Today in health, it, I met with 13 CEOs this past weekend. Here are a few of my takeaways. My name is bill Russell. I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system and creator of this week health, a set of channels dedicated to keeping health it staff current. And engaged. We want to thank our show sponsors who are investing in developing the next generation of health leaders.

Gordian dynamics, Quill health tau site nuance, Canon medical, and current health. Check them out at this week. health.com/today. All right. At this week health, we started a new phase in our journey. Which is in-person gatherings of health leaders to facilitate discussion and learning. This is a natural extension of our mission to amplify great thinking and propel healthcare forward.

, the health systems represented. , a significant range, , from a billion dollars in revenue to about 13 billion in revenue. , so you had a good cross section of healthcare represented. And here are a few of my takeaways. I'll start with the silly one and then go to the more consequential insights as we move forward.

90% of the CEOs are going to Vive and not hymns. The only people going to hymns are presenting at hymns. Right? So, , for those of you who are wondering, who is going to each of the conferences, the CIO as a group will likely be advised and not hymns. If this is a representative sampling of CEOs, which I believe it is, , I'm going to both. So time will tell, and we will see, but.

, I've been asked this question several times, especially by partners. You know, who's going to be at each conference. And I believe now, as I'm looking at it that you're going to see more of the CEO's anyway, at the Vive event. And that's because it's, , connected to chime. And people want to see their peers and have discussions with their peers. And there's also a curiosity factor.

What is this event look like? A lot of people were not at the health conference. A lot of you were not at the health conference, HLT H and this is done in conjunction with the H L T H people. And they put on a cool. , feeling conference, I guess, if you just look at the marketing, you'll pick that up.

All right. I shared this on LinkedIn, but it bears repeating because you know, my biggest takeaway is that, , our work is starting to look very different from health system to health system.

If we go back about six years, we were all doing EHR, migrations and optimizations. And we were doing some other projects around that. , now the work is very different and it's derived by the strategy of the health system that you represent. And it's important to note that not all health system strategies are the same.

Very interesting, especially where the focus is concerned. Some are very focused on the consumer and consumerism in healthcare. Others have a strong focus on value based care. Still. As you look even further. Others have a growth strategy through M and a. And the work of the CIO looks very different depending on the objective of the organization that you represent.

And as you would expect, so do the titles of these people. , many CEO's are grabbing, , consonants and vowels and adding them to their title. , it's not really about ambition, but it's really more of a natural course of the changing role. Operations has rolled in as has digital and innovation.

, it's really, again, more of an acknowledgement of what was already happening. These people were given these functions

and this. Really accelerated during the pandemic and , those roles did not go away. And now it's being acknowledged. Hey. These people are also doing operations roles. They're also doing digital roles and whatnot. So a lot of people in the room. Had multiple vowels and consonants added to the title of CIO.

All right. Here's my final thought. And this is not an exhaustive list of things that I'm taking away from this event by any stretch. , but I led a discussion around labor and return to work. And it was a fascinating discussion. , the strategies are very different depending on the health system and depending, mostly on the progressiveness of the health system leaders and leadership in general, this is not a CIO thing.

In a vacuum. or even a HR thing in a vacuum by any stretch, this is a leadership discussion. And decision. , one system sold all of its it buildings and recovered about 50 million in real estate costs and has gone totally remote for good. Another CIO had to step out of the meeting.

, during the weekend to announce a return to the office for the it staff. Even if that was just a partial return the office of a couple days a week.

This is a really interesting topic. We had a discussion in the context of attracting and retaining it talent. It was discussed how one system not at this event, but one system required all their staff to return to the office. And immediately lost 10% of their it staff. , what was fascinating to me was the research that was done to determine the best approach for each health system.

, for these health systems, each did extensive surveys of their existing staff to determine the best approach. In most cases better than 60% when it flexibility. While a little less than that number wanted remote work to be permanent. And one of the only options. , my takeaway really what's the word? Flexibility. People want choice.

There may be reasons that people want an office and reasons that people want to work remote, but in the end, a great majority of them want flexibility. , the policy conversation also was very interesting to me. Remote work has matured during the pandemic as have the policies around it. And an example was a policy that remote work was in no way, a substitute for the need for childcare or even adult care.

, during work hours, if your children, or even your aging parents require full-time care, you shouldn't consider remote work and invitation to take on both. It is impossible for anyone again. , that's just an example. And I'm sure people have very passionate opinions on that example because there was very passionate.

, conversation around this topic. , you know, dynamic conversation. , with a group of dynamic leaders, the discussion. On this topic, isn't over by a long shot and I look forward. To, listening more to this and hearing how this evolves. I'm going to close with this. It is an exciting time to be a leader in healthcare.

And, , it really is my honor to support you in the work that you were doing. All right. That's all for today. If you know someone that might benefit from our channel, please forward them a note. They can subscribe on our website this week, health.com or wherever you listen to podcasts, apple, Google, overcast, Spotify, Stitcher.

You get the picture. We are everywhere. We want to thank our channel sponsors who are investing in our mission to develop the next generation of health leaders, Gordian dynamics, Quill health tau site nuance, Canon medical, and current health. 📍 Check them out at this week. health.com/today. Thanks for listening. That's all for now.