Focus On: Indranil Ganguly, CentraState Healthcare System

Q: How will the economic downturn affect the pace of technological change and change management in IT?

A: Hospitals are kind of unique compared with other industries. We're behind the curve and have quite a bit of catch-up to do in terms of technology and the application of technology to improve business processes. For example workflow in a hospital is obviously the lifeblood and so much of it is still manual and paper based. We're looking at ways to automate workflow within the facility. Many hospitals are still paper based in terms of medical records - capturing information is still tedious in these clinical systems. Moving toward electronic medical records is one of our goals. We have a partial electronic medical record system now in the clinical base; part is electronically stored now. To get to total medical records, though, we're looking at 2004, 2005.

Q: What is occupying most of your attention these days?

A: We're in the midst of a strategic planning development process in IT. For the business as well. From the IT perspective we are going through a multi-phase planning process. In phase one we undertook a gap assessment to see what applications were missing or sub-optimal in our current application suite. We also conducted interviews with key users and department heads to determine/validate needs. From this process we developed a set of proposed initiatives at a high level, which we then needed to build detail around. We convened groups of 'domain experts' to assist in the detail build and to prioritize the initiatives. These initiatives will be costed out and built into a capital formation plan and strategic plan timeline.

That's occupying the bulk of my time. The rest is in evaluating the new technology systems we want to put in place in 2002 with a heavy focus on the Web this year, both Internet and intranet. From the intranet perspective, we use it as a workflow tool. We want to eliminate paper distribution. Health care is a heavily policy- and procedure-bound industry, so each department is bound by policies and procedures from a departmental and patient perspective, and anytime policies are rolled out things have to be copied. When we do this on intranet, this will eliminate need for [copying documents]. We established the intranet last year and we want to add new features such as newsletters, job postings general information. We view it as an ongoing work in progress.

Q: What's your view on implementation of new technologies and bleeding edge versus a more conservative approach?

A: I think there needs to be a balance. Bleeding edge is exciting, but often leaves the customer under served. I would like to find that ideal balance between the latest technology and the conservative approach.

Q: How large is your IT department and what skills are you in most need of right now?

A: We have 24 people. I think the skills we're most lacking right now would be business analyst. We're looking to improve that (however) I don't have any open positions. Our IT model is heavily operationally focused. In order to leverage emerging technologies we need more individuals on staff who can relate the business needs of healthcare to potential technology solutions. We also need to expand our Web team.

Q: What specific Web positions do you need to fill?

A: We need rather generic Web developers.

Q: How do you approach the software/vendor selection process?

A: It depends on the level of intensity or the evolved nature of system we're selecting. For example, we just selected a new content management system to manage our Web content. We handle that through a process whereby we form committees -more heavily weighed in people from different departments- and we engaged a consultant to help us develop an RFP and then we made a selection. It's being implemented right now. We also just finished implementing a new payroll and HR system, too. We're not the process owners. The business owners need to own their processes; we'll facilitate them in building requirements and building systems and making sure they're compliant with our infrastructure, but we will not make a selection on behalf of our users. They need to take ownership of what their expectations are and understand the implementation and what the systems can and can't do.

Q: What are the ingredients of a good vendor relationship?

A: Partnership, communication and flexibility

Q: Who do you report to and what goals have been set by you or by upper management for the coming year?

A: I report to the COO of this facility with a dotted line to the CEO for strategic planning issues. The things that are kind of in the works for the IT organization that they view as IT imperatives are a computerized order entry [systems] for physicians. That's actually being driven partially to improve workflow and partially by a group called the Leapfrog Group, a large coalition of corporate entities that fund health care for their employees. Companies like GE and few other very large companies have banded together and said they'll only allow employees to go to healthcare facilities that are not only technologically up to date and adhere to certain standards [but are also quality-driven]. And they're telling their health care insurance providers that employees can't go to facilities that don't meet certain standards. They're going to drive their dollars put towards health care in that direction. And computerized order entry is one of those mandates. I brought this to the attention of upper management, but it's coming around from many different angles.

Additionally they want us to focus on the Web and delivering more information out to our constituent groups- such as physicians and the community at large.

Q: Have you been able to leverage the Web to provide information to your constituents?

A: We have brochureware - an electronic version of our brochures. Our desire is to take it to a different level with health content online with [the ability to] request appointments online and pre-register online. Most of those things we see happening this year.

Q: How do you find and retain knowledgeable staff once you have a position to fill?

A: It's a little tough given that we're dead center between New York City and Philadelphia. So we're looking for people who want a certain quality of life. Although with the economy now it's become a little easier and people have become a little more available.

Q: Do you offer any interesting incentives or perks?

A generally good work environment and team environment. We're rather flexible in terms of people's usage of time. There's no telecommuting as a rule but we permit it when necessary.

Q: Which of your skills has served you best in managing IT?

A: Flexibility

Q: What advice would you give someone in IT who is looking to advance the same way you have?

A: I tend to think I just got lucky. IT people tend to fall into two categories: those who get so focused on the technical and are technically excellent and know technology to the nth degree that they lose sight of the business. The reason technology exists is to help the business. So my advice is to understand the business and how the technology can be used to improve the business. So they're either supremely technical or there are those who are focused on the business. I think by being somewhat of a generalist I've been able to move forward. I was interested in taking on a management role and many IT folks not interested in managing people.

Q: What keeps you awake at night?

A: Making sure that we can deliver value to our constituent groups, primarily the clinicians here. Make sure they are able to practice the business of health care aided by technology. The technology should be improving their ability to deliver health care, not hinder it.

Q: What do you do in your spare time? A: I have a six-year-old and a two-year-old boy. At this age they're a handful.

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