Best Hospital IT 2016: #5 Small Hospital

Torrance Memorial Health System, California
IT Staff: 8
Overall Score: 70.93%

IT’s importance to healthcare has grown to become a central department in healthcare over the last decade. And with that enhanced profile comes greater responsibility and accountability to the organization – a development well known to Barry Sheppard, senior director of information systems at Torrance (Calif.) Memorial Health System.

By marshalling an “esprit de corps” among the workers in his department, IT has become an indispensable resource for everyone in the health system, he said.

“The onset of electronic health records into the healthcare industry has been a pain point for all stakeholders involved and our biggest overall management challenge has been to manage provider expectations,” Sheppard said. “We try to manage these expectations through a Physician Champion Committee that teams with Operations and IT staff to determine network initiatives and work as a team on implementation. Our priority is to work with our physician champions proactively to make our system the best for our network.” Security is paramount for Sheppard’s team as they strive to protect personal health information while offering timely access to data for clinicians and patients.

“Our payoff is keeping a collaborative relationship with our physicians and end users, as well as improving patient care through the deployment of technology,” he said.

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As part of an accountable care organization (ACO), the IT crew has been instrumental in instituting the procedures and protocols necessary for the health network, forging internal and external coalitions toward a goal of efficient patient care, Sheppard said.

“Our organization has created a Quality department aimed at educating and training of staff to meet and support providers and the metrics defined by stakeholders,” he said. “We have also deployed ‘health coaches’ in the offices in an effort to support providers in providing excellence in patient care services for all of our patients.”

The rapid advancement of technology has caused a whirlwind atmosphere with the Torrance IT department and Sheppard is proud of the team’s diligence and progress in delivering necessary services when and where they are needed. “The last five years have truly been a demanding time for healthcare IT personnel and end users,” he said. “Changes have come at a very fast pace, from fast-tracking our physicians and other healthcare providers on the EHR to attesting for value-based medicine programs to ICD-10 deployment to continuous system upgrades to meet government regulation. All of this was balanced with multiple upgrades to meet regulatory demands and hopefully improve the user experience.”

Workplace culture was one of 87 questions senior executives (CIO, CMIOs, etc.), directors of IT, clinical and systems analysts, technicians, help desk staff and others responded to on our survey.

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