Dee Emon, VP & CIO, Wake Forest Baptist Health, Chapter 3

When Dee Emon was promoted to the CIO role at Wake Forest Baptist Health in 2014, it was the first time she held that particular title — but she was no stranger to IT. In fact, Emon — a nurse by training — had spent the past decade with “one foot on each side of the fence.” As a result, she was able to bring to the CIO role an understanding of IT’s role in supporting patient care, something she’s always worked hard to convey to her team. In this interview, Emon talks about the toughest and most rewarding parts of being a CIO, how she has benefited from her experience in quality and performance improvement, and the work her team is doing with patient engagement and population health. She discusses the importance of building a strong network, how she has made cybersecurity education a priority, and what it’s like to work with Chad Eckes.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3



* Working with Chad Eckes – “It’s been a great opportunity to leverage his knowledge.”

* Her “career launching point”

* Importance of professional networks

* Mentoring: “Part of being a leader is helping others gain experiences.”

* Most fulfilling part of being a CIO

* Cybersecurity – “It’s so disheartening.”



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Bold Statements

It’s been a great opportunity for me to leverage his knowledge as we move the IT strategy forward. I would also say that having my clinical background and his financial and IT background has afforded the organization the opportunity to move things forward and leverage some more innovative technologies.

Don’t be afraid. If there’s something you want to get involved in, like a project or a promotional opportunity, don’t get so wrapped up in whether or not you have all of the experience that would be requisite to be successful in that role.

There are always going to be times where as a leader, you are going to need to rely on others to bring such subject matter expertise to the table. My guiding principle has always been, have a great network of people you can reach out to and colleagues that you rely on.

The days where you can tolerate a 6-hour downtime have gone away. It takes a committed group of employees in the IT department to really make sure the systems are there to provide that safety net around the patients.

Nobody ever wants to think that people would target patients, especially in hospitals. Those people are so vulnerable, and things like ransomware are so disruptive.

Gamble:  The person who held the CIO role before you, Chad Eckes, is still with the organization as CFO. How did that work — did you have interaction with him before he moved over?

Emon:  Actually, this is the third organization where I have worked with Chad. I actually met him back in 2005 when I did the opening of the all-digital hospital back in Wisconsin, and I worked with him again at Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Then he actually joined Wake Forest initially as their CIO, and he subsequently brought me in as the chief clinical information officer. Chad has a strong financial background; once so once he was here, he was promoted within the first 9 or 12 months. They had an interim CFO with the organization at that time.

Chad was brought in because Wake Forest had been struggling after their Epic implementation, primarily on the financial front. I think Wake is known as having the worst Epic implementation in the nation. They were unable to drop a patient bill for about nin...