2008 CIO Survey Report
Facts, Salaries and Advice from Health Care CIOs
Survey Methodology
- Survey sent to Chief Information Officers
- Conducted December 2008
- Randomly selected and geographically dispersed sample group
- A total of 75 CIOs participated in the survey
Titles Represented
- 48% Vice President/Chief Information Officers
- 35% Chief Information Officers
- 14% Senior Vice President/Chief Information Officers
- 3% Directors of Information Systems
- One Executive Vice President/Chief Information Officer
How many times have you been CIO?
Years in Current CIO Position
CIO Education
72% have BS, BA or BBA degree; 4% have Associate degrees
Advanced degrees include:
- 33% have MS or MA
- 31% with MBA
- 9% with MHA
- 3% with PhDs
- 3% with MPA or MPH
- One M.D., one R.N., one MS of Health Informatics
Survey Responses by Region
- West South Central (AR, LA, OK, TX)
- West North Central (IA, IL, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD)
- South Atlantic (DC, DE, FL, GA, MD, NC, SC, VA, WV)
- Pacific (AK, CA, HI, OR, WA)
- New England (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT)
- Mountain (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, UT, WY)
- Middle Atlantic (NJ, NY, PA)
- East South Central (AL, KY, MS, TN)
- East North Central (Il, IN, MI, OH, WI)
Organization Type
- 46% of the CIOs surveyed are in Integrated Delivery Systems with two or more acute care hospitals
- 37% are in a single hospital system
- 9% are at an academic medical center
- 5% are at children's hospitals
- 3% are at rehabilitation health systems
Bed Size Represented
Number of IT Staff
CIOs Reporting Relationships
Average Base Salaries
Overall CIO average base salary for all regions is $204,539
Other Departments Reporting to the CIO
- Telecommunications
- Health Information
- Biomedical
- Ancilliary
- Other
- Management
- Engineering
Do you have a Successor in Place?
Does your organization have a Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO)?
To whom does the CMIO report?
Information Technology Hiring Activity
Participating CIOs hired the following IT leaders in 2008:
- 58% Clinical IT or Clinical Informatics
- 34% Project Management
- 32% Technical
- 16% Client/Customer Service
- 14% Financial Application
- 13% Ambulatory, Operations and Security
- 8% Medical Informatics
Top Technology Priorities in 2009
Top five information technology priorities for 2009:
- 79% quality, patient safety, and process improvement
- 78% EMR/CPOE initiatives
- 45% clinical transformation
- 27% budget cuts
- 31% increased ROI
Other priorities include: information sharing, revenue cycle systems, ERP, infrastructure builds, physician office integration, telemedicine
Biggest Barriers to Success in Role as CIO
- Politics, lack of involvement in strategic planning, ROI demonstration
- Vendor product delivery/expectations not met due to performance and development plan issues
- Insufficient staffing
- Ability to operationalize gains afforded by technology
- Reporting to an executive that is not pro-technology
- Hospital and industry financial constraints
CIOs' Proudest Accomplishments
Many CIOs mentioned EMR and clinical systems implementation as key accomplishments. Other specific mentions included:
- Leading a major change in new infrastructure that brought the organization to a new level of technology use
- Development of a productive working environment between the EMR vendor, school of medicine, medical staff, nursing and administration
- Over 135 physicians selecting to use electronic documentation system to complete daily work
- Leaving an IT department much better than when I arrived
Advice on How to Succeed as a CIO
- Devote yourself to continuous learning, education of your constituents and development of your staff. Technical issues are the least of your worries
- Get into clinical work. Understand what it takes physicians and nurses to do the work that they do
- Think like a doctor. Think like a nurse
Summary and Conclusions
- More than 40% of CIOs are in their first CIO role
- 33% have an MS/MA and 31% have an MBA degree
- 46% are in Integrated Delivery Systems with two or more hospitals
- 46% are in 500+ bed systems and 21% are in 1000+ bed systems
- 64% manage 100 or less and 36% manage 100 to 550 employees
- 59% report to the CEO, 19% report to the CFO and 11% to COO
- Almost 60% have a #2 or successor in place
- Average base salary nationwide is $204,439. Mountain region has highest average of $256,667
- 2009 Hiring: strong in clinical IT and informatics
- Barriers to success: budget, staff, understanding and acceptance of important role of IT
- Key accomplishments: EMR and CPOE implementations
- Advice for success: learn clinical work, align IT with the business goals, be a mentor, build right team, have fun
For additional information regarding the survey, please contact Lois Dister.