Julie Bonello, BSN, MS
Chief Information Officer
Julie Bonello brings an extensive and diverse background to her role as Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Access Community Health Network. Her 30-year professional career has spanned from nursing to leading complex health care information systems implementations. But, it's Bonello's lifelong commitment to the improving the delivery of health care that brought her to ACCESS.
Bonello began her career as a pediatric intensive care nurse at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago. She quickly advanced to positions as a charge nurse and then as a research coordinator for Digestives Diseases. Her role in clinical research in 1981 would change her career focus.
Bonello discovered a talent for statistical analysis which led her to pursue a master's degree in computer science. "I realized I could be more effective in influencing changes in the delivery of health care through information systems and processes than I could as a nurse," she said.
Her new career focus led to senior management positions in health care consulting and Chief Information Officer at Children's Memorial Medical Center and Cook County Health and Hospital Systems.
At Cook County Health and Hospital Systems, one of the nation's largest public health systems, Bonello served as CIO and was responsible for managing the system-wide information system resources, software and infrastructure for more than 6,500 users.
She also successfully implemented system and process changes that streamlined clinical, business and support functions to more efficiently deliver of health care to patients and families.
Bonello's mission to improve how health care delivery is coordinated is rooted in her childhood. "My sister was severely disabled," she said. "I learned the concept of a "medical home" as a child by watching my parents coordinate health care services from physicians, community organizations, churches and friends in order to care for my sister's needs."
In 2009, Bonello was asked to join ACCESS and it was one of her easiest decisions. "ACCESS is the first organization that supported what I know to be true in health care," she said. "Our medical home model is the same model I observed as a child, only expanded to serving hundreds of thousands of individuals and their families."
Bonello's goal for ACCESS is to incorporate technology, such as electronic health records, to enhance ACCESS' medical home model. "I want to create an integrated system that is accessible and encourages patients and their families to become more actively involved in their health care decisions," she said.