Michael Elley, System VP of IT, OhioHealth, Chapter 2

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

Chapter 2



* Enterprise analytics roadmap

* “It’s not a switch you can flip.”

* Sharing best practices through the Columbus Collaboratory

* MyOhioHealth mobile platform — “We’re engaging with patients differently.”

* Interacting with patients through virtual health

* Learning from retail

* “The more flexibility we provide them, the better relationship they’re going to have with us.”



LISTEN NOW USING THE PLAYER BELOW OR CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR iTUNES PODCAST FEED

Bold Statements

We need to invest more resources from a staffing perspective and identify where those resources need to go and what they need to focus on. In addition, we also need to look at how we can better adopt data governance best practices; we’ve had data governance within the organization, but we think those things can improve.

Yes, this is going to take some time to build, but we’re in a good place to where we’re very financially stable and there is a huge demand for smart data with an organization and we have the support of the senior leaders throughout OhioHealth to help to make this happen.

Some of these organizations have huge helpdesk centers with all sorts of analytics at how people manage and maintain and operationalize and improve their service centers. Those are things we all can learn from. It doesn’t matter if you’re in retail, if you’re in healthcare, if you’re in the financial sector, or what.

The more that we can put into the hands of the consumers, the more power we give them and provide them and the more flexibility we provide them, the better relationship that they are going to have with us and we’re going to have with them.

Gamble:  So you’re fairly early along in the process of enterprise analytics (EA), as far as outlining what needs to happen and in what order, and what’s really the most practical.

Elley:  It is. We really want to develop an EA strategy roadmap, and so we’re looking at what that looks like and who we need to probably bring in from the outside to do that. We need to invest more resources from a staffing perspective and identify where those resources need to go and what they need to focus on. In addition, we also need to look at how we can better adopt data governance best practices; we’ve had data governance within the organization, but we think those things can improve. Sometimes it can be a struggle to manage our data. So those are some of the three areas that we’re really focusing on: resources, strategy, and data governance, which we think will help us get to a better place.

Gamble:  It’s really an exciting area, but one where there’s just so much potential. Is it difficult to try to map out what can be done because there is so much demand?

Elley:  It is. Like with anything, it’s not a switch you can flip. This is going to take a few years to build. We’ve looked at some organizations like UPMC and Intermou...