Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Public Council Teleconference: Application Rationalization — Hidden Costs and Smart Decisions
November 17 at 11:00 am US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Honorio Padrón, of The Hackett Group, who will share the drivers for companies to tackle application rationalization and the results of research that define the hidden cost of complexity. Additionally, we will discuss key decision milestones—to start or not, holding the course steady and fulfilling expectations.
Virtual Desktop Cost-Benefit Analysis — Michael Jacobs, Catlin Group
The analysis contained in this presentation measures the cost of everything from the machines and licenses to the infrastructure for virtual vs. traditional desktop environments.
Honor your best senior team members - Apply for the CIO Ones to Watch Award
Get well-earned public recognition for your top up-and-coming team members, your IT organization and your enterprise. Award winners will be announced, publicized and feted in May 2010, great timing to help attract new IT recruits to your company.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »December 01, 2005 — CIO —
When Paul Levy first took the job of president and CEO at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in January 2002, he knew that a strong IT department would be the key to turning the financially troubled hospital around. At the time, Levy was executive dean of administration for the Harvard Medical School, and Beth Israel Deaconess is one of Harvard’s teaching hospitals. Levy says he accepted the new position in large part because he knew and respected the hospital’s CIO, John Halamka. Technology is essential to keeping hospital costs down and patients safe. Had the IT department lacked strong leadership and talent, there would not have been sufficient time to turn it around before Beth Israel Deaconess collapsed, he says.
Levy’s trust in Halamka was soon tested by a massive network failure that took the hospital’s systems offline for days. (Read more about the network crash online at www.cio.com/120105.) But Levy didn’t fire his CIO. Instead, he educated himself about the need to invest in and maintain infrastructure. Nearly four years later, Beth Israel Deaconess is profitable, and the medical center has regained its standing as one the country’s foremost teaching hospitals and health-care IT innovators.
Levy is best known for overseeing the cleanup of Boston Harbor as executive director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority from 1987 to 1992. "People laugh when I say this, but there is a similarity between running a sewage treatment facility and running a hospital," he says. What comes into a wastewater treatment system, like what comes into a hospital, "is unpredictable and highly variable." And the outcome of treatment, whether for wastewater or patients, "has to meet very, very strict quality standards." But running a hospital is more complex because every patient requires individual attention.
Levy says Halamka has taught him much about how complex the health-care environment is—and how difficult and expensive it is to apply IT to traditionally paper-based processes such as drug-ordering and medical record-keeping. Nevertheless, Levy wants the hospital to use IT not only to improve its efficiency and quality of care for patients but also to pioneer how technology is used in health care.
Levy talks about how IT can improve hospital efficiency and patient safety, and how he makes hard decisions about IT spending.
CIO: As CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess, what is your vision for IT?
Paul Levy: Information technology is going to transform the delivery of health care in several respects. First, it will transform administrative processes, which include the back office, billing and communication between providers, insurance companies and consumers.