Today: Why Healthcare CIO Pay is Going Up
Episode 1299th July 2024 • This Week Health: Newsroom • This Week Health
00:00:00 00:09:25

Transcripts

 Today in health, it, the CEO's pay is going up. We're going to talk about that. My name is bill Russell. I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system and creator of this weak health set of channels and events dedicated to transform healthcare. One connection. At a time. Today's show is brought to you by artist site one platform, infinite possibilities for improving healthcare.

Our sites platform unlocks endless ways to relieve tension. Reduce friction. And may clinicians jobs. Easier from telemedicine to virtual nursing and beyond explore the artist side platform. You can check it out today at this week. health.com/artist site. All right. Hey, this story and every new story we covered, you can find on our website this week, health.com/news.

Also, if you get a chance, go ahead and sign up for the daily newsletter. You get about seven of these stories every day that we're collecting from all over the internet. So you don't have to just look at the Becker's stories or just the. Whatever you follow, we gather them from all sorts of from the ends of the internet and bring them together to you. One place for those people who are practitioners in health.

It this week, health.com/news. Alright. Hey. Just want to say thank you again. We raised over $40,000. In the month of June for Alex's lemonade, stand putting us up over $140,000. Towards our goal of $150,000. And we want to thank you for being such a generous community and being a part of that. For this month, the month of July, we are celebrating Sarah Richardson's 50th birthday, and we have a goal to raise another $16,000.

I think 16,000. It's the goal that the team said forward with that. We're asking people to hit our website this week. health.com. And you're going to see the ribbon in the top right hand corner. Go ahead and click on that. We're encouraging people to get $50 each towards her 50th birthday. And if we get enough people we'll get to that 16,000 number.

If you want to become a part of the yellow hat club. You can give $500 and we will send one of our yellow hats out to you and you can show your support that way. Thank you for being a part of that. And one last thing, mentor someone share this podcast with a friend or colleague have discussions around the topics we talk about in.

They can subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. All right. Let's take a look at this new story. It's not surprising to me. In fact, it's that not surprising at all? CEO's pay is going up. This is a broad article it's covered in Becker's, but it was in the wall street journal is where it first appeared.

And let me give you a little bit of the context. CIO pay is on the rise driven by increasing importance of artificial intelligence in tech, in the tech industry. Data from GENCO associates reveals that 7.48% increase in CIO compensation at large enterprises and 9% of midsize enterprises over the past year of mirroring the advance for leaders proficient in AI. With medium. Base salaries now over 220,000 for large enterprises in near 210,000 for mid-size once that's interesting. That they're that close total compensation packages can range between 1.5 million. And 1.8 million. The rise in pay also aligns with more CIO is reporting directly into the CEO, signifying their growing leadership rules within companies.

And again, this is found on Becker's. But the original story I think is wall street journal. And they have a couple of quotes in there. And the wall street journal. Article. Let me tell you why. I don't think this is a surprise. I am in the camp. Let me think about this before I say it. I'm in the camp of believing that the healthcare CIO role is one of the top two or three most important roles at the health system.

When you think about what they oversee and the impact of the things that they touch. And the breadth of the things that they encounter in work with. And the organizational change management that they are responsible for. I would say, one, two or three in the health system. In terms of overall responsibility. And and breadth of knowledge that is required to do the role not that's not even before we get into their importance with regard to laying the foundation for what's next, the future, seeing into the future and understanding how that technology is going to be applied. This doesn't surprise me at all.

Maybe the numbers 1.5 to 1.8 million. In total compensation. That surprises me a little bit. But not really. To be honest with you. If I was still CIO. Where I was at the time. And I think we were on the lower end of the scale based on my interviewing post, that role and what people were offering. The the compensation today for a 16 hospital system would be a total compensation would definitely be over a million. There's no doubt in my mind that it would be over a million.

Cause it wasn't that far from that back in the day, total compensation. Wasn't that far from that back in the day. And the job has gotten harder. It's gotten more complex. There's more dependencies you're responsible for cybersecurity, for risk, for compliance. You have to have a certain amount of financial acumen and a lot of cases, in my case is $250 million budget. That you're overseeing and you're overseeing 800. Direct employees. That that report up through it, not to mention the technology foundation, you have to provide a reliable high-performance efficient systems. You have to have strategic alignment and you're constantly in negotiations with people you're in critical meetings day in and day out.

So those numbers. While hi, I'm sure in some people's minds are not high in my mind in terms of the overall responsibility for the role. And if you compare it to say the CEO role, which is obviously. The most important role in I would say many health systems. I wouldn't say all health systems. But depending on the type of health system and what's actually being done to the CEO. Is a very important role because of the relationships that are required to maintain and the overall direction that they are setting for the organization. Both clinically in from a business in strategic standpoint. And I guess I hedge on that a little bit because just like the CIO, the CEO sometimes you look into an organization and you're like, that role cannot be that important based on. On some of the decisions that are being made or the person that's in that role. And I would say that, you know, There is a I'm probably oversharing on a Monday afternoon recording for a Tuesday morning podcast, but there are obviously good, obviously there's great CEOs.

There are good CEOs and there are. There are some, I wouldn't say that are bad. You don't get to stay in the role if you're bad, but I will say that there are some that are phoning it in. That essentially are just doing the role that the minimum, that the role requires, they're keeping the systems running. And they are, I don't know, taking orders and making things happen.

I don't think this is an order taker role anymore. I think this is a key healthcare leader role. I think you have to really understand the industry that you're operating in. You have to understand the organizational strategies at a deep level. And you have to be able to marry that with the latest technology trends.

And I don't think that's an order taker role. I don't think it's been an order take a role for the better part of a decade, but for those of you who are wondering. We are still thinking it can be, it's not I, and I'm not sure. It is even at the smallest health system. I think this is a role that is required to be front and center, to have great communication skills and be able to help the system adapt technology and move it forward.

So anyway, health system, CIO roles pay is going up. I think the other thing I'm seeing by the way, Just as a side note is CEOs are being given more stuff. We've talked about this in the past. We've had people who have taken on actual service lines, revenue producing service lines within the health system. We have people who are taking on a supply chain, they're just being asked to take on more stuff. Because there's such a huge technology component.

There's an organizational change component. And when they look at it, they're like, man, the CIO is already integrally involved in all of these elements. Let's go ahead and give them operating responsibility for that team. Maybe they can make it operate as well as they do the it organization. And again, I'm not against that. I think we have to be careful not to overextend ourselves.

It's already a very challenging role. Just given the responsibilities that are currently has. Taking on those additional items. Might put it over the edge, but it depends on what your career objectives are. It depends what the organization needs from you at a particular time. I think there are seasons where you can take on those roles. I would be cautious of taking them on. With an indefinite type timeframe, just based on the requirements for the CIO role itself.

Anyway. Wow. I had a lot to say, I guess that's what happens when you go on vacation

all right. And that's all for today.

Don't forget to share this podcast with a friend or colleague. Go ahead and mentor someone. We want to thank our sponsor artist site for investing in our mission to develop the next generation of 📍 health leaders. Check them out at this week. health.com/artist site. Thanks for listening. That's all for now.

Chapters

Video

More from YouTube