Professional Experience

Sturdy Memorial Health System

Interim CIO

Jan. 2022 – Dec. 2022

For all of 2022 was engaged by the new CEO as an interim CIO for a small community hospital in Massachusetts.

• Was instrumental in sourcing out their Help Desk, integration support and some cyber security function to accomplished 3rd party providers.
• Established their first Project Management Office and recruited effective PMs.
• Supported the CMIO in efforts to consolidate informatics talent into a dedicated team (Office of Clinical Transformation).
• Significantly improved the working relationship with the EMR vendor, resulting in Significant and Measurable improvements in Revenue Cycle KPIs and resolution of long-standing issues.
• Oversaw remedial provider training that resulted in greater satisfaction and efficiency around the EMR.
• Focused on major improvements to the IT Governance processes and project intake, adhering to industry best practice.
• Established first set of IT standards.
• Oversaw dramatic improvement in and recovery from prior Cybersecurity breech. Crafted improved executive communication around same.

Virginia Commonwealth University Health System

Vice President, Chief Information Officer

Richmond, VA | 2005 - 2017

VCU Health is Central Virginia’s Academic Medical Center and is a $2.7B Health System, 845 bed Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, Children’s Hospital of Richmond, Community Memorial, 750-physician practice plan, 100+ primary care and specialty clinics and 180K person Medicaid HMO, 11000 VCUHS Employees 200+ IT Employees.

Accomplishments

• Phase 1 and 2 Meaningful Use incentives ($28M), while laying the foundation for Phases 3.
• Complete Cerner EMR implementation across 3 hospitals and all 100 plus ambulatory clinics.
• Successful implementation of the Cerner EMR with 100% CPOE and 100% physician documentation.
• Development of a unique clinical transformation organization under the CMIO.
• Establishment of a PMO with effective portfolio management.
• Deployment of a robust wireless infrastructure throughout the hospital and clinics (3 million sqft)
• Implementation and integration of a system-wide financial system (GE/IDX) and ERP system (Lawson).
• Contributing to highly successful JCAHO accreditations leveraging EMR dashboards for patient safety.
• Development of a new digital 15 story acute care tower utilizing layers of technology. Ubiquitous wireless, bedside device integration, mobile access, advanced beds.
• A new new multi-year EMR roadmap focused on optimization and 2nd order effects from the EMR.
• Successful deployment of “Network as a Service” part of a future IaaS strategy
• Dramatic advancement of the organizations analytics capabilities and data governance efforts with direct feed from the EMR, including an advanced analytics operation within the Medicaid HMO.

Recent focus has been:

1. Developing strategy and RFP for a Research EDW linked to our Operational EDW.
2. Reaching for HIMSS Level 7 for our EMR, tightly contributing to a higher bar on all Patient safety efforts.
3. Developing a strategic partnership with the EMR vendor for use of advanced population health functions, while also growing our core analytics capability

The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

VP and Chief Information Officer

Houston, TX | 1999 - 2003

Recognized as the world’s largest and foremost cancer center, responsible for visioning, direction and oversight of all aspects of IT. This included telecom, networks, data-center, servers, desktop assets and support, email, Internet services, information security and applications.

Presided over a period of unprecedented growth for the IS Division. Achieved national recognition in the “100 Most Wired” hospitals for 2003.

• Replacing dozens of departmental legacy systems.
• Two major ERP implementations completed.
• Conversion of 25 years of multi-generational lab data into a single repository.
• A $70M CPR project involving the first ever integrated CPOE for chemotherapy.
• An innovative Internet strategy garnered national recognition for the $150M self-referred patient revenue that resulted.
• A highly successful web services based physician results viewing portal was developed and deployed throughout the Institution.
• A highly evolved DR/BCP program enabled us to be the one healthcare institution in Houston whose IS and telecom systems were unaffected during the great flood in June 2000.
• Successfully implemented a new Anatomic Pathology system in the Lab resulted in capture of >$2M of additional annual charges and 20% reduction in billing lag time.
• Deployed a layered approach to IT security, avoiding many of the major virus attacks that crippled other health care and Univ. of Texas institutions in that time period

Associate VP - Enterprise Applications,

1999 - 2001

Senior information executive responsible for institution wide clinical, administrative, research and academic software systems and services, including all aspects of operations, support, implementations and planning. Responsible for 150 staff working on 46 ongoing projects representing an annual $38 million in capital investment.

• Development of an interactive database to track and report $250M of grants and contracts used for research funding.
• Selection and pilot implementation of a unique inpatient/ambulatory, oncology-focused computer-based patient record.
• Achieved 100% compliance with online physician use and sign off, on web based tool for processing all dictation.
• Implemented automated systems for operative, intra-operative, anesthetic, and critical care documentation.
• Accepted responsibility for all HR applications, including a $24 million re-install of PeopleSoft that resulted in re-engineering of payroll and benefit processes.
• Developed an innovative 200-hour in-house training program in project management for all 24 project leads.

Management Systems Associates

Clinical Support Manager

Raleigh, NC | 1990 - 1991

Responsible for all post- installation clinical activities at over 25 hospitals using MSA's order entry, pharmacy, radiology, and nursing ancillary systems. Responsible for software upgrades, enhancements, troubleshooting and interfaces to foreign systems.

Clinical Installation Specialist

1988 - 1990

Installed six radiology management systems and two O.E./results reporting systems. Actively involved in product development of PC- based results reporting system and radiology product, including specification development and RFP responses.

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Richard Pollack | Strategic Healthcare Consulting