Bobbie Byrne, MD, EVP & CIO, Edward Elmhurst Health, Chapter 2

If you’re going to lead an organization through a merger, the one thing you can’t be afraid to do is step on few landmines, says Bobbie Byrne, who encountered several during the union that created Edward-Elmhurst Health three years ago. What leaders can do is to be sensitive of the differences that exist between cultures, and keep the lines of communication open. In this interview, she talks about how to navigate partnerships with competing organizations, how her own experience as a pediatrician factors into her rollout strategy, how getting people to think “Epic first can be both a blessing and a curse.” Byrne also discusses her new role, which is a reflection on the organization’s strong focus on consumer driven health, her thoughts on managing expectations, and what she considers to be the “most fun part” of her job.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2                                                                                     



* EVP of Consumer Driven Health

* Engagement strategy — “We need to keep pulling people along and showing them the convenience.”

* Learning curve with video visits

* Reflecting on merger: “You’re learning another organization’s culture and trying to create relationships really quickly.”

* Waiting to get Elmhurst on Epic

* “You don’t know each other well. You don’t know the land mines.”



Managing big expectations

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Bold Statements

There is not really one consumer anymore. My 91-year-old mother is very different than my 18-year-old daughter in the way that they consume health care, and the way they want to consume health care. We really need to be responsive to the different segments of our patients as they really do act more like consumers.

I do think we are ready now. I think from a technology perspective, from a patient interest standpoint, and from a provider interest standpoint, I think that we are there. So even though people have been talking about video visits for really a long time, I feel like there’s just enough coming together that we can do this.

In some other organizations, I know that people want things to be really fully baked before you roll them out. We have no problem piloting, and no problem saying, ‘That was a bad idea. Let’s not do that again.’

You just don’t know each other very well. You don’t know the land mines, you don’t know how things really get done within another organization, and you really rely on those things within an implementation.

You have to spend a whole lot of money to get onto a single platform, to get onto a single system, a single network, single email. You have to spend a whole bunch of money before you ever start seeing savings. I think that’s a big education piece for myself and for my peers.

Gamble:  One of the other areas I wanted to touch on was your new role as Executive VP of Consumer Driven Health. It seems like something that should dovetail pretty well with the CIO role, but can you just talk about what this role entails?

Byrne:  It’s interesting because I had been talking about this role with our CEO, Pam Davis. We were trying to figure out exactly where the boundaries of the role are and what types of things we should be doing. I was describing it to a colleague in the organization and they asked, ‘What does this mean?” So I was talking a little bit about some of the strategies and they said, ‘Oh, I didn’t know that that was consumer driven health. I thought that’s just the way we did things.’

I think that’s part of it; we really pride ourselves in moving quickly, tolerating mistakes, failing fast,