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Growing Collaboration with Chief Information Officers

Around 88 percent of Chief Information Officers report having increased involvement in their health system IT agenda since the implementation

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DQINDIA Online
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The 2019 Black Book survey indicates the relationship between senior information systems and financial operations officers is becoming more collaborative and stronger. The set of polls spanning the last six months identified the growing trend that Chief Information Officers are shifting their priorities from cost-cutting to rapidly investing in financial technologies. 52 percent of financial executives report the implementation of advanced analytics is the most pressing followed by (44 percent) broader distributed ledger technologies.

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The year-to-year comparison of Black Book’s financial leadership technology surveys reveal dramatic changes in the adoption of financial services IT after nearly 7 years of recorded declines or reductions in the budgets allocated for financial software and upgrades.

91 percent of CFOs surveyed agreed that their past organizational CIO and senior IT management did not support a culture where financial technology upgrades and acquisitions were prioritized as initiatives that impacted enterprise health system strategy.

Also, 90 percent of financial leaders and management strongly agreed that the CIOs and IT management undervalued the needs of financial digital transformation and financial tools, instead prioritizing and convincing their boards that their electronic health record vendor related offerings were the best spending plan.

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This has resulted in 94 percent of marginally performing hospital CFOs nationally claiming they are not prepared to handle new healthcare delivery and payment models with the tools they currently have. Comparatively, 89 percent of the top financially performing hospitals in the country report having the organizational technology tools to address modified payment strategies.

While senior financial officers struggled with the pressures of smaller operating incomes, rising labor and supply costs, shrinking volumes, reduced reimbursements, declining patient volumes and changing healthcare delivery models, 83 percent report that in the past fiscal year they had received add-on responsibilities of organizational productivity, strategic technology and innovation growth initiatives, and exceptional performance.

Brown said, "In a noticeable shift since the acquisition of enterprise-wide EHR systems led by CIOs, CFOs have become the executive charged with digital transformations to improve competitive advantages, strategic growth and innovation across all customer touch points, while measuring the technologies’ ROI.”

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Although CIO-CFO collaboration in health systems is critical, 93 percent of CFOs in financially struggling facilities report barriers to agreeable cooperation, but, so did 84 percent of CFOs in successfully-performing health systems.

88 percent of CFOs report having increased involvement in their health system IT agenda since the implementation of their enterprise EHR as compared to 14 percent in 2015.

Main barriers to health system CIO-CFO Collaboration, according to 2019 survey participants.

  • 85 percent of all respondents state that their current organizational structure prevents enhanced CIO-CFO collaboration. 89 percent of CEOs interviewed disagree with this statement.
  • 82 percent of CFOs state they have insufficient understanding of IT issues as the barrier to them not being included in technology selections and approvals prior to 2014.
  • 84 percent of CIOs surveyed in Q4-2018 claimed the processes and tools in finance are incomparable to IT functions and remain a significant barrier to mutual understanding.
  • 90 percent of all respondents agree that the absence of key performance indicators that link IT agendas to financial performance greatly limits their success.
  • 98 percent of respondents strongly agree that it’s the healthcare CFO’s job to ensure their organization fully realize the benefits of technology investments, not the CIO’s job in 2019.
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