Jeff Norris
Chief Information Officer
Like a Mark Twain character, I was born and raised along the banks of the Mississippi River in the small town of Burlington, Iowa. When I was fifteen, a good friend invited me to his house to see his computer, a first generation IBM. What fascinated me most was this ‘Artificial Therapist’ called Eliza. You type in questions or comments, then using grammatical rules and a database of keywords, it would respond as though the computer actually had intelligence. I was so totally enthralled that I immediately bought my first computer and taught myself to program in BASIC. This interest led to my decision to leave Burlington to attend Iowa State University to study Computer Engineering. A series of family health problems, including my own depression dealing with them, contributed to me dropping out at the start of my senior year and I never returned.
I moved to Phoenix on a whim or was it a Honda? I had been living with my brother and his wife in Tulsa and was feeling as though I was becoming burdensome and was ready to get out on my own. So early one morning, I stuffed much of my belongings into a duffel bag , left a note and hopped on my motorcycle. I moved here with less than $200, no job and no acquaintances. Strapped for cash, I had to find a cheap place to live. I found a 10' by 5' room with just enough space for a twin bed and a dresser. I shared a kitchen and bathroom with three others. I spent my first year in that palace. I get a little nostalgic whenever I see a walk-in closet!
My first job was as a 'day laborer', pouring concrete and digging ditches in Phoenix’s ‘Dry Heat’. I looked for a position more suitable to my interests, preferably out of the heat! I landed a job at CODAMA as a data entry clerk, hoping just to get my foot in the door. CODAMA was sort of a Medicaid behavioral health carve-out for central Phoenix. After a few months, a programming job opened there so I applied. Although I had several years experience programming on my own, I simply lacked professional experience and was turned down. I needed a break and it came a couple of months later with a new boss. He was impressed with a couple of my ‘test’ programs and so began my career in Information Technology.
A couple of years later, CODAMA exploded from 40 to over 1000 employees as it transformed into ComCare who was responsible for the entire county and for providing case management services. With growth come new opportunities. ComCare executives decided that the MIS department had the talent and resources to develop our own support software. I accepted the position of Systems Manager, in charge of the programming staff, with the directive to lead development of that software. It was a large effort. An administrative/clinical hybrid to run on over 400 workstations across 25 sites. We accomplished a lot over the next 3 years. We built interfaces with the ADHS's system, their TPP's (EDS) system and our Pharmacy Management company's system. Our staff wrote over 1 million lines of code to handle Enrollment, Treatment/Service Planning, Authorization, Utilization Review and many other critical applications.
Unfortunately, ComCare lost the State contract and was ultimately forced out of business. The software that we had worked so hard on has since been purchased by a national healthcare organization, who is continuing to develop and market it nationwide. During the closing of ComCare, I was offered and accepted the position of Chief Information Officer for Meta Services, now Recovery Innovations.
Recovery Innovations’s information system, ‘Metbase’, was very developed when I arrived. What most impressed me was the level of integration (especially between the clinical data and the billing data), ease of use, the way in which it supported the daily activities of staff and the backing of executive management. Since then, the MIS team has improved flexibility of Metbase by making the program more data driven and added the ability to run it across companies and product lines. We’ve added connectivity options while improving the system stability with greater redundancy. I’m even more excited about the future! We are currently recreating our software to run as a browser-based application as well as integrate new input devices, specifically hand-held computers.
I enjoy spending time with my wife, Julie and my kids, Zack, Hanna and Ellie. When I get the chance I like to play some pickup basketball or sneak away from work a couple of hours early to play golf (I hope my boss doesn’t read this!). I also enjoy shooting pool with friends at the English Pub down the street, trying new restaurants and of course, computer games. When I’m feeling extraordinarily creative, I like to create board and computer games.