing with the constancy of change

For years, I have cautioned those considering a healthcare profession to realistically assess their capacity to tolerate change. That's exponentially true when you mix information technology into a healthcare equation.

Anyone pursuing a health IT career will find themselves in the vortex of transformational change, where the forces in technology and healthcare collide. Both market sectors are changing at unprecedented speed.

I recognize that we are all different, and a number of factors in our life histories determine our capacity to accept change. Personally, I have always considered myself as a glutton seeking change. Bring it on! I believe that this thirst for change actually attracts me to health IT.

This change vortex has a profound impact on how we pick new people to join our IT department. By necessity, my own organization's approach to IT staffing is to “grow our own,” and because IT is a catalyst for change, we screen applicants for the aptitude to not only accept but to lead change. This capability is essential to “move the dial” and facilitate change most efficiently and, therefore, most economically.

Our staff-development plans include specific industry and vendor certifications, as well as training in Lean processes, meeting management, communication planning and project management competencies. The mastery of these skills, with the demonstrated ability to lead large and strategically important initiatives, determines career advancement.

In the past year, I have spoken to many individuals who were surprised to learn how important it is for health IT professionals to have the capacity to think creatively. Because a key competency for health IT staff is to solve problems, creative thinking is essential.

In our IT workspace, the visual evidence of this creativity is the beautiful photography of our health IT staff. Photos were submitted for a contest to decorate our new building, and the winners, chosen through private ballot, were enlarged for display. However, the more concrete evidence of IT staff creativity is our ability to meet aggressive timelines, secure our infrastructure and work within budget.

We continually re-engineer processes to drive better outcomes. Typically, the area requiring the most change is the essential communication to clarify roles and responsibilities to avoid the consequences of assumptions. Given the wisdom of 20/20 hindsight, before every strategic project formally closes, IT management facilitates an after action review (AAR). During these frank conversations, all stakeholders gather face-to-face to discuss:

• What worked well that we want to continue to incorporate into future initiatives
• What worked well in other initiatives that may have worked well in the initiative being reviewed
• What we would do differently, given the experience on the just-completed project

We use this reflection to guide our processes, methodologies and refinements in staff performance expectations.

Now we face our biggest change ever—a business transformation that will attempt to retain the critical essence of who we are in our community as we become part of a larger organization. This assimilation will require a wholesale replacement of our current information systems while we adapt to new policies, processes and methodologies over an aggressive timeline; all the while, we'll need to continue current operations and meet customer-service obligations.

For months, IT staff expressed concerns about where they will land after the tsunami of change sweeps over our organization. IT management has offered assurance that skilled health IT professionals are in short supply and have advised staff to lean into the change.

In all change events, there are opportunities. You can either embrace your options to assume more responsibilities in the new organization, find a less volatile market sector, or consider health IT opportunities elsewhere. Change is just change. We determine for ourselves if that change is to be good or bad.