CHIME Announces New CEO Leadership Role

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) will create a new strategic leadership role to guide the organization’s future growth. The relevance of HIT to every aspect of our industry is now unsurpassed, creating the nexus for CHIME to advance its mission, improve its organizational strength, and continue to have a policy leadership role. 

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has come to rely on CHIME CIOs as a “trusted source” of information and education as they implement the meaningful use of HIT under the HITECH Act and The Federal Health IT Strategic Plan.

“Based on the unprecedented need for HIT in supporting the transformation of healthcare delivery and payment reform, the current CHIME board of dDirectors is pursuing the addition of a new CIO leadership role” said Drex DeFord, chair of CHIME’s board of trustees.  This new position will be named president and CEO for CHIME, the CHIME Foundation, and the CHIME Education Foundation.

The new president and CEO will be an experienced healthcare chief information officer (CIO). This individual will serve as ambassador for the CHIME organization and the HIT industry by speaking, writing, and prominently attending major functions to continually elevate CHIME’s national position as a formidable health industry association that leads the national transformation for HIT. 

This position will provide strategic leadership for the CHIME organization and will work in concert with Rich Correll and the CHIME Board of Trustees to ensure consistency and focus as board members change.

“Rich has been critically important  in providing the vision and growth for the CHIME organization over the past 20 years, and he will continue to provide leadership to the CHIME staff and the organization as CHIME’s chief operating officer” said DeFord.

Says Correll, “The board worked with me in this decision, which I wholeheartedly supported.  With the tremendous attention now on HIT, it is certain to be timely and beneficial for CHIME to add an experienced CIO to serve in the role of CHIME’s ambassador to the healthcare industry. As CHIME has grown in size, the operational management function has also grown, and I will be pleased to focus my attention in that area and to work with our staff in harnessing operations in support of the direction taken by the new CEO and the board.

The CHIME board will begin a national search immediately with the goal of introducing the new president and CEO during the CHIME/HIMSS CIO Forum in March. 

Source: College of Healthcare Information Management Executives