The passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act motivated many of us in Healthcare IT to read more policy material and struggle through more legislative documentation than we ever dreamed we would. These tasks are very daunting, to say the least. However, we must plow through, as the onus is on us to make sense of it all and help enable our employees and customers to achieve the goals associated with this influx of money and attention on healthcare IT. One way for us to do this is to be a HIMSS advocate. Legislatures depend on advocates to be their content experts. Being an advocate is one way to participate in the legislative process. Senator Karen Gilmor described to us that being a senator was like being a graduate student; you have to know a little about everything. Advocates help her understand the nuances of a particular subject enough to make a determination of how a particular piece of proposed legislation will affect her constituency. Keeping our legislators focused on the task of transforming Healthcare IT is exactly what HIMSS Advocates are tasked with.
I attended the first HIMSS Advocacy Day three years ago in Ohio. I found the experience to be very rewarding and much less intimidating than I expected. My interactions with senators and representatives showed me that they were ordinary people just like you and I. In fact, I discovered that my high school chemistry teacher had become a senator, which, if you had ever taken his classes would seem most remarkable – if not impossible. But, I digress.
This year, I attended the third annual State of Ohio HIMSS Advocacy Day. Over 60 healthcare IT professionals from all over the state of Ohio “marched” on the State House in Columbus, Ohio on April 29th. Members of this group met with nearly 85% of the senators and over 25% of the house representatives. Advocacy Day activities started with Advocacy Day Training provided by HIMSS Advocacy chair Beverly Bell and Tom Leary, Senior Director of Federal Affairs for HIMSS. Aside from understanding the action items or “asks”, all you need to be a good advocate is passion and the ability to talk about your subject. When the training was finished I knew I was perfect for the job, excitable to the edge of obnoxious and with the ability to talk about my passion!
The goal of each meeting was to educate our legislators about the mission of HIMSS and discuss three Ohio legislative Action Items. The first Action Item focused on support for health IT funding in future budgets even though budget deficit conditions need to be resolved. The second item was to request support policies aimed at increasing the exchange of health information in Ohio that is consistent with national standards. The last item was to encourage regular contact between legislators and HIMSS member constituents to discuss Healthcare Information Technology policy changes as they are considered by the legislature.
After the meetings, a lunch was held in the State House atrium. Amy McGee, Interim Director of the Health and Human Services Policy, Executive Office provided the opening remarks and Senator Karen L. Gillmor, Vice Chair of the Ohio Senate Committee on Health, Human Services and Aging thanked us for the opportunity to reach out to a new resource pool of expertise. Next, Amy Andres, Chairperson of the Board, Ohio Department of Insurance took us through the plans for allocating Ohio’s $14M ARRA Grant. Ohio received the most of any State in ARRA grant awards.
Ms. Andres discussed the current proposed Meaningful Use Criteria, Ohio’s plan and her own daunting task as head of 7 Regional Extension Centers or REC. She made a point of noting that this acronym should be pronounced as R-E-C and not REC for fear of a negative connotation of a “wreck.” I spoke with Ms. Andres after her presentation and asked what message she would prefer to have repeated from her presentation. She asked me to share and emphasize with you the need for engaging people during these next few years of putting EMRs into practice (pun intended). Technology is good, but we need people with relationship skills to make the most of the technology - to change workflow for the better.
Tom Leary, Senior Director, Federal Affairs for HIMSS provided us with an in depth look at HIMSS as an organization, at the ARRA legislation, and the HIMSS Principles on Government Initiatives. Afterward, I asked Tom to give me his feedback on the day and he said “having been involved in the first Advocacy Day 2 years ago, there has been a 3-fold increase in participation and a 100-fold increase in enthusiasm. Ohio HIMSS members are truly energized subject matter experts!“
Later in the afternoon, we were privileged to participate in a CIO roundtable with Marcus Bost, CIO of Adena Health, Mark Harvey CIO of Holzer Clinic and Mikki Clancy, CIO from Premier Health Partner to talk about their experinences implementing an EMR and how they will achieve meaningful use. Each organization had a different profile. Adena is a community hospital in rural Ohio. Holzer Clinic is a large physician group. PHP is a large suburban health network, shared its experiences of implementing an EMR and how they plan to achieve meaningful use. After the panel, I spoke with Marcus and asked him to comment on the day. Here’s what he shared with me; “In short the event was an exceptional opportunity to meet with state officials and to network with IT peers. The official interactions were different this year as legislators were asking questions versus us running through our thoughts.”
The day ended with a networking reception that was also hosted in the State House atrium. All attendees, senators, representatives and their respective staffs were invited. The hot topic of discussion was the eerie woman dressed in an 1800's black dress floating through the statehouse that day portraying the mourning Mary Todd Lincoln. The lady, who was part of the reenactment of President Lincoln lying in state made, made quite an impression. But again, I digress;. It was a great opportunity to participate in the legislative process, hear from industry experts and leaders and to network among peers. As a HIMSS advocate I am excited about the upcoming Policy Summit in Washington, DC in June. Take a look at the HIMSS advocacy website http://www.himss.org/advocacy/ and start advocating in your state!