Happy Labor Day!

First, a 15 second poll: How good is your website? Hit this link to answer the two-question poll (remember–all responses are anonymous). We’ll spend a lot of time on website marketing the next few debunkers.

So how proficient are bosses with their PC’s? The readers have their say:

I asked you to rate the PC proficiency of both your CEO and other CEO’s (who you know--outside of the IT industry) from "can’t turn on a PC" to "uses it sporadically and can barely handle email," to "daily email use, only," to "regular users of email, basic PC functions and Internet," to "very handy; uses multiple software programs." Here are the results:

CEO PC Proficiency

% of total respondents per question

Not surprisingly, there is a large disparity between readers’ CEO PC proficiency (many of you come from the IT industry) and non-IT CEO’s. You rated 86% of your CEO’s as at least regular users of email, the Internet, and basic PC functions (the top two categories, including "very handy") compared with only 18% of "other" CEO’s.

Does a higher level of a CEO’s proficiency correlate to a higher level of company performance?

Not one reader thought that higher PC Proficiency always correlated to higher company performance, but nearly 4 in 5 readers (79%) said that a CEO’s PC proficiency did indeed correlate "sometimes" or "usually." A large majority of NoSpin debunker readers believe that a CEO’s PC proficiency, if not a causal factor, is indicative of a company’s performance. The poll results should not necessarily be interpreted that a CEO’s PC proficiency THE primary indicator of a company’s performance.

The low level of IT spending in the healthcare industry is related to the low PC proficiency on the part of many healthcare CEO’s. Do you agree or disagree?

7 in 10 respondents said that they "agreed somewhat" or "agreed strongly" with the statement above. I’ve been around the healthcare industry for 24 years now, and frankly, the low level of investment in IT by most healthcare providers (and there are exceptions–HCA being a notable example) is abysmal. It’s embarrassing. It’s pathetic. Unfortunately, now it is also systemic. Too many providers babble about the vagaries of government reimbursement, having to herd cats (doctors), and argue they think there are no good information technologies yet--besides a bunch of other sundry excuses. Sorry, I don’t buy it.

At its heart, healthcare is all about patient care and information that ensures that people receive the best care possible at a reasonable cost. The fact that healthcare is a phenomenally complex industry (check out what Drucker has to say about healthcare as a management challenge) is an even stronger rationale for IT investment. Besides the severe and escalating lack of nurses in the industry (trust me, you really don’t want to get seriously ill these days if you can avoid it), the low level of investment in IT by providers (typically less than 2% of revenues for most providers) is THE dirty little secret in healthcare.

One can only hope that with more tech savvy managers taking the helm in the coming years that provider organizations will start to get their act together and invest in IT to improve financial results and patient care. And I fully realize that tech knowledge is not THE panacea to healthcare’s problems. Here are a few comments from NoSpin Debunker readers:

"We are coming to a crossroad in the healthcare industry. Many of the top executives will be retiring in the next few years. With all of the reorganization over the past few years and cutting out middle managers the healthcare industry will find it s self with many top level positions to fill and a short list of people to fill them. Consequently, there will be opportunities for young, computer savvy execs in the next few years to come. The question is, will they have the knowledge and experience to succeed?"

"My answers are probably skewed a bit by my more frequent contact with young CEOs, who tend to be more tech savvy than older CEOs. But we’ve seen a significant improvement in comfort with tech by CEOs since we started our business 20 months ago."

"CEO use of PC would correlate to the type of company they headed. Some need very detailed and frequent PC use others need minimal. Depends on the company. That’s my limited input and thanks!"

"It should be a requirement that CEO s must utilize e-mail generally as opposed to their assistants "reading/responding" to their e-mail traffic. This is what I believe happens most often today in large business."

NoSpin Debunkers are free weekly online newsletters written by Tom Ranseen. If at anytime you would like to be removed from the NoSpin Debunker reader list, please Unsubscribe. Otherwise, enjoy, join the conversation, and please forward this debunker to as many friends/acquaintances as you think may be interested–or send me their email addresses. Thanks.

Tom Ranseen NoSpinMarketing 615.383.7157

NoSpin Debunkers are free weekly online newsletters written by Tom Ranseen. If at anytime you would like to be removed from the NoSpin Debunker reader list, please Unsubscribe. Otherwise, enjoy, join the conversation, and please forward this debunker to as many friends/acquaintances as you think may be interested–or send me their email addresses. Thanks.

Tom Ranseen NoSpinMarketing 615.383.7157