Bobbie Byrne, MD, EVP & CIO, Edward Elmhurst Health, Chapter 3

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

Chapter 3



* Delaying Epic at Elmhurst — “We just didn’t have the money.”

* Post-M&A adjustment period

* Merging cultures — “Using humor is helpful.”

* Value of giving specific feedback

* Personal coaching — “It’s the most fun part of my job.”

* Coaching millennials vs older generations, and women vs men

* “There’s definitely a difference.”



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Bold Statements

I’m really pleased with the people who stayed. I’m proud of them for adjusting to a whole bunch of new processes and totally new systems. I know it really took a lot of courage for them to learn everything new, because it is a big difference.

Is there any history that I should know about? Is this reasonable? Who should I really go to for this question? Because sometimes the person you really need to go to is maybe not the same person on the org chart, so just keep asking.

It’s probably the thing that’s the most fun part of the job, especially when you’ve identified somebody at a more junior level who you think just has talent — maybe they’ve shown some calm under stress or they were able to get consensus amongst a difficult group in a very small setting.

I would give a presentation and say, ‘how did that go?’ And people would say, ‘it was great.’ That doesn’t help me. I was always looking for something like, ‘you started a little slow, but then you picked up and your ending was good.’ That would be helpful to me, but I never got that. So I really try to give that specific feedback whenever I can.

On the whole, I see a difference. I have to push women really hard. With the men, I give them a little shove and they tend to be off to the races.

Gamble:  How was it for coming to terms with the fact that Epic was going to have to wait for Elmhurst? Was it a difficult thing or was it something where you said, okay, I guess this is what’s best, so that’s what we’ll do?

Byrne:  Well, we made the decision based on the fact that we just didn’t have the money. So we needed to do some other things in order to fund this Epic implementation. We did put the physicians, as I mentioned, all on Epic first, because there’s just a lot of efficiencies related to referrals and care. Let’s face it, most of the care is outpatient, so let’s make sure that we prioritize that. We did that. We did all of our ERP solutions and we consolidated on the Lawson Infor system, which we had used on the Edward campus for quite a while and had been really pleased with, so to get things like materials management, HR, and GL all onto a single system was really helpful, and I think ended up giving some efficiencies that then ...