The role of a chief information officer (CIO) is crucial for many organizations. In healthcare, a sphere that is constantly changing and stays vital for society at any time, CIOs must not only adapt to transitions but ensure that technology and information processes benefit the patient and health care providers. CIOs have “a senior strategic role, usually at executive level, regarding things such as the purchase of IT equipment, decisions on systems and delivery of the overall ICT strategy” (Sridharan et al., 2018, p. 89). This paper presents an evaluation and comparison of two interviews conducted with CIOs of two health organizations and an analysis of their job perceptions.
Duties and Responsibilities of CIOs
For this paper, two CIOs were interviewed: AA and BB. For AA, the main duties that he has identified are organizing information systems, developing strategy and policies concerning technology, and supervising the work of different departments (telecommunications). BB, in addition to these responsibilities, mentioned handling data processing and ensuring security and confidentiality.
Required Skills and Competencies of CIOs
The set of skills and competencies required from a CIO for both AA and BB are quite similar as they reflect the correlating duties and responsibilities. They named such skills as strategic planning and thinking, project management skills, decision-making, leadership, and effective communication skills. Moreover, both of them named two key competencies necessary for a CIO in healthcare: strong IT skills and understanding of health care specifics.
Reporting and Decision Making
Both CIOs admitted that they report to chief executive officers who are responsible for the majority of processes. Such a direct point of contact with a CEO is quite satisfactory for both interviewees. Although, interviewee AA expressed the complications of being a direct subordinate to the COO. However, both admitted that the decision-making process could be less complicated as sometimes it is difficult to convey their ideas. The reason for this is that both CIOs feel that while information and digital processes are becoming more significant for health care organizations, the role of the department responsible for them is not always fully acknowledged.
Challenges for the Future
Upon asking about challenges for the next five years, both CIOs admitted that it is quite difficult to predict the future with new technologies developing and emerging every day. However, both of them noted two main areas to which special attention should be paid – artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. They are also expecting to constantly propose new ways of running the hospital: from self-service to data handling. Moreover, one of the challenges is to ensure better communication between technology departments and the rest of hospitals. In accordance with general trends presented in the media, both CIOs strive for IT departments to get a more strategic position so that innovation becomes a core principle for the whole process of health facility management (Chou, 2019).
Recommendations
With changes happening in healthcare and with a rapid development of innovations, it is important to focus on innovation and processes that would ensure the integration of innovations and new technologies into everyday activities of healthcare facilities. For CIOs, it means that they need to constantly follow trends, learn about new technologies, and embrace new trends. Creating alliances of IT executives in healthcare would help coordinate the assessment and implementation of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity initiatives into hospitals’ operations. Such alliances could organize academic events, with presentations from researchers and healthcare practitioners. As some researchers suggest, it might be effective to create a position of Chief Digital Officer as it will allow to share the workload and CIOs will retain their strategic duties (Haffke et al., 2016). Such a position would contribute to the administrative solutions proposed by CIOs (data coordination, self-service, etc.) and serve as an opportunity for IT departments to get representation among hospital executives.
Conclusion
This paper provided a brief overview of two interviews conducted in order to analyze the current role of CIOs in health care institutions. Based on observations, it is possible to make a conclusion that the current situation is posing similar challenges for all health care institutions and their IT departments. These conclusions and proposed recommendations will hopefully be useful for the further research on the role of CIOs in healthcare system structure and the ways of its development.
References
Chou, D. (2019). The healthcare CIO’s role in strategy. Constellation Research Blog. Web.
Haffke, I., Kalgovas, B., & Benlian, A. (2016). The role of the CIO and the CDO in an organization’s digital transformation. ICIS Proceeedings, 1, 1-20.
Sridharan, S., Priestman, W., & Sebire, N. J. (2018). Chief information officer team evolution in university hospitals: Interaction of the tree ‘C’s (CIO, CCIO, CRIO). Journal of Innovation in Health Informatics, 25(2), 88-91.
Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory Overview
Cultural dimensions theory of Geert Hofstede, a Dutch social psychologist, is widely accepted worldwide and used for modeling cross-cultural communication. Hofstede introduced several criteria for the assessment of the culture, which enables successful intercultural communication. This analysis will examine the five criteria of evaluation of the culture. At the end of the paper, a brief critical note will be made, considering the advantages and probable shortcomings of the theory.
The first criterion for culture evaluation is Power Distance, which describes the level of public acceptance of the distance between the authorities and the subordinate social members. Also, it considers the approval of the inequality of power distribution within society. This dimension evaluates, what is the perception of the power difference, i.e., how people look at power rather then what is the reality of power relations in society.
Hofstede formulated the second characteristic as “collectivism versus individualism,” it is also defined as Group Attachment. It seeks to analyze the average society member in the regard of his attachment to certain social groups, or an absence of it. All members of human society, non-regardless to culture, carry the quality of being “social animal.” However, this criterion aims to evaluate to which extent the average individual in a culture feels connected with the group, or instead has self-perception of a detached unit.
The third dimension is Gender Association, which relates to the presence in the cultural “collective unconscious” of particular traits attributable to either masculine or feminine gender. The masculine type of culture is characterized by goal-orientedness, while the feminine tends to cultivate person-orientedness. The masculine qualities may reflect in the system of values: thus, competitiveness is a feature of masculine culture, while concentrating on the human qualities is a sign of “feminine” society.
The fourth value dimension, Uncertainty Avoidance, depicts the level of acceptance of unpredictable factors and influences on the society and its members, and psychological preparedness for them. The cultures of low uncertainty avoidance prefer to build strict rules of behavior, as well as use laws and political control to reduce uncertainty (Pearson, 2019). In contrast to it, those cultures having a high marker of uncertainty avoidance are open for the changing circumstances.
Time Orientation, which is the fifth value dimension, illustrates the perception of the culture’s average members of the past, present, and future. As Hofstede states, time orientation may be either short or long. As Beugelsdijk and Welzel argue, the former is “characterized by a ‘here and now’ mentality,” and the latter by “strong perseverance and thrift” (2018, p. 1473). The second type is also connected with developing planning skills and pragmatism.
To conclude, Hofstede’s system for culture evaluation considers the culture in general, omitting culture minorities and extremes of individual perceptions. His research was based on the particular focus group rather than provided a complete investigation of the communities in their diversity. However, the theory has its distinct advantages, which has been proven by its acceptance worldwide.
References
Beugelsdijk, S., & Welzel, C. (2018). Dimensions and Dynamics of National Culture: Synthesizing Hofstede With Inglehart. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 49(10), 1469–1505.
Robbins, S. P, & Judge, T. A. (2019). Organizational behavior (16th ed.). Pearson.
Essay Voice-over
The Role Of Nursing Code Of Ethics
A nurse’s actions should always be guided by the Nursing Code of Ethics. However, one of the situations related to this code that can be observed in the future is associated with misinterpreting the role of nurses in relationships with patients. Nurses are expected to focus on people’s values, culture, religion, and other individual qualities and build relations based on trust, respecting individuals’ decisions (American Nurses Association, 2015). Thus, a specific situation can be observed when a patient, depending on religious and cultural views, can reject the proposed treatment plan that is necessary to overcome a disease. This patient can expect that a nurse will follow this individual position based on personal beliefs. Still, a nurse’s ethical task is to respect a patient’s decision but to avoid risky choices and behaviors.
According to Provision 1 and the subsection titled “1.2. Relationships with Patients,” nurses should provide bias-free care and demonstrate respect for a patient as an individual with the right to decisions when promoting their health. However, this statement does not mean that a nurse should agree with all the decisions made by patients. The key focus is on promoting a patient’s health by respecting their cultural background and personal traits, but without supporting risky decisions (American Nurses Association, 2015). As a result, to avoid misinterpretations of this provision, nurses need to offer their patients alternatives and opportunities to receive quality treatment without violating their beliefs. In the discussed situation, a nurse will not accept the fact that the patient rejects treatment but propose all the possible treatment opportunities that are acceptable in the context of the patient’s culture and religion. In this case, the patient’s health will be prioritized, and quality relationships with individuals will be established.
Reference
American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. NursingWorld.org. Web.