Jonathan Goldberg, CIO, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Chapter 1

When asked why they chose to pursue a new role, leaders often say they needed a challenge. Although sometimes it can be code for another reason, it certainly seems fitting in Jonathan Goldberg’s case. A year and a half ago, he left St. Peter’s Health Partners in upstate New York to serve as CIO at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the only facility of its kind in a state that ranks 49th overall in children’s health. While that might have some people running for the hills, Goldberg views it as a “huge opportunity to make a difference.” In this interview, he talks about the learning curve in transitioning to pediatric care, the challenge in juggling multiple big projects at the same time, the innovative work his team is doing with telemedicine, and how they’re leveraging technology to stay lean.

Chapter 1



* About ACH, Arkansas’ only children’s hospital

* Opening a new hospital in 2018

* Migrating to Epic — “We just wrapped up the build phase.”

* Tackling ERP, decision support, and staffing

* Creating a statewide CIN

* 2-year contracts: “It was for everyone’s protection.”

* Balancing multiple projects — “It was an all or none proposition.”



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Bold Statements

Not only are we going to implement with Epic, but we actually have to get the whole hospital outfitted with the infrastructure needed for them to function.

There may be an opportunity where, after the implementation, the staff size realistically may shrink. We’re hoping, whether it’s through attrition or whether we have other needs, that we can move people around to other projects.

A year and a half or two years from now when we’re looking at our needs, we want some flexibility to be able to make good decisions. We didn’t want anybody to say, ‘I can’t believe I moved from a job I had for 15 years to join the Epic team, and now you’re saying you don’t need me or my skill set anymore.’

We had a significant strategy around management of labor, and with API, it brought labor analytics to the table, and that capability is something that was very important to us. And so while we didn’t need to do it at the same time, it was important enough that we thought it made sense to do it in combination with the change of our payroll system.

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

Goldberg:  My pleasure. Always fun to talk to you.

Gamble:  I think the best way to start is with some basic information about Arkansas Children’s Hospital — what’s the size of the organization, the number of physicians, and things like that.

Goldberg:  Sure. We’re based in Little Rock, which is smack in the middle of the state of Arkansas, and we actually provide care for the entire state. We’re the only children’s hospital within the state of Arkansas, and we have a little over 350 licensed beds at this point. We are building a second hospital in northwest Arkansas, also known as the backyard of Wal-Mart. Arkansas is somewhat of a rural state, but the two population centers are Little Rock and what we call Northwest, which is Bentonville, Springdale-Rogers and Fayetteville, with Fayetteville being the home of the University of Arkansas.

As our population grew, we realized a lot of those folks were coming down here for care to Little Rock, which is about a 3 or 3.5-hour drive, or we were transporting people via helicopters and ambulances.

It’s been a planning exercise, but we actually have that hospital under construction now. It’s a small hospital, but it’ll be one that’ll enable us to keep some of the folks that need more general medic...