tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4384692836709903146.post6648557198790948669..comments2024-03-18T04:38:01.678-07:00Comments on Dispatch from the Digital Health Frontier: One Degree of Separation John Halamkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04550236129132159307noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4384692836709903146.post-77078899022813679112013-01-22T11:47:53.630-08:002013-01-22T11:47:53.630-08:00John, you are totally correct that all of us who ...John, you are totally correct that all of us who work in healthcare IT are related in this way. I've often marveled at how the annual pilgrimage to HIMSS is a way to meet old friends and see where they work now.<br /><br />Unfortunately, this can also be a two-edged sword, that I've always referred to as the consanguinity in healthcare IT. How often do you hear of hospitals looking for a CIO, programmer, or analyst with the we need a "Insert your vendor here" guy? Siemens shops hire Siemens experienced people; GE shops hire GE experienced people, and Cerner shops hire Cerner experienced people.<br /><br />The other two ways we commonly get new staff? We hire someone straight out of school and teach them our bad habits, or we promote existing user who does a fantastic job during an upgrade/system replacement and we teach them our version of IT.<br /><br />Senior management has to accept the responsibility to look beyond the healthcare community when we can, to make sure we import users with recent exposure to IT best practices, and to otherwise expose our existing staff to opportunities to learn that stretch beyond the healthcare arena.<br /><br />The alternative is just like you expect when there aren't enough branches in the gene pool. We get stupider at a time when we desperately need the infusion of talent and skills.<br />Tom Grovehttp://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=108350598&trk=tab_pronoreply@blogger.com