Don Reichert, VP & CIO, The MetroHealth System, Chapter 1

When Don Reichert came to MetroHealth six years ago, he had three goals: achieve Stage 6, then Stage 7 recognition, and win a HIMSS Davies Award. Not bad for a safety-net hospital that neighbors two very prestigious systems, Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals. But with the support of the executive team and buy-in from the staff, the dream became a reality. In this interview, Reichert talks about MetroHealth’s multi-year journey from best-of-breed to a core vendor strategy; how he’s been able to lead major change at two different organizations; and how taking analytics to the next level is similar to implementing an EHR. He also shares his thoughts on vendor management — something CIOs aren’t doing as effectively as they can, and the balance leaders walk of taking risks without alienating senior executives.

Chapter 1



* About MetroHealth

* From best-of-breed to core vendor strategy

* Epic EHR, Infor for finance, HR & supply chain

* Change management: “You can be a bulldozer or a collaborator.”

* Building a bridge for newly-acquired docs — “We have a lot going on.”

* Outsourcing & picking “low-hanging fruit.”

* Being a safety-net hospital



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Bold Statements

We have 240 applications approximately and probably close to 80-90 vendors that we deal with, so the level of complexity is there. The thought was that by going with a core vendor strategy, could we reduce some levels of complexity and gain some levels of efficiency? We’re in year three of that, and certainly we’ve been able to take out cost.

It’s getting them involved from day one, and having them feel like they’re a part of the decision process versus having something just handed to them and saying, ‘you just have to make it work,’ which is traditionally the way it’s been in the past — not necessarily at Metro, but industry-wide.

We’re bringing in resources to help with some of these projects, because from an IT standpoint, we just don’t have the bandwidth to deal with all the newness as well as keeping up the maintenance of the existing systems and the day-to-day business.

We’re looking at those low-hanging fruit repetitive positions that we can potentially outsource, but I’m not getting rid of the people that I have. They have very valuable skills, and I’m looking to repurpose them in our organization.

Gamble:  Hi Don, thanks so much for taking some time to speak with us today.

Reichert:  Sure, my pleasure.

Gamble:  Great. To get things started, could you just give an overview of the MetroHealth System in terms of bed size clinics, where you’re located, things like that?

Reichert:  MetroHealth is located in Cleveland, Ohio. We are the safety-net hospital for the region, predominantly focusing on serving the population of Cuyahoga County. We have over 700 licensed beds. We have approximately 25 sites and are adding quickly. We have about 6500 employees in the organization. We’re about a billion dollar corporation. From the ambulatory perspective, we see about 1.1 to 1.2 million patient visits a year. From an inpatient standpoint, we are I believe a little bit north of 25,000 patients a year on the inpatient side of the house.

We are a Level 1 Trauma Center in the Cleveland area. We are affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. All of our physicians are on faculty. We are an academic teaching hospital. We have over 500 physicians, they’re all credentialed as some level of professorship at the college. We have well over 400 residents that we train on a yearly basis. That’s a little bit about our corporation.

Gamble:  What about from an IT standpoint?

Reichert:  As far as our IT shop, we have about 140 people in the IT department.