Texas Healthcare Information Technology Day

 At a couple of minutes before six a.m. on Jan. 26, I left my room at the Sheraton Austin Hotel at the Capitol and made my way to the hotel restaurant.  There, I had the pleasure to meet with about 30 fellow HIMSS members from the four HIMSS chapters in Texas.  This meeting was the final strategy session before we made our way to the Texas capitol building.  Once there, we started meetings with the elected members of the Texas Legislature who were in Austin for their biannual 140-day session.

Discussing the benefits of health IT, members of the four HIMSS Texas chapters take time for a photo during their visits in January 2011 to the Texas legislature in Austin.

By the time the Texas Healthcare Information Technology Forum started at 1 p.m., health IT advocates had visited 100 offices of Texas state legislators out of a possible 181 offices.  This was a truly an amazing accomplishment.  This was twice the amount of legislative visits held during the last session in 2009. 

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive from the elected officials and their staffs.  According to many folks I spoke to throughout the day about the meetings, not only was health IT a hot topic this session, but many of the legislators were happy to know HIMSS members and their partner organizations were the subject matter experts about  health IT issues and they were available to legislators and staff to help educate them about the issue.

I was able to visit four state legislators’ offices with Texas HIMSS members who are very articulate and passionate about the need for health IT.  My first visit was to the office of Representative Allan Ritter.  I went with Sharon Davis, the former president of the Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter, who also serves as one of the vice chairs of HIMSS Chapter Advocate Roundtable.  Representative Ritter was not available, but we did have the opportunity to meet with his legislative aide, Peter Salatich, who was very interested in health IT and shared a personal story about a family member and the need for electronic records.   

My next visit with Sharon was to the office of Representative Beverly Woolley, where we met with her aide Amy Rister. While we were chatting with Amy, Representative Woolley came in and spent some time with us.  As they were speaking, Sharon delivered the message that HIMSS members were in the state capitol to let the representatives know HIMSS members are a resource if they need information about health IT issues.  Sharon also invited Representative Woolley and Amy to attend the Texas Healthcare Information Technology Forum later in the day.

For my next meeting, I accompanied Dr. Archie Alexander to the office of Lon Burnam.  Representative Burnam represents the 90th District in the Forth Worth area.  At that office, we spoke with his legislative aide Jaime Rivera, who was very engaging with Dr. Alexander and was able to get many of his questions about privacy and security answered by one of the country’s most knowledgeable experts on the issue, Dr Alexander serves as the chair of the HIMSS Task Force on Privacy & Security.

My final meeting of the day, I had the pleasure of accompanying HIMSS member and former president of the Austin chapter Jeff Nordyke to the office of Dan Flynn. We chatted with Representative Flynn, and Jeff delivered the message about HIMSS members being the SMEs about  health IT and offered those services to the representative.   Jeff also invited Flynn to the forum later in the day

During the afternoon of the Texas Health IT Day activities, I attended the Texas Healthcare Information Technology Forum.   The forum was very successful, with Rep. Lois Kolkhorst receiving the first “Texas Healthcare IT Leader” award. Close to 300 guests (including some legislative staffers) enjoyed all or part of a fast-paced, high-energy program covering a wide range of health IT topics. I was the last speaker on the program and gave an update on the visits that had taken place on our visits to the legislative offices. 

This also gave me the opportunity to present Sharon Davis, the HIMSS Presidential Advocacy Award.  Presidential-level recognition demonstrates the highest tier of relationship-building legislative activity at a HIMSS chapter.  I had the honor of presenting this award to Sharon and recognizing her volunteer efforts over an extended period of advancing health IT issues.

Following the forum, the chapter held a reception at the Sheraton where my day had started 12 hours before. The reception was a great networking event, with well over 100 in attendance.  Overall, it was a great day for healthcare IT in Texas and the nation.  The day was a huge success with a lot of information shared with state legislators, their aides and many of the people who not only presented at the forum, but those also in attendance.

So much as already been accomplished in Texas and “change” is a word that has definitely taken on new meaning over the past couple of years when it is applied to health information technology.  My compliments to all the people in Texas who helped organize and coordinate the Texas Healthcare Information Technology Day as well as the presenters at the forum.

Special thanks to Sharon Davis, Archie Alexander and Jeff Nordyke for their wonderful hospitality and letting me tag along during their meeting to the legislative offices.  To borrow a term from my son who is a junior at James Madison University in Virginia, “You Rock!”