For healthcare leaders, improving the experience for both patients and providers has become a top priority. Patients want seamless; they want to schedule appointments online and submit medical information through a portal. But no matter how much resources health systems have invested, simply implementing the technology – and training people on how to use it – isn’t enough, said Chris Paravate, CIO at Northeast Georgia Health System.

“If we don’t actually go into the clinic and support the operational flow, we won’t be able to make that connection,” he said in a recent interview. He knows this from experience, which is why one of his most pressing priorities as CIO is to iron out the kinks that exist and create better processes to be able to leverage technology. During the discussion, Paravate spoke with Kate Gamble, Managing Editor, about the importance of ensuring clinical and operational buy-in with digital initiatives; the challenges organizations face in navigating mixed care models; why he believes patient experience doesn’t have to be a “trade-off”; and the one aspect of healthcare he’d like to eliminate.

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Key Takeaways

* As part of its growth strategy, Northeast Georgia Health System is focused on “being deliberate and strategic about understanding what’s happening in the market, how communities are going, and how to be able to support them.”

* Based on their own technical merits, digital tools “are relatively easy to implement. But in their operating domain, they can be pretty disruptive,” which makes buy-in a critical factor.

* “We can implement systems and train people, but if we don’t actually go into the clinic and support the operational flow, even the office managers wouldn’t be able to make that connection.”

* In a mixed model environment where physicians work in clinics and also hold virtual visits, it’s critical for leaders to “sit down and talk through how the day is going to flow and what it looks like.”

* Contrary to popular belief, improving the patient experience doesn’t have to come at the cost of making more work for clinicians of operational staff, Paravate said. “It doesn’t have to be a trade-off.”

Q&A with Chris Paravate, CIO, Northeast Georgia Health System, Part 1

Gamble:  The last time we spoke was before Covid; obviously a lot has changed since then. But first, how long have you been with the organization?

Chris:  It has crept up on me. I’ve been here since 2010, so about 12 years with the organization. I took on the CIO role in 2015. It’s crazy how quickly 8 years has gone by.

 

Gamble:  And you were in the chief applications role before that. That’s definitely not a typical career progression, but I imagine it has benefited you.

Paravate:  I’ve spent a big portion of my career driving projects and implementation. And so, I’ve had opportunities to touch just about every aspect of IT and delivery. I think that predominantly really helped me to get that bird’s eye view of everything that needs to be supported.

 

Gamble:  Right. So, in terms of your biggest priorities, I noticed there’s a lot of growth happening within the organization. Can you talk about what it takes to sustain growth at a healthy rate?

Paravate:  I don’t know what the keys to success are, but I know that growth keeps happening. We’re very fortunate to be in an area of North Georgia that continues to grow. We’ve also been really focused on being very deliberate and strategic about that growth and understanding what’s happening in the...