Tara Coxon, Vice-President, Chief Information Officer, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton
Tara is a health system leader who looks to champion person-centered care through all facets of her work. She exudes the qualities of enterprise, confidence, credibility, effective organizational communication, and broad influence.She builds consensus and trust through her unique brand of leadership that is powered by innovative problem-solving and integrity.
This past year was a year of extraordinary and unprecedented challenges. Tara ensured resources were available and supported prioritization and coordination of over 150 changes to our Health Information System to support COVID care, surge unit builds, implementation of new telemetry systems, expansion of virtual care to support both ambulatory care and allowing loved ones to connect with their hospitalized family members, testing and assessment centres, vaccine clinic, and the establishment of remote care monitoring pathways to ensure patients can be cared for in a safe, comfortable, effective manner.
Tara is an incredible leader and mentor for her team. She holds monthly meetings with her direct reports and holds quarterly town halls for her portfolio to ensure transparency and open communication. In the community sector she is a connector and convener to create new opportunities and partnerships. She holds multiple digital roles including as co-chair of Hamilton’s Ontario Health Team. She continues to present at various conferences, including Digital Health Canada on the digital health ecosystem SJHH is building, inclusive of cognitive computing, advanced analytics and health system integration. She is an active member of the Epic Canadian Collaborative CIO advisory table and shares learnings among peers.
Tara is a devoted and incredible mother to two young children. Not only does she lift other women up but she has lifted parents up throughout the pandemic by supporting her team and ensuring there were flexible and compassionate policies and programs to support the SJHH community, especially our front-line healthcare heroes. She leads with compassion and grace and is an advocate for women and mothers.
Tara embodies the values of the St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton mission in all that she does with a spirit of compassion, innovation and unparalleled commitment to improve care and make access barrier-free.
Learn more about the Women Leaders in Digital Health Award here.
