The reality of being a CIO in today’s healthcare landscape is it can be isolating. “Leadership can sometimes feel like a very lonely place,” said Sarah Hatchett. “You don’t always know how people perceive you, or if you’ve done everything.”
As the list of tasks continues to grow – and expectations continue to mount, particularly at organizations like the Cleveland Clinic – it’s becoming increasingly important for CIOs to step into the light and rely on teams to “help fill in the gaps and hold you accountable,” she noted. Doing so, however, requires “open dialogue” built on a foundation of trust and respect.
During a recent Keynote with Bill Russell, Founder of This Week Health, Hatchett talked about what it takes to create that culture, as well as her team’s efforts around business transformation and resiliency, why she avoids the word ‘governance,’ and the philosophy that has guided her throughout her career.
Sarah Hatchett, SVP & CIO, Cleveland Clinic
Patients First
Despite the size and scope of Cleveland Clinic – which includes 23 hospitals and 276 outpatient facilities in locations across the world – the core objectives don't differ much from those of other organizations, with most of the focus on innovation, business transformation, and resiliency. What does separate it from others is the emphasis on putting patients first, a core aspect of Cleveland Clinic’s mission.
“I challenge my team to think about this every day,” said Hatchett. “We’re all caregivers; there are no employees. Every piece of technology that we do ties back in some way to patient care.”
Utilizing the term ‘caregiver,’ she added, “helps bring home the impact of IT initiatives,” and underscores the importance of ensuring that each project is managed as effectively as possible.
Having more than 80,000 caregivers, however, can make that difficult, particularly when IT requests come in from across the organization. “We have a very clear mission and vision that comes directly from the top down, but there's also a fair amount of latitude for business units to come up with strategies and OKRs for their specific areas that typically generate a lot of IT demand,” she noted.
Lightning rounds
This is where Hatchett’s team plays a key role, serving as “the glue” that brings groups together and shares information about projects that are already in progress, which has helped foster collaboration while preventing duplication.
“A lot of our key success factors are in trying to standardize and gain efficiencies across the different initiatives that we’re seeing,” she noted.
One approach they’re taking is to hold lightning rounds during which teams or individuals can showcase projects they’re working on. Doing so, according to Hatchett, creates a “line of sight” across teams that can help boost collaboration while also building excitement around new ideas. “It’s been a real value-add to the overall culture,” she noted.
Blueprint for M&A
It’s the type of environment CIOs strive to provide, but it didn’t come without a huge lift – one that started when Hatchett came on board in 2017, and was immediately tasked with standing up the Epic transformation program. Although Cleveland Clinic had adopted the system nearly two decades prior, the implementation was fragmented, and it became clear that a multi-year effort was needed to deploy “modules that were missing, infuse content into our system, and really get those integrations up and running in a way that benefited both our caregivers and our patients,” she recalled.
The other key advantage in having a centralized EHR was that it created a blueprint for organizations that join Cleveland through M&A activity, Hatchett said. “We now had a global design to roll out Epic in a standard way to the hospitals that we had most recently acquired, bringing them on to our platform in a rapid fashion. What started as an EHR transformation journey actually became an M&A playbook, which we now call our growth and global design program.” Not only does it ensure all facilities follow the same methodology – and move toward standardization, but it also helps “build up the internal muscle” needed to drive transformation.
Anti-governance
Having a unified platform can also enable the organization to better support innovation, which is “core to the mission” of Cleveland Clinic, and therefore requires a solid structure. “We want to create an environment where there's a lot of creativity and experimenting,” she said. At the same time, the lights need to be kept on and systems need to be safeguarded. “We want to make sure there’s an actual balance of these things.”
This is where governance – or a much less offensive term – comes into play. In fact, Cleveland Clinic has an Architect Review Board that looks at every new technology capability to determine whether it fits in the product roadmap, along with an Enterprise Technology Steering Committee and an AI Task Force. “We’re effectively trying to infuse those concepts to make sure we're allocating our time and resources to the things that matter most to our organization,” she noted, while also leveraging in-house expertise to make sure technology is being utilized responsibly.
Be comfortable with change
As emerging technologies continue to shape strategic planning, one thing Hatchett is careful not to do is position herself as an expert. “As a CIO, I’m not going to have all the answers. I'm not going to stay on top of what the technology innovations need to be for specific disciplines,” she said. Instead, she's focused on creating an environment that “enables innovation to happen” and empowers teams to create “the platforms and patterns that allow tools to plug in seamlessly.”
It’s a philosophy that has served Hatchett well throughout her career, and particularly during her rise from senior director to CIO at Cleveland Clinic. “It's been an amazing journey. I never thought seven years ago that I’d be in this position one day,” she said. And although there have been numerous factors in her success, one of the most significant has been her passion to “drive change and make a positive impact for the organization.”
And finally, her willingness to remain a student of the industry, the organization, and the role itself. “The myth is that when you get the CIO seat, you've arrived at something where you don't need to learn and grow and develop,” Hatchett said. The reality? “You need to be comfortable with change and be able to adapt and respond to change.”
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