When Dustin Hufford was named full-time CIO at Cooper University Health Care — after serving as AVP of IT applications and interim CIO — he was ready to hit the ground running. “If I get this, we’re going to jump right into strategy development,” he recalled thinking.

That was in December of 2019, which meant just a handful of weeks passed before his team had to pivot to focus on facilitating new models of care delivery. Like so many other leaders, he realized how quickly things happened when there was a single objective, and so, when it was time to reassess priorities, Hufford adopted a new strategy: agility.

“We were able to move quickly,” he said during an interview with Kate Gamble, Managing Editor of healthsystemCIO. “That’s what we’re trying to harness. How do we get to that level of focus and attention? We think agile is a way to do that.”

During the discussion, Hufford talked about the foundational work his team is doing to take on a new approach, and why they’re flipping the traditional IT governance model. He also discussed the challenges of retaining staff in a competitive market, how he has benefited from his experience with community hospitals, and Cooper’s ultimate goal of improving access to care.

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Key Takeaways

* Among the “key pillars” of the IT strategy are: strengthening the foundation (particularly in terms of staffing), assessing digital capabilities, and converting to an agile framework.

* One of Cooper’s core objectives is leveraging technology to improve access to care and ensure “people aren’t bouncing around” when they contact the call center.

* Number one lesson learned from Covid-19? “When everybody was focused on one core mission, things happened quickly. Decisions happened quickly.”

* Hufford’s team hopes to flip the traditional IT governance strategy on its axis by assigning project owners and making them responsible for the order in which tasks are done.

Q&A with Dustin Hufford, Part 1

Gamble:  Hi Dustin, thanks so much for taking some time to be with us today. Let’s start with a high-level view of Cooper University Healthcare — where you’re located, what you have in terms of hospitals, things like that.

Cooper:  Sure. Our headquarters are in Camden, N.J, right across the river from Philadelphia, which is also where our hospital is located. We’re an academic tertiary care center with just over 600 beds. We have around 120 ambulatory locations as well. That includes urgent care, laboratory locations, and clinics spread out all over south Jersey. We’re the only Level 1 trauma center for south Jersey, and one of the busiest ones in the region.

Our medical school is partnered with Rowan University. It’s a fairly new arrangement — within the last 10 years. We had our first graduating class a few years ago. We’re really trying to build up our research infrastructure along with that and strengthen our program. It has grown really fast; we have quite a few residents and staff at this point.

 

Gamble:  I can imagine that’s going to be a game-changer once you’re able to get more students and residents into the rotation.

Hufford:  Definitely. We have goals around how many we convert into full-time employees after they’re done with their medical school stint. It’s a good feeder for our programs and for our academic mission. It helps us to be innovative with our clinical delivery.

 

Gamble:  And in terms of clinical applications, you have Epic in the hospitals and clinics?

Hufford:  Correct.