For healthcare leaders, there’s perhaps nothing more validating than hearing directly from a user how a technology solution has improved their experience. But when it comes from a patient – or, in this case, the parent of a pediatric patient – it’s more than just recognition of a job well done. It’s affirmation that IT teams are doing precisely what they were created to do, according to Heather Nelson, SVP & CIO of Boston Children’s Hospital.
During a recent Keynote with Sue Schade, Nelson recalled a “heartwarming” story in which a patient’s mother sent her a thank-you note – something that rarely happens to CIOs. But in this case, the ability to easily access information using the newly implemented MyChildren’s Portal was a difference-maker. “For a family to recognize what technology did to enable her to care for the child” was powerful, noted Nelson, who immediately shared it with her team. “This is why we’re here. This is why we do what we do.”
Heather Nelson, SVP & CIO, Boston Children's Hospital
That type of validation can go a long way toward demonstrating the value of IT, which can be challenging considering it’s often perceived as a cost center. “We’re never going to be a true revenue-generating department,” she said, especially within large organizations.
What IT can do, however, is help move the needle when it comes to adopting digital tools.
Playing in the Sand
At Boston Children’s, Nelson’s team is doing just that by leveraging a “sandbox” to generate excitement around AI – so far, the results have been extremely positive. “We’ve got people coming to us with use cases,” she noted. One of those is MedTutor, a tool that utilizes GenAI to “provide learners with the scale, personalization, and on-demand access for medical cases.”
By providing the opportunity for experimentation, leaders are able to determine the potential of a concept, while also preventing shadow IT, according to Nelson. “If you don’t give people something, they’ll go buy their own,” she said. “Putting those guardrails in place has built trust in the organization where they’re now willing to sit down and talk through the potential.”
Of course, creating this type of environment isn’t possible without collaboration across departments, said Nelson, who works closely with John Brownstein (Chief Innovation Officer), Peter Laussen (Executive VP of Health Affairs) and others to position initiatives for success.
A Foundation for Success
Another key component? Ensuring a solid foundation is in place, which Boston Children’s has addressed by migrating to an integrated EHR system and rolling out a new mobility platform. The ultimate goal, said Nelson, is to “improve experiences – not only for our care teams and researchers, but also for our patients and their families.”
Transitioning from a hybrid system (Boston Children’s utilized both Cerner and Epic products as part of Mosaic) is never simple, but in this case, it has been an especially massive lift. Fortunately, the organization has made serious progress, going from more than 400 apps “that were bolted together or standalone” to less than 190. It’s “more interoperability and integration than we’ve ever had,” Nelson said, adding that she’s “really proud” of the progress that’s been made so far.
A significant factor in that progress has been the implementation of a 5G private cellular environment across the enterprise, which has been a game-changer for frontline workers. “We were getting a lot of complaints on our WiFi network when it came to mobility,” she noted, which isn’t acceptable in any organization – particularly a children’s hospital. By involving nurses in the selection process, leadership was able to understand their challenges and find a solution that fit into their workflow. “They were excited,” Nelson said. “They didn’t understand what 5G mobility meant, but they knew their calls weren’t going to drop.”
The Next Steps
Of course, when it comes to creating a better experience for the staff and patients, the job is never done. For Boston Children’s, the next step is modernizing the ERP, which in some ways, is “bigger than the EHR,” she said. “It’s going to be a very complex project. ERP touches every single employee in the organization.”
Although they’re still in the due diligence phase, Nelson’s team fully expects to incorporate lessons learned from the EHR migration, especially when it comes to resource allocation. “We need to make sure we’ve got the right resources and they can be pulled 100 percent into the project, and not a fraction of an FTE,” she said. “When you start doing that, you can't get momentum.” On the other hand, by keeping as much of the initiative in-house as possible, leaders can remain in the driver’s seat, which she believes is critical. “At the end of the day, it's ours to support and to care for and feed.”
Finally, with the enterprise tools in place, her team can focus on operating “in a way that’s meaningful and measurable for patients,” and ensuring they’re leveraging their investments. “We need to innovate from a workflow perspective and think about how do we things differently, because the technology now allows for and enables that.”
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