Today's Debate: IT leadership coming from the wrong place?
Government Health IT says leadership for computing in most hospitals is coming from the emergency room.
This may be precisely the wrong place for it to come from if you want support from the top. Emergency rooms are big money losers and many administrators have stopped bailing them out
In DeKalb County, Georgia, the state's most populous county, and the one I happen to live in, there is no longer any hospital connected to the state's trauma network. DeKalb Medical Center dropped out in July, citing costs. Ironically the same hospital now considers itself a leader in IT.
The state's only Level One trauma center, Grady Hospital in Atlanta, has been threatened with closure all year. Hospital officials say local government support was cut just as the number of uninsured cases jumped.
State politicians want to turn Grady over to a non-profit agency, as was done with the downtown childrens' hospital. Officials insist the hospital will not close.
But the problem isn't going away. In most industries the hope for profit justifies investment. Due to reasons beyond automation's control, emergency rooms have become a money pit.
If financial managers are going to listen to calls for automation, don't they need to come from somewhere else?