Michael Elley, System VP of IT, OhioHealth, Chapter 1

It’s no secret that healthcare lags behind other industries when it comes to adopting and leveraging technology. What smart organizations are learning is that the best way to close the gap is to engage with other businesses. OhioHealth is doing just that by participating in an initiative in which leaders from banking, retail, and other areas share best practices in analytics and cybersecurity. It’s precisely that spirit of innovation that drew Michael Elley to the organization. In this interview, he talks about OhioHealth’s learning lab, how his team is preparing for the value-based care world, and the enormous impact that operational ownership can have on a project’s success. Elley also discusses the pros and cons of both small and large organizations, and why he knows he’s in the right place.

Chapter 1



* About OhioHealth

* Role as VP of IT: “I was willing to take a step back.”

* Epic Community Connect

* Targeting independent practices: “They have a deep appreciation for what Epic could provide.”

* Operational ownership — “It helps tremendously.”

* Journey to value-based care



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Bold Statements

There’s something to be said about being at a large organization that has the ability to do some pretty interesting and neat things within healthcare, and I missed that environment. So I was willing to take a step back from the CIO role in a medium-sized organization.

We think we can do that best first with our own associates, take some lessons learned, and then take that out to the community, take that out to the large businesses and small businesses, and take that out to other independent providers and improve the sharing of data.

If we’re trying to make improvements within our surgical IT applications, that’s not led by anybody from IT; that’s led by a surgical leader throughout the organization. So it continues to be pervasive in that way and it’s helped us quickly assimilate the changes that Epic has brought.

If we can provide the data that everybody needs, either at the bedside or at their desk or wherever, that we’ll be able to make better decisions and take better care and be more prescriptive with how we take care of patients, and more predictive with how we take care of patients.

Gamble:  Hi Michael, thanks so much for taking some time to speak with healthsystemCIO.com.

Elley:  Glad to be here, Kate. Thanks for having me.

Gamble:  Sure. A good place to start would be to give some general information about OhioHealth — what you have in the way of hospitals, things like that. And obviously you’re located in Ohio, but where exactly?

Elley:  We are centrally located in Columbus, Ohio. We have 11 hospitals spread throughout Columbus and throughout the central region of Ohio.

Gamble:  And I imagine there’s quite a bit going on as far as ambulatory sites.

Elley:  There are all sorts of activities are happening. We are ramping up with our Community Connect program, looking to integrate more and more private practices and potentially some hospitals into our Epic instance and making some really sound, smart decisions about different ambulatory practices to bring onboard.

Gamble:  And your role is system VP of IT?

Elley:  Yes, that’s correct. I have oversight over shared services. So I oversee our enterprising analytics for the organization, our innovation efforts, and our mobile space. We’re doing a lot of things there right now. I also oversee our project management office, finance, imaging, engineering, and our business relation managers. So a lot of the shared services activities fall under my responsibilities and my accountabilities.

Gamble:  Who do you actually report to?

Elley:  I report to Senior VP and CIO, Michael Krouse,