Gary Barnes, CIO, Medical Center Health System, Chapter 3

Sometimes it’s all in the approach. When Gary Barnes was making a case for a new EHR system — one that would help achieve the goal of integration across the system — he knew it wouldn’t be an easy sell. So he used a clever analogy, explaining that buying a new system is like building a house — “You don’t want to put your old furniture in it.” In this interview, the 30-year health IT veteran talks about the “tremendous improvement” his organization has seen since creating a combined strategic plan, how the CIO role has evolved through the years, the role CHIME has played in advancing the position, and how he feels about Meaningful Use. He also discusses his team’s plans with analytics, his thoughts on physician engagement, and why he loves teaching.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3



* MU as a catalyst—“It has forced us to go to a whole new level.”

* Analytics & decision support department

* Goal: consistency throughout the organization

* CIO role — “There’s a lot more to the position than IT.”

* Physician engagement — “It’s a give and take.”

* Working on the CHCIO certification process

* “It keeps me learning.”



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Bold Statements

It has forced us to go to a whole new level that we would have never accomplished without Meaningful Use. I don’t think we would have ever got the physicians to adopt and do what they’ve done and get where we are without that being required.

When that data starts coming in and you start trending it, you start seeing where you can make improvements throughout the organization. To me, that’s been exciting where we tie process improvement into analytics.

I think it will continue to grow into embedding more of the clinical components. One of our biggest successes that we have is from the relationship that I have with our CMIO and also our CNO, just being partners in developing better processes for our clinical staff.

We try to make sure they don’t become IT people. We want to keep them in that clinical arena. So we basically require them to go back and work within their respective areas like nursing, respiratory, or pharmacy — go back and work in those areas so they don’t become IT people.

Gamble:  I would imagine a lot of that has to do with Meaningful Use.

Barnes:  Meaningful Use was kind of the start of it. That’s where you really started getting into some of the more detailed integration within the organization. I would say that’s probably one of the forcing factors of that.

Gamble:  When that first came around, what were your initial thoughts on Meaningful Use?

Barnes:  It was one of those things where it was, ‘this is not an IT project. Somebody’s going to have to do this.’ And then it was, ‘what are the requirements?’ I guess I knew more about the requirements than anybody else and did my research and background. I dug into those things and said, ‘Okay, here’s what we have to do, and here are the people that need to be assigned to each one of these pieces. That’s what we’re going to do.’ Six months later, nothing was happening and it was, ‘okay, you need to be responsible in making sure it all happens.’ And so it turned, and not necessarily because I was the CIO, but I became responsible to making sure that it was done and holding people accountable for getting it done.

Gamble:  That’s very interesting. Now how many years or so we are into it, has your opinion of it changed?

Barnes:  I’ve thought about this. That’s one thing about being around for a whil...