By: Valarie Merced, PMP, AVP of Communications
PMI Atlanta launched its Healthcare IT (HIT) Forum on January 9, just in time for the New Year. The inaugural speaker for the forum was Lawrence G. Panatera, Vice President and Business Information Officer of Kaiser Permanente Georgia. Mr. Panatera’s topic, “The Individual Value and Benefits of Becoming a Healthcare Project Manager,” included an overview of healthcare, healthcare transformation projects, career skills of a healthcare project manager, and the organizational value of project management.
HIT is about a very noble purpose, said Mr. Panatera during his speech. “What we build allows healthcare professionals to heal people and save their lives.” HIT project management’s role is to figure out how to develop, purchase and implement systems that connect the diverse areas of healthcare to focus as a team on the patient.
Mr. Panatera noted that there has been an ongoing effort for the past few years to integrate and connect the healthcare community. For example, paper records are rapidly being transformed into Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). The amount of investment in transformation projects like mobility, EMRs, Telehealth, and Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), to name a few, is growing at an incredible rate with demand being driven in large part by government regulations.
“There are a few things you must be really good at in HIT,” according to Mr. Panatera. “One is to be an incredible problem solver; the people you are servicing are solving problems for members and patients, and they expect you to solve problems too. Also, you must be able to deal with ambiguity because the healthcare environment is complex; is not as integrated as other industries and is heavily regulated. Finally, you may be interfacing internally at different levels or you could be interfacing externally with a healthcare professional or patient on how use technology, so you must have very good relationship skills as well.”
In terms of organizational value there are certain things that have to happen in HIT more so than other industries, said Mr. Panatera. “The sustainability of what we do is critical,” he said. “We are not making widgets. We have patients that are waiting to see doctors, or are waiting for test results. The data delivered must be accurate and complete. It’s our responsibility to make sure that medical staff and patients have a great experience with what we have built.” He added that the financial return is a little different for HIT than in other industries in that the goal is to increase quality and drive down costs versus increasing profit.
Mr. Panatera also stated that working in HIT has great benefits. “What is really cool is when you walk into the examining room and the doctor is using something you built to make you better. We don’t have to wait for a quarterly report or profit statement to come out; we get almost immediate satisfaction in that we make a difference in people’s lives.”
The Kaiser Permanente executive, who has 30 years of experience in various industries, said that there is a never a dull moment in healthcare. The last eight years working in HIT, said Mr. Panatera, have been the most fun for him. “This is the decade of healthcare and the demand is almost unlimited. If you join the healthcare field; you will have joined an industry that returns great reward and personal satisfaction.”
The launch of the forum was a great success due to the work of Caressa Bell, forum lead, and the Kaiser Permanente team that hosted the initial meeting; Nancy Berlin, PMI Atlanta Operations Manager, and Venkata Pratt, VP of PMI Atlanta Industry Forums.