A helping hand on the road to recovery: AdaptHealth

Post-treatment care is an integral part of any recovery process.

Patients who have had surgery, a prolonged, extensive treatment or need help managing a chronic condition, require adequate care, rest and sometimes, equipment and supplies to make a complete comeback. Home medical devices assist patients with their recovery and manage their conditions after they are discharged from the hospital.

AdaptHealth is an extensive nationwide network of companies that provides home medical equipment and services for a wide range of conditions – helping patients to recover and live their fullest lives. The Chief Information Officer (CIO) of AdaptHealth is responsible for implementing technical infrastructure across the company’s operations.

The CIO of an organization shoulders the responsibilities of implementing information-driven and technology-based systems across all aspects of the operations. Furthermore, the digitizing assets to improve operational efficiencies and bring about increased optimization goes hand in hand with the everyday role of a CIO. Whether it is banking, telecommunications, media or manufacturing, nearly every industry requires an executive who can handle both the business and technical sides of day-to day operations, especially within healthcare.

In conversation with the CIO of AdaptHealth:

Q. What do you think are the main qualities to become a successful CIO?
I think there are three main qualities that contribute to a successful CIO.

1. Servant leadership: One of my main tenants is to empower people to try and fail. Achieving excellence comes from imagination, which can only be truly fostered if people aren’t afraid to fail or throw out ideas that seem off-the-wall. Organizations and teams are stronger if employees are invested in making things better and feel encouraged to offer their ideas.
2. Customer-first focus: It’s imperative to understand your business completely and then ask the business what their goals are in order to develop innovative ways to use technology to align and achieve those goals. You can’t start building a strategy until you fully understand the process and culture and your strategy must be built with a customer-focused mindset.
3. Humbleness: I can’t stress this enough – be brutally honest about your situation. Don’t ignore data or feedback because it isn’t telling you what you want to hear. You will most-likely fail long term and the business will suffer if you ignore what the data is telling you. You must use the information to adjust your strategy and process and then re measure continuously.

Q. Can you talk about the history of your company and your role in its operations?

AdaptHealth was started seven years ago and has grown to be the third largest provider of home medical equipment in the United States. The primary driver for growth has been mergers and acquisitions. This growth method has meant that it has had to be dynamic, highly efficient and extremely scalable.

Of course, I didn’t know that this was the way forward when we started, so I had to have enough foresight and vision to build platforms that were specific enough for the business but open enough to accommodate disparate systems and non-centralized processes, and quickly collapse them into our stack. Early on, I converted from the standard approach of data centers and MPLS networks to full cloud-based infrastructure, systems and business software.

Q. How do you manage the partnership between IT and the rest of the business?

‘Communication, transparency and being a team player are key.’ I continuously ask our business teams a lot of questions to fully understand what the operational challenges are. By over communicating what IT is doing and being fully transparent in thought, process and budget, I can help facilitate trust and generate buy-in. It’s also important to take a step-back and recognize opportunities for IT to help in times of crisis or high activity. Last but certainly not least, it’s crucial be a good teammate to the entire organization.

Q. What would you say was the single most influential factor in your professional success?

My time in the Army. It has provided me the skill set needed to make complex decisions under highly stressful situations. While keeping calm, I have confidence that I will succeed, no matter what. Being put “in harm’s way” has also helped bring me clarity and focused my drive.

Q. How do you define success for the new CIO in the first 12 months and the first 5 years?

In the first 12 months, it’s all about your team and the business. You should be able to quickly and correctly assess your team and understand who’s on the bus and what seat they are in. If adjustments need to be made, you need to execute them quickly – not accepting “good enough”. You need have a solid team in place before you define the “what”.

By the fifth year, you should have executed on a vision and measured its value and impact. The platforms, technology, and services you have introduced should empower the businesses’ growth, efficiency and profitability, and improve customer service.

Q. The CIO is considered as the organizational glue for driving change. Do you agree?

Technology is expected to be an integral part of implementing change and can even soften the disruption of change to users and customers by automating or bridging gaps. The business should never have to take its foot off the gas because of technical limitations or process and IT should have a seat at the table and should be working with the business in the future.

Q. What are the biggest obstacles to success according to you?

Egos and echo chambers. It’s easy to lose sight when people are trying to appease you either because of a dominating personality or emotional decisions. Lead by example and focus on building teams that thrive on thought leadership. Encourage your team to debate and ask “why.” Never assume you know how it will go and plan for how to handle the unexpected.

Meet the enterprising CIO of AdaptHealth, John

John Bradbury is an experienced CIO dedicated to improving business outcomes through innovation and technology. He has spent more than 20 years leading IT organizations in various industries. An earlier adopter of Business Process Automation and Data Analytics have helped keep him aligned with delivering business and customer value as he rose through the ranks to CIO.

John’s diverse operational experiences have helped shape his approach today. From managing operations for a chemical company, running operations for a national Managed Service Provider and running IT and Development for multiple Healthcare entities, he has been able to develop holistic business solutions routed in technology and lead organizations to be more efficient and profitable.

He has been recognized as a subject matter expert by home medical equipment providers as an Innovator of Health Informatics and Business Analytics, delivering numerous software and reporting solutions. A key highlight of John’s career thus far is the impact his workflow management software has revolutionized the way the HME/DME industry approach revenue cycle management.

“We are a network of full-service medical equipment companies that use tailored products and services to empower patients to live their best lives — out of the hospital and in their homes.”