Ed Grogan, VP & CIO, Calvert Health System, Chapter 2

In the current health system landscape, where organizations just keep growing, Calvert Health System is considered to be quite small. But it’s a “mouse that roars,” according to CIO Ed Grogan, who has spent the past 12 years leading Calvert’s transformation from a small hospital to a dynamic health system. In this interview, he talks about the Maryland eCare initiative and partnerships that have expanded Calvert’s reach and helped improve care for patients across the state. He also discusses the organization’s comprehensive EHR-selection process — and why they ultimately chose Meditech; their work with CRISP, including plans to implement a “Magic button” for physicians; the importance of team chemistry; and his “passion for technology integration.”

Chapter 1

Chapter 2



* NextGen’s community HIE

* Attesting to MU 2 (acute in 2014, ambulatory in 2015)

* Push & pull methods of data exchange

* CRISP’s magic button to give docs “a broader scale of information.”

* Patient-centered medical homes: “It’s not just high tech; it’s high touch.”

* Maryland eCare

* “We’re the mouse that roars”



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We have different ways of exchanging data. We’ve got the direct method now, which is more of a push, although we are setting up query mechanisms. And then we have the HIE, where providers can consume information on demand. It’s sort of a pull technology.

We also provide care managers. It’s not just high tech; it’s high touch. That’s a very important element.

We’ve been talking about the possibility in the future of having more ambulatory data in CRISP, and perhaps even having some analytics and maybe even some workflow tools for care coordinators and care managers to help with the whole population of health management effort.

I’m certified both in IT and also in clinical engineering, so I’ve enjoyed that project from a perspective of technology and integration.

We took him over to the ICU to take a look at the telemedicine setup since we were the first in Maryland to do that, and he turned to his secretary of health who was with him and said, ‘Why isn’t the University of Maryland doing this?’

Gamble:  At this point, you’re exchanging information with both the employed and affiliated practices, and NextGen is primarily being used among the employed physician practices?

Grogan:  Let me explain that a little bit further. About 25 percent of the providers using the NextGen platform are employed. The other 75 percent are independent. So we have quite a few independent physicians, one very large practice, and a lot of small practices in the community using it. The Department of Mental Health for the state, the mental health clinic in the county, we’re also hosting for them.

We’ve set parameters regarding information sharing in that area, because it’s a sensitive area. Back in 2010, we established a community health information exchange. We actually acquired the NextGen HIE; they called it CHS (Community Health Solutions) back then, but it’s been rebranded NextGen HIE. And we implemented that back in 2010 to connect the hospital, the physician practices — independent and employed, four imaging centers, and three outpatient labs together, to facilitate not only data exchange, but also data sharing. The physician practices who we serve signed up for the data sharing plan where they basically can consume lab results ordered by other providers in other practices; they can consume a lot of information from the hospital.

And this is back in the day prior to Meaningful Use Stage 1 and Stage 2, prior to the C-CDA, to the HISP, etc.