10705 Old Squaws Ln. - Chesterfield, VA 23838
Jan. 2022 – Dec. 2022
Interim CIO
For all of 2022 was engaged by the new CEO as an interim CIO for a small community hospital in Massachusetts.
Nov. 2017 - Present
Advisor
Part of a small boutique consulting firm focused on C-Suite advisory services, interim management and CIO leadership support. The firm is led by healthcare IT luminaries, David Muntz and Sue Schade and comprised of highly experienced former CIOs, CMIOs, CTOs, CISOs and CNIOs. Have provided a comprehensive IT and Cerner project assessment and advisory services to a medium sized health system in the northeast, at the request of the CEO and in collaboration with an overall system improvement effort by Kaufman Hall. This was an 8 month engagement with a focus on improved governance and strategic planning.
In December 2005, Rich Pollack became the Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Virginia Commonwealth University Health System in Richmond, VA. A large academic medical center consisting of 900 beds, over 100 specialty clinics with 650K patient visits, Level 1 Trauma ED, and 200K members in a Medicaid HMO. For two years prior he was the Chief Information Officer (ad interim) for Clarian Health Partners, a $2 billion health system in Indianapolis, IN.
At VCU Health, Rich set the vision for IT, then authored and executed effective strategic and tactical plans that defined the best practice use of IT to support patient care and operational excellence. Rich’s 200-person IT shop included a mature PMO with a complementary Clinical Transformation Office. During his tenure, he successfully implemented Lawson ERP, GE revenue cycle, and Cerner EMR across all venues at all levels. He led the deployment of advanced technology in the 15-story Critical Care Hospital. He also advanced the organization’s analytics capabilities and data governance efforts. Partners in the pursuit of “High Reliability” in healthcare, he and his team helped VCU Health achieve national recognition including but not limited to the 2015 McKesson Quest for Quality, CIO Magazine’s 2008 CIO100 award, Information Management’s top 25 in IT, and HIMSS’ EMRAM Stage 6 designation and HIMSS Davies award in 2017 for EMR excellence.
From 1999 until late 2003, he was the VP & CIO at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (MDA) in Houston, Texas. In this capacity, Rich oversaw a 600-person Information Services organization with project budgets more than $100 million. IS at MDA supported all clinical, academic, research and administrative functions. Starting at MDA in June 1999 as Associate Vice President for Enterprise Applications, Rich was promoted to CIO 16 months later.
Rich has more than 40 years of health care management experience, 25 of which were working with clinical systems implementation and support. Prior to moving to Houston, Rich served as Director of Information Systems for Nash Health Care Systems in Rocky Mountain, NC. In 1996 Rich and his Nash team successfully implemented a computer-based patient record system for the 450-bed, multi-hospital organization which received special commendation as best industry-practice from JCAHO.
Rich holds a B.A. in Biology, an M.S. degree in medical biology and certificates in Healthcare Management from the University of Texas and Harvard School of Public Health. He is a fellow of HIMSS, CPHIMSS certified, a fellow of CHIME, and CHCIO certified.
