Kimberly Ramirez, Senior Manager and Integration Architect, Clinical Systems, TransForm Shared Service Organization
Four successful go-lives during a pandemic would not have been possible without Kim’s leadership and skillset both as a clinician and digital health expert. Her tireless work and passion for digital health adoption has resulted in moving the region’s hospitals from being paper-based to fully electronic, yielding better patient care and safety while creating efficiencies in clinical and business workflows.
Serving as the senior manager of clinical systems and integration architect for TransForm Shared Service Organization, Kim has played an integral role in the successful implementation of the Cerner Millennium Hospital Information System (HIS) for four hospitals, representing six sites and over 1000 patient beds, all while in the midst of a pandemic. Kim facilitated and led multi-dimensional teams to foster a regional approach to the implementation of the HIS, contributing to the first successful go-live event occurring September 2020 and the final hospital going live in April 2021. Kim’s clinical background combined with her degree in clinical informatics quickly gained the respect and recognition of clinicians and support staff within the hospitals as a leader of digital health.
Under Kim’s leadership managing a multitude of interdisciplinary work streams across the region, Kim was able to foster a collaborative environment that realized a standardized governance structure and approach to a regional HIS implementation, resulting in moving four hospitals from fully paper-based to fully electronic. During the go-lives, support was limited due to the pandemic. Kim quickly rolled up her sleeves and could be seen many a time working alongside her team, providing at-the-elbow support, troubleshooting and being visible for her team up to 20 hours a day, taking limited time to rest, all while being on call when she wasn’t onsite helping her team. This gained the respect of her team and those at the hospitals as a collaborative and passionate leader in ensuring the successful adoption of digital health tools.
Under Kim’s leadership, this region and arguably the province has experienced the most complex digital health transformation has ever experienced. This would not have been possible without Kim’s tenacity, collaborative approach and passion for leveraging digital health tools to advance health system outcomes. From the first go-live that was scheduled as a ‘big bang’ in April 2020 to the final hospital in September 2021, Kim has worked tirelessly to ensure the success of these HIS implementations in spite of the many challenges that were presented such as the pandemic and the sheer complexity of a regional approach to an implementation of this magnitude.
Not only has Kim demonstrated her dedication and promotion of digital health during the HIS implementation, Kim is a continual advocate with over 15 years of experience implementing specific digital health solutions for clinical departments within the hospitals, but her role also includes chairing regional IT Operation Committees to ensure the continuity and meaningful use of digital health tools., resulting in the fostering of regionalization of single instances of applications. Kim is also passionate about transferring her knowledge to the next generation of digital health leaders as an instructor at the University of Windsor, Health Informatics program.
Learn more about the Digital Health Canada Awards here.
