Why CIOs are optimistic about 2007

CIOs are upbeat about the prospects for IT departments in 2007, according to a recent survey conducted by the Society for Information Management that predicted increased IT budgets and salaries along with new technology deployments.For more information from the survey, see related story. Network World Senior Editor Carolyn Duffy Marsan interviewed Mike Jones, CIO and corporate vice president of Children’s Hospital Health System in Milwaukee, about the survey findings. Jones is vice president of chapter relations for SIM. Here’s what Jones had to say:

The SIM survey overall was optimistic. Do you share that optimism?

Yes. We’ve been pretty stable in terms of the number of employees in IT. This year we’re actually looking for additional resources. Things are picking up for us, and they’re picking up for the other CIOs I talk to. That’s going to drive salaries up.

How many people are in your department?

Our IT shop has 108 people, including telecommunications. That includes applications, help desk, desktop support, network and server support. Last year, we went up by one or two. We’re looking to increase our staff next year. Depending on what gets approved for our budget, we will probably increase our applications staff by four or five people.

How many employees do you support?

We support around 3,500 people. We have two other hospitals within our hospital group. We have 20 physician offices. We have 50-some doctors. And we have a joint business relationship with the Medical College of Wisconsin.

What’s driving the growth in your IT department?

New applications. All of the applications that we have installed now, with the exception of billing and registration, are new. We had a physician order entry system since June 2000, so we were well ahead of the curve in our industry. Ten years ago, when I took this job, we had 14 people in the IT department. Now we have 108 people.

Will your IT budget go up in 2007?

The operating budget will go up 7% to 8%. The capital budget will remain steady.

What about salaries?

We’ve had salary increases of 4% for the last few years. I think it will be the same for the next year. It’s important that we are competitive with salaries. We don’t just compete with other healthcare companies. We compete with everyone else for IT talent.

What are your top IT initiatives for 2007?

Our primary projects are in the clinical area. We have a clinical documentation project. We’re installing a new radiology information system. We’re also working on improving our availability. If the network goes down, the physicians and clinicians need something to go back to because more of our patient information is online. So we are improving our disaster recovery. We’re also in the process of developing a portal for physicians.

Do you have any plans to upgrade your network infrastructure?

We’re replacing the switches. We are increasing speed because we are increasing the number of images transmitted across the organization and external to the organization. We’re constantly reviewing how big our pipes are and how much bandwidth we need. We’re looking into back-up Internet service, but the cost of the operations on an ongoing basis is hard to justify right now.