Chris Paravate, CIO, Northeast Georgia Health System, Chapter 1

If you’re going to be a successful CIO, you need to learn how to do one simple thing: let go, says Chris Paravate. Yes, CIOs need to be aware of what’s going on throughout the organization, but he believes their purpose is to educate, set clear expectations and provide guidance. In this interview, Paravate talks about the groundwork his team is laying to prepare to roll out Epic across the system, why he’s all about workflow training but cautions against overusing consultants, and how NGHS worked to achieve operational engagement. He also talks about the concept of humble leadership, what he learned from Allana Cummings, and what it takes to build a culture inside the IT division.

Chapter 1



* About NGHS

* Going Epic across the system — “It’s a very aggressive timeline and a very aggressive rollout.”

* Focus on staffing, project management & workflow training

* “You need bench strength to be fluid and dynamic.”

* Key to success: operational engagement

* CEO Carol Burrell — “She understands that this is going to be part of our DNA”



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Bold Statements

I have a lot of experience with the product, and I fundamentally believe you have no business implementing a system if you’re not going to staff it.

A big part of the principal trainer’s role will be to focus on workflow training and to be able to answer to the users why. I think if people understand the importance in how those decisions were arrived, they have a tendency to be a little bit more bought in and understand the importance of doing that work.

There are a lot of organizations that will go heavy on contractors with the idea that you’re going to scale back after go-live, and the reality is that what you need to implement it is generally what you need to support it. And when you bring in a bunch of contractors, you lose the opportunity to build a staff capable of supporting the tools and optimizing them and upgrading them.

A big part of my focus is not just building the capability for the implementation, but to build the capability to sustain the product and to keep pace with all the changes that we’re seeing in so many different areas.

We had over 150 physicians participate during those days, and I attribute that to the senior staff all understanding the importance in what their role was and what was going to be required, and making sure that those individuals understood the importance of that process.

Gamble:  Hi Chris, it’s great to speak with you today.

Paravate:  Great to speak with you as well. I appreciate the time.

Gamble:  If you could give an overview of Northeast Georgia Health System, in terms of what you have with hospitals, ambulatory care, things like that?

Paravate:  Sure. Northeast Georgia Health System has two acute care hospitals, one that’s licensed at 600 beds and another that recently opened in the last year with 100 beds. We also have both long-term care and hospice and we’re one of the largest emergency rooms in the state, in the top five. We’re also ranked number one in the state for cardiology as well as clinical care. Within our physician practice group, which is the Northeast Georgia Physicians Group, we also have 51 locations and just over 220 physicians in that group.

Gamble:  And the new hospital, was that something that was acquired or that ou as built?

Paravate:  It was built. It was actually the first net-new hospital built in Georgia in over 20 years. It was built and opened in April of 2015.

Gamble:  So definitely want to get into that in a bit, but to lay a little bit more groundwork, in terms of the clinical application environment, what type of EHR system do you have in the hospitals?

Paravate:  Currently at both acute care facilities,