73 years old and still creating Vision and Change in the Healthcare Communities he serves

Jim Hauenstein, MBA BA, Interim Executive Director

Jim’s career spans over 49 + years in the Manufacturing and Healthcare Information Systems/Technology Industries.  Jim’s career started in Manufacturing Information Technology, where he spent 18 years in Manufacturing.  Jim was given an opportunity to change his career in 1983 to Healthcare information Technology and for the last 31 years, Healthcare Information Technology has been his focus.   Jim believes his success over the years has been due to his focus of the merge between the human aspectwith the development of technology solutions for the organizations he has worked for.  In addition to building trusted relationships, Jim has always considers himself a visionary and over the last 31 years his focus has been creating a bridge between Care Providers throughout Healthcare.  He is focussed on marrying both the Financial and Clinical Applications with technology solutions that enhance the quality of patient care; designed around the Health Information Exchange.  The key to Jim’s success is building trusted relationship at all levels of the organization not just the C-suite.  Jim believes that today is the most exciting time to be in healthcare because real change is occurring and it is driven by enhancing the quality of care being delivered to the patient.  Quoting him: “Remember we all will be a patient someday and we will want quality care delivered to us and that means our latest patient record being shared with the care provider that is delivering the care.”

Jim’s latest undertaking was in 2012 – when Jim was asked by the Hospital Council of Northern and Central California to assemble the CIOs in the region to start a rural Health Information Organization (HIO).  Jim was elected chairperson of the SacValley MedShare Executive Work Group consisting of 20 stakeholders meeting every other week for 2 hours to create the plan for a sustainable rural HIE.  In October SacValley MedShare, with the assistance of the Hospital Council Foundation of Northern and Central Californian, he signed a contract with ICA to be their HIE vendor.  In January 2014 SacValley MedShare sent their Participation Agreement to the stakeholders; it was the first time that SacValley MedShare asked their stakeholders contribute money.  In February 2014 SacValley Med Share had their first Board of Directors meeting, demonstrated ICA Direct Secure Email to their stakeholders and it was approved.  SVMS went live with Direct Secure Email the following day.  In February 2014 Jim was selected interim Executive Director of SACVALLEY MEDSHARE HIO, which includes 5 counties in Northern California.