Jake Dorst, CIO, Tahoe Forest District Hospital, Chapter 1

One of the most important characteristics for a strong leader is being able to stay calm when the organization hits rough waters. For Jake Dorst — who has survived tumultuous times during his career, including acquisitions and difficult go-lives — the ultimate test came less than a year into his tenure at Tahoe Forest Hospital District, when he was asked to serve as interim CEO. And although he learned quite a bit from the experience, he’s happy to be back in the CIO shoes that seem to fit him so well.

In this interview, Dorst talks about how his team is preparing for an Epic go-live (and why they chose to partner with Mercy Health’s IT services arm), why they’re focusing on “Population Wellness” rather than population health, the challenges of being located in a resort area, and why it’s essential to have a strong project manager. He also discusses why Tahoe Forest appealed to him, his “servant leadership” philosophy, and what it was like to move across the country with young children.

Chapter 1



* About Tahoe Forest – “We’re more than just a critical access hospital.”

* Seasonal patient volumes

* Partnering with Mercy Technology Services to deploy Epic

* Going big-bang on 11/1 – “It’s going to be a big game changer for us.”

* Support before, during & after go-live

* 3 key components of IT service contracts

* Tahoe’s “very robust project plan”



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Bold Statements

We try to offer as much as we fiscally can in our town so our patients don’t have to leave. When it’s snowy in a mountain town and you have basically one main road in and out, being able to keep the doors open is our goal.

We’re really pulling out everything and putting in one system, and trying to make everything work. This is going to be a big game changer for us.

We always felt that the other hosted models weren’t really in the business of hosting. It was more like a side business. We wanted to make sure that we got with the company that had that passion to do it right, and that’s what Mercy had.

Once we got the price worked out and we’re working on the actual terms, it’s not too far off from everything else that I’ve used in the past. It really comes down to service level, uptime agreements, who owns what data. 

Gamble:  Thank you so much for taking some time to speak with us, I appreciate it.

Dorst:  My pleasure, thanks for having me and I appreciate another opportunity to talk to healthsystemCIO.com.

Gamble:  I think the best place to start is by providing some information about Tahoe Forest. And it’s Tahoe Forest Health System, correct?

Dorst:  The official name is Tahoe Forest Hospital District. We’re actually a hospital district in the state of California. So technically, we’re part of the California governmental system.

Gamble:  Can you provide a background about the organization — size, where you’re located, things like that?

Dorst:  Sure. We’re in Truckee, California. It’s in the Tahoe-Truckee region near Lake Tahoe. The major cities are Reno, which is about 30 minutes to the east, and Sacramento, which is about 90 minutes to the west. Further down the road is San Francisco. So we’re kind of a resort town. We have a lot of skiing here, and there’s the lake, which is obviously a big draw. There’s a lot of camping, and there’s a national park. We see a lot of folks coming from our surrounding areas: San Francisco, Sacramento, and the eastern portions, which is largely Nevada.

We are a 25-bed critical access hospital. We have a total of 62 staffed beds, but as a critical access hospital, we have the 25-bed limit on certain beds. But we’re a lot more than just a critical access hospital. We have emergency services and orthopedic servi...