Daryl Kallevig, CIO, Riverwood Healthcare Center, Chapter 2

We often hear about the disadvantages of being a small, rural organization: smaller budgets, challenges recruiting top IT talent, and sometimes, a poor telecommunications infrastructure. What often gets lost in the shuffle are the benefits, one of which is being able to know every staff member, which can help leaders to better understand what keeps everything ticking, says Daryl Kallevig. In this interview, he talks about partnering with Allina Health to implement Epic, the workflow redesign required when switching EHRs, and strategy he used to communicate with his team during the rollout process. Kallevig also talks about why patient engagement is critical for rural facilities, what his team is doing stay “on top of our game,” and his interesting career path.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2



* Big-bang with Epic — “We believed the organization was ready.”

* Anticipating revenue hits

* Managing frustrations with an EHR switch — “Change is difficult, but we had to address it.”

* Revation’s call center app

* Patient satisfaction — “We have to make sure we’re on top of our game.”

* Cons of being a rural organization



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Bold Statements

We believed the organization was ready to make that big of a move rather than try to piece-meal the go-lives or transition go-lives at various times. We decided that a big bang was the best way to go, and it worked out very well.

We did anticipate that revenue would drop a little bit, but we’ve exceeded those expectations and we’ve been getting bills out the door pretty much on time. We actually had a good revenue month for the month of April, and that’s really telling.

They definitely understood the ultimate goal, but still, change is difficult for people, regardless of what position they’re in.

We not only take into account internal recommendations and ideas, but also those of our patients as well. It’s pretty frustrating if you get transferred from one area to another multiple times and never really reach the person you want to talk to or need to talk to. That’s one of the things that we tried to accomplish with the Revation solutions.

We have a pretty fixed patient base within the county of Aitkin. And so we have to make sure that we’re at the top of our game and trying to do things right so some of these larger systems don’t come in and pull patients away from us.

Gamble:  Did both acute and ambulatory go live at the same time?

Kallevig:  Yes, it was a big bang implementation. And that included our two outlying clinics too, so all three clinics, the hospital, and all of the hospital-based departments all went live at the same time.

Gamble:  Looking back now, do you feel that going big bang was the right way to go?

Kallevig:  Yes. It would have been difficult, I believe, if we did not do it all at the same time.

Gamble:  But certainly each way has its challenges.

Kallevig:  It does. We believed the organization was ready to make that big of a move rather than try to piece-meal the go-lives or transition go-lives at various times. We decided that a big bang was the best way to go, and it worked out very well for us. I myself cannot complain at all.

Gamble:  I suppose if it were the wrong decision, you’d already know by now.

Kallevig:  Yes, and actually, even from a revenue stream. For the go-live, we did cut back on physician schedules and appointments by 50 percent the first week, and then if they were ready to expand their schedules, they could do that upon their choice after the first week of go-live. Many of them did that; within three weeks,