At any given moment, technology lives with us. No longer just a part of work or play, it is fundamentally now the lifestyle expectation for everyone.
Just ask the 324 Baptist technical team members who are now part of the newly named Baptist Technology Services (BTS), led by Beverly Jordan, vice president/chief information and transformation officer. With 4,127 years of combined service, these groups are the technical brains behind Baptist.
In the last year, Baptist technology teams have reorganized in step with the new Health Information Technology (HIT) field, which resulted from the electronic health records mandate and the massive Affordable Care Act (ACA). As the main Baptist groups (Information Technology, formerly known as “IS”; Nursing and Pharmacy Informatics; Baptist OneCare; and Baptist Medical Group IT) encountered, the need for shared project management and collaboration became vital to the organization.
“We’re now under one big umbrella. Everything is integrated and our technology is working together for one solution,” said Jordan.
While to the typical lay person technology may simply mean…technology…to these groups, which evolved from different histories and functions, learning to self-identify started simply with a name.
“The team came up with the name,” said Jordan.
And that’s just the start. Baptist Technology Services will soon tell their whole story in a regular Leader column called “Tech Spot.”
“These people are highly skilled and dedicated to the Baptist mission. Their work influences staff, patients and the community. We like to say we serve those who serve the patient,” Jordan explained.
The emerging field of Health Information Technology is just as much about technology as it is people, if not more so in health care. With words like telemedicine, digital doctors, and e-visits now part of the vocabulary, it’s clear there is no turning back. And Jordan and her group have only the future in their sights. “Tech Spot will be the chance to tell the Baptist technology story on a regular basis,” she said.
With the tagline, “Where Care Meets Technology,” BTS intends to help everyone understand technology’s daily influence.
“These groups really have a heart for the work we do, and while we’re not in a clinical setting, our work is still closely tied to the patient,” said Jordan.