We talk to Baptist Health Arkansas ’ s dynamic CIO , Michael Elley , about cloudenabled IT transformation and the future of clinical practice through ML
BAPTIST HEALTH OF ARKANSAS
We talk to Baptist Health Arkansas ’ s dynamic CIO , Michael Elley , about cloudenabled IT transformation and the future of clinical practice through ML
With a full century of history behind it , Baptist Health has shown that its founding principles are enduring ones . A faithbased healthcare system – as implied by its name – it has expanded from a single hospital to eleven , serving Arkansas ' population of more than 4 million while increasing care coverage into eastern Oklahoma .
Innovative leadership has helped Baptist Health to grow , becoming not only the first healthcare system in Arkansas , but the first to attempt open heart surgery , the first to perform a heart transplant , and the first to utilise robotic surgery . In all , the Baptist Health system now has 250 ' points of access ', comprising specialty clinics , urgent care centres and a care home for the elderly , in addition to its hospitals .
Having a firmly embedded Christian ethos , the organisation ’ s enduring principles lift it beyond the definition of a business to that of a healing ministry .
Just like any modern hospital group , Baptist Health seeks to attract and retain the best-qualified clinical and administrative staff while onboarding the most effective treatments and IT practices available ; inevitably , its basic ethos tends to attract like-minded individuals . So much so that , in practice , its retention rates and the proportion of long-serving staff is well in advance of industry norms .
Firsts for Baptist Health
• In February 2017 ,
• The first ‘ blue baby ’ heart surgery in the state
• The first psychiatric unit in a private Arkansas hospital
• The state ’ s first cobalt therapy unit in a private hospital
• The state ’ s first openheart surgery done in a private hospital
• The first heart transplant surgery in Arkansas
• The first hospital in Arkansas to perform single-site robotic surgery
4 baptist-health . com