Rick Schooler Named CHIME Fellow

ANN ARBOR, MI, March 2, 2010 – The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is pleased to announce that Rick Schooler has just earned the organization’s esteemed Fellowship status.


Schooler is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Orlando Health in Florida, where he is responsible for information technology, telecommunications, clinical informatics, medical records, biomedical engineering, and purchasing and materials management, while leading a variety of corporate-wide initiatives including cost efficiency and redesign. Prior to joining Orlando Health in 2001, he served as VP & CIO at Central Georgia Health System and Director of Systems Integration at Methodist Hospital of Indiana.

Schooler has been an active part of CHIME since joining in 1994. He was a member of the CHIME Board of Trustees from 2006-2008, where he also served as Chair. He has been involved in a number of CHIME committees both past and present, including the Advocacy Leadership Committee, Technology Committee, Benchmarking Workgroup, Chapter Workgroup, and Fall Forum Planning Committee. Additionally, he is a past chair of the CHIME Foundation Board of Directors.

In 2008, Schooler earned CHIME’s Innovator of the Year Award, for his leadership in employing IT to shorten the patient discharge process. Using computer-integrated telephony and interactive voice response technology, the newly automated process frees up nurses and saves money by creating bed space earlier in the day.

“Rick’s tremendous contributions and support to the CHIME organization over the years makes him a truly deserving recipient,” said CHIME President and CEO Rich Correll. “For example, I credit CHIME's Benchmarking Program today to Rick’s determined leadership a number of years ago when the program had nearly been abandoned. While on the CHIME Board, he took our Advocacy program to a much higher level from its meager beginnings, recommending to the Board that CHIME hire a full time staff member in D.C. Rick has always been one to propose new enhancements for CHIME and to dig in and make new programs succeed.”

CHIME’s Board of Trustees established the Fellow program to honor and recognize members who have actively participated in the organization and who have made significant contributions to the healthcare IT field as a CIO. The Fellowship also exemplifies the member’s long standing contributions to the success of the CHIME organization.

Schooler is also a fellow and member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and former board member of the Healthcare Center for the Homeless and the School of Computer and Information Technology Industrial Advisory Board at Purdue University.

Schooler holds an MBA is from the University of Indianapolis and BS in Computer Technology from Purdue.

For more information on the CHIME Fellow program, including a full list of all CHIME Fellowship recipients, visit http://www.cio-chime.org/scholarshipandrecognition/fellow.asp.

About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,400 CIO members and over 70 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.cio-chime.org.

Contact:
Stephanie Fraser
Communications Coordinator
734-665-0000
sfraser@cio-chime.org

Updated: 3/2/2010 11:52:53 AM