CIO Boot Camp

Evolving Leadership Skills to Be an Effective and Resilient Leader  

Healthcare organizations continue to face challenges with meeting today’s demands and positioning their organization for the future. In 2024, healthcare organizations continued to face the ongoing challenges of severe staffing shortages, employee burn-out, and rising operational costs. Demands continue to grow, budgets continue to shrink and requirements by regulatory agencies, providers, payers, and patients to provide timely accurate data and enhanced cost-effective services are making it a challenge just to keep the lights on. Everyone is looking for that “magic bullet” to bring some relief to a somewhat chaotic environment.

Healthcare leaders need resilience and be equipped to play a pivotal role in facing these challenges and support leading their organizations to make difficult decisions on what to invest that will bring the highest value to their organization. They also need to know how to align their IT organization with the needs of the organization and ensure execution is set up for success.
Since the majority of business initiatives have a technology component, the role of the IT leader has become more critical in being involved in decision making, supporting the alignment/ prioritization of IT investments and execution of these initiatives. These leaders need to have a respected voice within the organization in order to establish an effective IT organization, guide their organizations on making the right business decisions for new technologies as well as fostering adoption for change.

In your role as a healthcare IT leader, it is critical to continue to evolve your skills and gain insight from others by networking with others who have faced similar challenges over their careers. This Boot Camp session brings insight from experienced IT healthcare leaders who have led their organizations through challenging times and will share their many learnings along the way as well as a newly appointed IT leader who is on a journey to have an effective and aligned IT organization.

Learning objectives:

• How to gain support and engagement from your executive team and be recognized as a respected and resilient effective leader with a credible voice.
• How to build a road map to re-calibrate and re-align your IT organization.
• How to establish IT as a strategic “enabler” to help guide and support your organization to prioritize and execute business initiatives that offers the highest value to the organization and set a roadmap for success.

Agenda:

• Hour 1: Overview presentation to set the stage for the Boot Camp session goals as well as educate participants on the concepts and methodologies to:
  • Evolve their leadership skills to be resilient, effective, credible voice and a recognized member of the executive team.
  • Deliver an effective and proactive IT organization.
  • Align IT priorities with the strategic priorities of the organization.
  • Deliver a collaborative and aligned IT Roadmap for the Future.
    
    
• Hour 2: Case Study presentation on sharing how the presenter recently became an IT leader and is on the journey to be recognized as a credible voice at the C-level and deliver an aligned and proactive IT Roadmap.
  
  
• Hour 3: Structured breakout sessions to role play developing an approach to best address assigned scenario outcomes.
  
  
• Hour 4: Presentation by each Break Out team on their approach, process, and recommended go forward plan.

Facilitator: Joel Benware, President and CEO, Acmeware

Speakers:

• Allision Yowell, IT Clinical Informatics Director, Palo Pinto Hospital
• Anne Marie Herrera, VP, Vendor Solutions, Experis® Health Solutions

Fee: $80
Date: Wednesday May 28
Time: 12:30 – 4:30

Register for the Boot Camp

(Only Facility members may register for and attend a Boot Camp)

 Facilitator: Joel Benware

Joel Benware is a transformative, results-driven healthcare technology and operations senior executive who served at three different community hospital leadership teams in the roles of COO, CIO, and Compliance Officer. Joel joined the vendor community as President and CEO of Acmeware Inc.in 2023, a data analytics and consulting firm that works with MEDITECH hospitals.

Joel holds a B.A. in Political Science, a Master’s in Technology Management, a second Master’s in Healthcare Administration and attained Fellowship status in the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE) and a Certified Healthcare Chief Information Officer (CHCIO) through CHIME. Joel has served on numerous boards and state level committees including Vermont’s Health Information Exchange. Joel has been the moderator and guest speaker for the International Medical Users Software Exchange (MUSE) Executive Institute where thought leaders gather to discuss the MEDITECH EHR and the supporting ecosystem of third-party products.

Joel has built award-winning teams, recognized by the American Hospital Association as “Most Wired” Hospital six different times. He has been named a Becker’s Hospital Review Top Community Hospital CIO to know.

Joel regularly speaks at industry related conferences and workshops and consults with companies on their healthcare and technology strategies.

Joel and his wife reside in Malone, NY. Joel is an avid triathlete, mountain biker, loves hiking, boating, golfing, and all sorts of outdoor activities.

Speaker: Anne Marie Herrera

Anne Marie Herrera has been an IT health care professional for over 30 years with 10+ years as a senior health care consulting leader and 20 years as a senior IT leader for two very prominent and large California-based health systems. She has provided these organizations expertise and delivery in the areas of IT Strategy, Governance, PMO, IT Quality Performance Management, IT Facility Management, IT Customer Help Desk, and IT Outsourcing/Insourcing. She was the SJHS Enterprise Program Leader for the health system wide MEDITECH financial, administrative, and clinical implementations. She also initiated an IT Lean program at one health system and re-engineered IT prioritization investments at both health systems. 

In her current role, she is a Solution Senior Leader and focuses primarily within the MEDITECH EHR Market and works closely with customers, MEDITECH and third-party vendors. Her main responsibility is to provide program oversight, develop “value added” innovative solutions for customers and bring forward the market strategy, methodology and tools for customer delivery.  She has worked with prominent organizations in supporting their efforts in aligning organizational vision/goals with IT investments and priorities as well as supporting IT Recalibration initiatives.

Anne Marie has spoken at several HIMSS and MUSE events and was the keynote speaker for the 2014 MUSE Executive Institute event. She was also a member of the MUSE Commercial Member Committee and has worked closely with MUSE leaders to develop meaningful leadership work sessions to continue to bring value and network opportunities to MUSE members.

Speaker: Allison Yowell

Allison Yowell is the Director of Informatics at Palo Pinto General Hospital, a small but mighty rural hospital serving Mineral Wells, Texas. We offer nearly 20 specialty services and operate 16 clinics across four towns, ensuring that our patients have access to a broad range of medical care close to home.

Allison’s career in healthcare began at the front lines working as a scheduler and insurance verification specialist in an oncology clinic. That early experience gave her insight into the administrative challenges patients face, and she still draws on that knowledge. As a nurse, Allison gained hands-on clinical experience in both the emergency department and oncology, where she developed a deep appreciation for the complexities of direct patient care, critical decision-making, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Each role she has held has broadened her understanding of the relationship between clinical care, patient outcomes, and healthcare administration. This well-rounded perspective has been invaluable in her current leadership position, where she strives to understand on a deeper level the issues that the staff are facing to ensure our hospital continues to meet the needs of our community with excellence and compassion.