About Us

Denise Reeser

Ms. Reeser is Founder and Managing Principal of New Heights Consulting, LLC. She is an accomplished healthcare IT professional with more than 30 years of progressive multidisciplinary healthcare management and consulting experience in a variety of healthcare information system settings including health information exchanges, government agencies, large prime integration companies, large multistate healthcare organizations, community hospitals, behavioral health institutions, and long-term care facilities.

Her professional accomplishments meaningful use assessment, executive education; information system and health information exchange strategic and operational plan development; information systems department assessment and restructuring; contract negotiations; project management; and system implementation. Denise has also developed effective sales strategies resulting in consistent opportunity closures and corresponding revenue growth and was an authorized negotiator and primary administrative point of contact for all GSA (federal government) related business.

Work History:

Prior to forming her own company, Ms. Reeser served as the Managing Principal for a regionally based health information technology consulting company. As the Managing Principal, Ms. Reeser was responsible for leading overall company strategy, business development and ensuring quality service and delivery.

Prior to her Managing Principal role, Ms. Reeser was Regional Vice President for a billion dollar IT integration company where she was responsible for the commercial health care vertical’s business development and client delivery across 3 states, Washington DC and the Federal Government. While there she also held several interim CIO positions at facilities including a multiple facility integrated delivery network and a nationally known academic medical center. During her tenures as interim CIO, Ms. Reeser managed several large IT implementation projects, negotiated multiple contracts, managed all vendor relationships, and had primary responsibility for IT strategic plans and tactical operations.

Prior to her consulting career, she held the position of Chief Information Officer at a 400+ bed healthcare system. During her tenure, she directed numerous strategic and tactical IT initiatives including a major clinical systems selection. Ms. Reeser’s early healthcare provider based experience included over 10 years as the senior IT executive at a community based hospital where she implemented an integrated HIS including all prerequisite infrastructure and IT requirements.

Project Experience:
  • Currently assisting a community hospital based health system with an electronic health record strategy for their affiliated physicians.
  • Currently working with a national accreditation organization as a site reviewer.
  • Assisted a Regional Extension Center in the development of their service offerings.
  • Assisted a medical center in developing electronic health record hosting and support models for community physicians (under the Office of the National Coordinator Regional Extension Center Program); assisted a for-profit healthcare information technology company with a similar project.
  • Assisted a state healthcare commission and State Medicaid agency in determining electronic health record readiness among eligible providers.
  • Assisted a medical center with their Meaningful Use roadmap and strategies for their eligible providers and the hospital.
  • Assisted a state designated HIE in the development of its Strategic and Operational Plans.
  • Served as the interim CIO for a state HIE where she assisted with all strategic and tactical information strategy and technology projects.
  • Collaborated with two state-designated HIEs in the development of their grant applications for HIE funding from the Office of National Coordinator; collaborated with one of the same HIEs in the development of its Regional Extension Center application.
  • Assisted two state-designated HIEs in the facilitation of a Request for Proposal (RFP) process for the selection of a technology partner.
  • Collaborated with a state healthcare commission in designing specifications for a statewide health information exchange. Subsequently, worked with the same commission to review and harmonize two planning reports/projects and assess which projects best met the design specifications.
  • Collaborating with a state designated HIE in the development of its laboratory implementation strategy.
  • Collaborated with a state healthcare commission on the national Health Information and Security Collaborative consumer and provider education and outreach project.
  • Evaluated state HIE RFP responses for a state healthcare commission.
  • Completed a multifaceted clinical project where she project managed the development of a physician engagement strategy, business process redesign, documentation standardization, vendor selection, return on investment analysis, and contract negotiations.
  • Developed an IT Strategic Plan and managed the subsequent system evaluation and selection for a 200+ bed metropolitan hospital.
  • Worked with a State hospital association and managed a two-phased project to (1) determine the feasibility of implementing a statewide clearinghouse for HIPAA transactions; and (2) select the most appropriate implementation partner.
  • Conducted market research projects for a major healthcare information technology vendor on small community hospital IT requirements and senior nurse executive awareness of healthcare IT vendors and the impact of its products on clinical practice.
  • Managed the overall business relationship with a large prime integrator on a multimillion-dollar commercial product installation for the Veteran’s Administration.
  • Facilitated an executive team in visioning and strategy development for information services at a multistate healthcare network and provided client management for a multimillion-dollar ERP implementation and enterprise network redesign at the same healthcare network.
  • Provided project management to a metropolitan academic medical center that included management of several IT projects and contract negotiation services that resulted in a multimillion-dollar contract with a major systems vendor resulting in more favorable business and legal conditions.
Subject Matter Expertise:
  • IT Strategic and Tactical Planning
  • Systems Evaluation and Selection
  • EHNAC Accreditation Services
  • Electronic Health Records Physician Adoption Strategies
  • Health Information Exchange Strategic and Tactical Planning
  • Pre-Implementation and Implementation Assistance
  • IT Market Research and Supplier Strategies
  • IT Contracting with the Federal Government
Education:

Denise holds a Master of Business degree with a concentration in finance from Temple University , and BS degree in health planning and administration from the Pennsylvania State University . Denise completed a course on grant writing.

Certifications/Honors/Affiliations/Speaking/Articles:

Ms. Reeser is a Senior Member in the Healthcare Information Systems and Management Society (HIMSS), Past President and past Program Planning Chairperson for the Maryland HIMSS Chapter.

Ms. Reeser also served as the Maryland HIMSS RHIO Roundtable Liaison and on the task force of the National HIMSS RHIO Best Practices. In that capacity she worked with the national HIMSS organization on education, information dissemination, etc. regarding Health Information Exchange. She has also served on the Maryland Health Care Commission’s Task Force on Service Area Health Information Exchange and Advisory Panel on Regional Extension Center accreditation criteria.

Ms. Reeser is an EHNAC site reviewer for the Maryland Management Services Organization Accreditation Program (MSOAP) and serves on the EHNAC Criteria Committee. She presented at local and national HIMSS events, most recently at the national HIMSS June 2011 Virtual Conference. She co-authored an article on practical steps in Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) development. Ms. Reeser facilitated a Maryland task force for the Governor’s Workforce Investment Board on Health IT.