Banner Health IT rallies to overcome COVID-19 challenges

In early February, Deanna Wise, CIO of Banner Health, had just finished building her senior IT leadership team, when COVID-19 suddenly became a reality. “We were focused on normal things like replacing phone systems and data governance, when all of the sudden we needed to stand up an emergency command center,” says Wise, who became CIO of the 28-hospital healthcare system in January 2019. “If the pandemic had hit six months earlier, when I did not have my team in place, it would have been chaos for me personally.”

So, how does a team that has worked together for less than a month, quickly become a well-oiled machine? “For the first time in my career, my team and I could rally around one singular purpose,” says Wise. “Since I joined Banner Health, we were working on the patient experience and improving our EMR system, but those priorities were not as streamlined and urgent as managing through a crisis.”

To read this article in full, please click here