Michael Jefferies Named a Finalist for Colorado CIO of the Year ORBIE Awards

Boulder Community Health (BCH) is proud to announce that Michael Jefferies, VP & Chief Information Officer, has been nominated for a Colorado CIO of the Year ORBIE Award. Jefferies, who joined the team at BCH in 2016 and has worked in healthcare technology for 20 years, is one of five finalists in the Nonprofit/Public Sector category.

“This honor is entirely the result of the hard work of my team and the support of my colleagues; If there is anything that I’ve done to deserve recognition, I understand that good people are the heart of any accomplishment – and we have a lot of good people at Boulder Community Health,” said Jefferies, who holds an MBA in Healthcare Administration. “It has been a challenging year for my team, and I could not be prouder of their response to this pandemic."

For over 20 years, the Colorado CIO of the Year ORBIE Awards have recognized technology executives nationally for leadership, innovation and excellence. CIOs are recognized in multiple categories, based on the scope of their organization and responsibilities. This year’s award ceremony will take place March 26 during an online event.

During Jefferies’s tenure at BCH, he implemented a successful employee-first strategy to advance team engagement scores and led the organization in the selection of a single electronic health record (EHR) to unify all clinical care under a single integrated system. The move to the EPIC EHR required meticulous planning and consensus building from Jefferies and his team.

After a successful go-live and implementation of the EPIC EHR, improved billing processes and clinical care are just two of the positive results. With a cutting-edge EHR in place, BCH had the technology to quickly move patients to virtual care and navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. The adoption of telehealth services and online patient interactions skyrocketed in 2020.

“As fast as the virus moved, we had to move faster to enable our clinicians to provide care in new and creative ways,” said Jefferies, who was nominated for the CIO award by a Colorado technology leader outside BCH. “Our IT department enabled our staff to use video technology to protect our patients and staff, so we could continue services like spiritual care and even technology-based absentee voting that otherwise would have been high-risk during the pandemic.

“Now, during the vaccination phase of the pandemic, our IT team is managing an orderly technology-enabled registration process that is helping our community to get vaccinated and heal from a difficult year.”

Under Jefferies’s leadership, BCH is now in the top 5% of all healthcare organizations globally with regards to advanced adoption of technology in healthcare. In 2020, BCH earned Most Wired designation for both Foothills Hospital and its physician clinics. That designation is a measurement across seven key areas of advanced technology including clinical quality, patient engagement, infrastructure and security.

“This is all possible by hiring only the top talent in the industry and then taking great care to ensure our employees are engaged,” Jefferies says. “By taking great care of our team, they in turn dedicate themselves to our community and our mission.”

Jefferies is active within the professional community, makes time to mentor others, enjoys volunteering and is also pursuing a Doctorate in Public Health to leverage technology to make an even greater impact in the community – especially to those who are most vulnerable.

To learn more about the ORBIE Awards, click here.