CORHIO Board Announces Next Steps to Find New Executive Director

CORHIO Board Chair, Jim Shmerling, released this week new information about the organization’s leadership transition following their February 27 announcement that CORHIO’s Executive Director, Phyllis Albritton, would be stepping down from her position this month. Shmerling announced that the board has named Brian Braun, the organization’s CFO, as the interim executive director while they conduct a search for a new executive director.

Shmerling also said that the CORHIO board has begun forming a search committee which will be supported by Joan Henneberry, principal with Health Management Associates—a national health care consulting firm with a Denver office.  Joan previously served as a CORHIO board member for five years and is known for her work in planning Colorado’s health insurance exchange and as the former director of the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) in former Governor Bill Ritter’s administration.

The board is conducting an extensive search for qualified candidates to lead CORHIO, and though they are moving quickly, it is customary for a search of this type to take four to six months.

“The entire CORHIO staff is extremely dedicated to our mission of improving health care through health information exchange, and although we will miss Phyllis greatly, we are 100 percent committed to helping the patients and providers of Colorado,” said Braun. “We are currently implementing dozens of health information exchange (HIE) interfaces that cover more than 60 provider locations across the state. And we have many other providers, representing nearly 800 physicians and mid-level practitioners in the state, in the queue for upcoming implementations. We’ve made so much progress and we’re all very excited to see the benefits of HIE play out as more providers are connected and as the functionality of the HIE is expanded.”

Physician and Hospital Associations Comment on Transition Process

Alfred Gilchrist, chief executive officer at the Colorado Medical Society said, “I have every confidence that the CORHIO leadership team is on the right track and will see the organization through this time of transition. They have been proactive at keeping the Colorado Medical Society informed during the recent announcements and have continued to demonstrate their commitment to helping Colorado physicians.”

Steven J. Summer, president and chief executive officer at the Colorado Hospital Association, added, “We are pleased with the growth of HIE in Colorado, which is essential to providing high-quality, affordable and safe care for hospital patients. In the last year alone, 18 Colorado hospitals have become fully connected to the CORHIO HIE, significantly outpacing similar efforts elsewhere in the country. This is a testament to the CORHIO staff’s dedication and hard work in supporting our hospitals’ HIE efforts.”