Michael Jefferies

Joining Boulder Community Health in 2016, Michael Jefferies is the Chief Information Officer, responsible for overseeing the technology division of the Boulder community. In this role, he ensures to establish and support the execution of the strategy for the technology of the organisation. 

During his time at the company, Jefferies explains how his role has evolved and changed in the industry.  “The environmental factors in healthcare care have changed considerably. The demands that we have are changing, the biggest shift has been from an inward focus on our clinicians to an outward focus on patient technology. We've had to retain all of the previous responsibilities, but we've also really had to expand into consumer technology, which healthcare was not focused on years ago.”

Jefferies’ leadership style is first and foremost collaborative. He works closely with the IT leadership team, executive team, and other employees to ensure that he is pulling ideas from everywhere. 

“It's very rarely the case that I should be making the decision about a particular technology. I think that our senior architects and engineers are really best suited to make those decisions. So we really empower them to do that now. We always have to coordinate with them on contracting, budget and things like that, but we really like to include them in those decisions. So I'd say at every level I try to be collaborative in the decision-making and strategy process,” added Jefferies 

Prior to joining BCH Jefferies held a wide variety of jobs ranging from application analyst, database administrator, to technology developer. 

Commenting on the different roles he has held, Jefferies said: “I think that's helped me to appreciate all of the different roles that are on my team. In many cases, I've walked in their shoes before, and it also makes me appreciate how outdated my skills have become and how I really need to rely on them for their expertise. So it's good to have once been in their position, but at the same time understanding and respecting that they're the ones with the current expertise.” 

Boulder Community Health is a community owned-and-operated not-for-profit health system, on a mission to deliver the highest level of health care in a patient-centric way with innovative technology, within its community.  As the pandemic hit technology become vitally important in allowing patients to receive the care they need, which is the area of the business that Jefferies oversees. 

“Telehealth was a technology that was sitting there underutilised and the demand from both patients and providers alike has really come out to use that technology. And I think that we're now ready to adopt it more in the mainstream across society. That's going to be great at reaching people that need specialty care that are further away, and more rural or hard to access communities will get access to better care,” concluded Jefferies.

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