Healthcare is personal. Whether we’re the caregivers, the tech specialists, or the patients, we’re all woven into the same intricate fabric of connection and care.
For Fortified Health Security’s Executive Director of Government Affairs, Kate Pierce, modern healthcare is both a testament to how far we’ve come and an emotional reminder of the shared experiences that propel it forward.
Now, Kate is reflecting on her remarkable career as she approaches retirement. With over 30 years in healthcare technology, including 15 years dedicated to cybersecurity, she has been at the forefront of transformative change. Her journey has encompassed leading healthcare’s transition to electronic health records, establishing a comprehensive security program as both CIO and CISO at a Critical Access Hospital, and contributing to the development of national policies.
Kate’s mission has always been to ensure that all healthcare organizations, big and small, are equipped to navigate our ever-evolving digital world. Her career reflects the power of innovation, collaboration, and commitment to patient safety that began at the start of healthcare’s digital transformation.
First Threads of Connection: The EHR Revolution
When Kate first started working with physicians to transition them to electronic health records (EHRs), she faced a lot of resistance. Many doctors were so accustomed to their paper-based workflows that they essentially tried to recreate those processes within the digital environment, usually in ways that completely defeated the purpose of the technology.
“For instance, some physicians were instructing their nurses to print everything out from the EHR, sign it by hand, and then scan it back into the system,” she shares. “It was baffling. I couldn’t help but think, ‘Why bother with computers at all if this is how you’re going to use them?’”
To help guide this shift, Kate was part of a committee that included a few forward-thinking physicians. Their task was to help select the right EHR platform and establish workflows that worked for everyone.
“I remember sitting with emergency room providers in the early days of electronic health records (EHRs),” Kate reflects. “They told me, ‘We need access to clinic records, so we don’t have to wake up doctors in the middle of the night to pull charts from their offices.’”
But, even within this group, there were heated debates about how to handle electronic records.
“One sticking point was the process for modifying prescriptions,” she recalls. “Primary care doctors were adamant: no specialist should be able to discontinue or change a patient’s medication without first calling the primary care provider and explaining why. They would be like, ‘Don’t you dare touch my records without consulting me.’”
What struck Kate most was that this wasn’t a new problem; it had been happening all along in the paper-based world. Specialists would make changes, and the primary care physicians would often be left out of the loop, unaware of what had been done.
Despite the frustrations, being able to grant ER providers access to EHRs marked the beginning of a new era; one where patient histories, primary care notes, and specialist input were all available almost instantly.
“It changed everything,” Kate says. “Suddenly, the ER team knew exactly what had been done by the primary care provider, the hospitalist, and the OB-GYN. Everyone was connected.”
Another pivotal moment for the transition to EHRs came when an occupational health provider encountered a patient with an alert in their record indicating “no more narcotics” due to a history of misuse.
Kate recalls, “Back in the pre-EHR days, that patient could walk into another clinic and potentially receive narcotics because there was no easy way to share that information.”
Today, with EHRs and statewide prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), that’s no longer possible.
The shift to EHRs wasn’t just about digitizing medical records; it was also about transforming how healthcare teams communicate. Yes, there were growing pains, but EHRs also brought accountability and visibility that led to better patient care.
“Fast forward five years, and those same ER teams were upset if we had to do an overnight system upgrade that temporarily disrupted access,” Kate says. “That’s how integral this connectivity had become.”
From Lightboxes to the Cloud
The journey of connection didn’t stop with EHRs. Finding radiologists for patients in rural hospitals was a huge challenge, so technology became a lifeline.
“We transitioned to digital imaging and outsourced radiology to an Australian company where our nighttime was their daytime,” Kate remembers. “The internet was slower back then, but it worked. Before that, we had an entire basement full of film we would have to hold a light up to. Now that’s gone. It’s mind-blowing how far we’ve come.”
That innovation allowed hospitals and healthcare organizations to free up space for more important things like exam rooms and patient beds.
Kate shared how wild it is to think about all that change in such a short period of time. “We created the digital infrastructure, and now we’re tasked with protecting it.”
Protecting What They Built
Kate transitioned into a Healthcare IT leadership role in 2010 as a Director and later transitioned to CIO. She formed the Information Security Management Team later that year after completing her Master’s thesis on Healthcare Information Security.
“I initiated the governance team so that we could begin improving our security posture.” she shares. “Then in 2016, when our security leader left, I took on the Information Security Officer role, which later transitioned to the CISO title.”
This dedication ultimately led her to Fortified Health Security, where she could share her deep cybersecurity knowledge with other hospitals, guiding them in building resilient cyber strategies.
Reflecting on her career, Kate marvels at the rapid pace of technological advancement and its dual nature.
“When I think about how fast tech has come and how different our lives are, it’s hard to fathom what it will be like for the next generation,” Kate shares. “They grew up in this digital world; their thought processes are entirely different from ours.”
She says while this new generation brings fresh ideas, they also inherit the responsibility of navigating ethical dilemmas around data, AI, and connectivity in ways we’re only beginning to understand.
The Heart of the Matter
The journey through healthcare is not just about technology. It’s about people.
For Kate, the path to healthcare began with a deeply personal experience. “I was in the Army and got into a terrible accident. I spent two months in the hospital with a broken back and legs. I couldn’t move,” she shares. “I was totally dependent on the care of others. The kindness of those workers left a mark on me. Someone took the time to care for me when I couldn’t care for myself. That’s what inspired me to pursue a career in healthcare.”
Though she chose a path outside of direct patient care, due to an aversion to blood, her mission remained the same: protecting and helping people, whether on the frontlines or behind the scenes. “Protecting people is the end goal, whether it’s through physical care or digital defense.”
A Shared Responsibility
From the first EHR connection to today’s cybersecurity challenges, the journey of healthcare is a shared one.
“We’re all patients at some point,” she reflects. “The connections we’ve built, between people, systems, and care teams, are what make healthcare work. And those connections also remind us of our shared experiences.”
As the torch passes to the next generation, the future of healthcare remains bright. But it’s not just about the technology or the systems; it’s about the people who dedicate themselves to ensuring those systems work—for all of us. People like Kate Pierce.
