Gary Light, CIO, Memorial Hospital & Health Care Center, Chapter 1

There’s been a lot of discussion about the transformation the CIO has undergone in recent years, and the skillsets that are needed to drive the industry forward. One attribute that’s often overlooked, however, is the ability to manage expectations, says Gary Light of Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center. He believes a core function of the CIO is in marrying “the reality of what we want to do versus what can be done.”

In this interview, Light discusses the essential role IT plays in translating business needs into technical solutions, the importance of engaging stakeholders like the CNO in planning a major migration, and how his team is working to stay ahead of cybersecurity threats. He also talks about the many value lessons he has learned through mentoring, and how he has benefited from a diverse career background.

Chapter 1



* About MHHCC

* “Diverse” IS portfolio

* Moving to a single record – “Lack of integration was becoming an issue.”

* 90-day teams

* Getting a “cross section” involved in decision-making

* “A lot of it was building buy-in and excitement.”

* CIO & CNO as co-leaders

* Setting expectations – “We might not get 100 percent of what we need.”



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Bold Statements

As our needs evolved, and as we became more of a system treating patients across the continuum, we realized that a lack of integration was creating more and more of an issue.

From a technical standpoint, we were comfortable that any system was going to be able to do what we needed to, but more importantly for us was how the organization would respond to each of those systems. What were the potential challenges? What perceptions would have to overcome?

One of the things I often say is, I’m just the CIO. I don’t use the system. I’m not going to be the guy that logs in and has to take care of patients every day with it. And so I was a co-leader.

We all had our own perspectives and our own issues with what was good or bad. And we knew we were going to carry that baggage with us, so we thought it was important to get a somewhat impartial outside view.

Gamble:  Hi Gary, thank you so much for taking some time to speak with us.

Light:  My pleasure.

Gamble:  To get things started, let’s get a little bit of background on Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center, in terms of bed size, which you have in the way of clinics, and where you’re located.

Light:  Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center is located in Southern Indiana; it’s really a rural community. We’re about two hours south of Indianapolis and two hours north of Nashville. We’re 150-bed hospital, but we have 33 clinics across eight counties, so we encompass a very large footprint for being a regional community hospital. We have 1,700 employees on our staff, and about 100 members on our medical staff. We’re about an hour away from all of the other hospitals in our region. We have a thriving oncology program, both medical and radiation oncology, as well as cardiology programs. Being separated from the other hospitals, we believe those services really serve an important need for the members of our communities.

Gamble:  Do you have any partnerships or collaborations with other hospitals?

Light:  The major one we have we’re just getting into now, which is a Family Medicine Residency Program in conjunction with Indiana University.

Gamble:  And that’s just started?

Light:  Yes. IU has residencies all over the state. In southern Indiana, they’re working with a collaborative to start different residencies — surgical, behavioral health, and in our case, family medicine. So we’re going to be the seat for this family medicine program. We actually just built a new clinic,