Jim Hannaman, BSN, RN, is the clinical applications team lead under the UofL Health – Information Technology department. In his role, he oversees the work of our clinical applications teams, primarily the Cerner (our hospital-based electronic health record system) team. He also is a part-time builder and designer for workflows in Cerner and is a certified issue fixer and problem solver.
The Louisville native started with our organization 13 years ago at UofL Health – UofL Hospital. At the time, Jim was studying to obtain his BSN degree and started working at the hospital as an oncology unit secretary – now called 6 South.
“At that time, I didn’t have health care experience, but I had plenty of management experience,” Jim said. “I appreciated my manager taking a chance on me and letting me grow my skill sets.”
In 2013, UofL Hospital was on its way to fully implementing Cerner. Jim was pulled into the implementation project as a subject matter expert for the oncology unit. Throughout the process, Jim thoroughly enjoyed the testing process and found a new way to serve patients.
“I realized I could help patients and clinicians in a much better way than before,” Jim said.
To further develop his Cerner knowledge, Jim left UofL Hospital in 2016 to pursue a career with Cerner. However, Jim didn’t stay away from his UofL Health family for long. In 2017, Jim return to UofL Health as a part of the IT department.
Having both experienced the clinical and non-clinical aspects of our organization, Jim feels like his favorite part of UofL Health is our culture.
“Whether it was with my unit secretary role or with my current role, all of the teams that I’ve been a part of have been team-oriented,” Jim said. “It’s not a ‘me, them, sink or swim’ mentality; it’s very much of us as a team celebrating our successes and supporting and learning from our failures. I try to instill this mentality in all of my new teams.”
On the IT side, Jim appreciates how our IT department values education and growth. He recalls how many organizations he’s been a part of or heard about silo their employees and teams. At our organization, we encourage cross training to better develop our teams and have open lines of communication to share knowledge and ideas across teams and departments.
“After I finished my nursing degree, I wasn’t obligated to stay with UofL Health,” Jim said. “Truth be known, I didn’t apply anywhere else but here. I wanted to continue my work at UofL Health.”
Even though Jim’s role primarily focuses on Cerner, he and his team play an important role in the growth of our organization. Whether it’s users needing a new product to complete their daily tasks, debugging our eprescribing software for providers or adding a new facility, Jim is involved in the process. With each piece, he has to help build into the overall Cerner plan that spans our hospitals.
“At the end of the day, my job is to make sure our clinicians can do their job efficiently and quickly, and with less stress, on the Cerner side,” Jim said. “It’s all about working together to meet the organization’s needs, making the processes seamless and allowing our clinicians more time with patients and less time with paperwork.”
Overall, Jim is excited about our time of growth. He hopes to see our organization continue to develop programs and reach more communities. He appreciates our organization’s approach to patient care, and how our academic difference separates us from other organizations.
Outside of work, Jim enjoys all things sci-fi and fantasy – except for the Lord of the Rings novels. It’s the one hallmark fantasy series he hasn’t been able to finish due to Tolkien’s need to take three pages to describe the scenery.
Know of a good ramen shop or recipe? Make sure to share your favorite place to grab a bowl of ramen with him.
If you’re going on a long road trip and need something to listen to, Jim recommends the podcast “How Things Get Made.” Three comedians sit down to discuss movies listeners deem as “ridiculous,” “bad” or simply “horrible content” and how they ever made it past the first scene.
One piece of wisdom Jim likes to share is: Try to make each day better than the day before. He explained how he never wants to reach the point in his life where he’s done everything he can do or has achieved everything he could ever achieve. He always looks forward to the next goal in front of him and, when he’s accomplished that goal, setting a new goal. Each goal gives him a new purpose and a new direction, which helps center him.
If you have a question about Cerner or just want to discuss goal planning, reach out to Jim and introduce yourself. He would love to get to know you!
