Michael Martz, CIO, Ohio Valley Health Services, Chapter 3

“Are you out of your mind?” It was the reaction Mike Martz received when he left Meadville Medical Center, the community hospital that was one of the first in the country to implement Meditech 6.1, only to do it all over again at a two-hospital system with a lean budget. But to Martz, it was a chance to drive positive change; not just by migrating to a new platform, but by forging a new path at an organization that didn’t have a CIO. In this interview, he talks about how he’s applying lessons learned from the previous Meditech migration to the current initiative, why he believes big bang is the only way to go, and his approach to being the new CIO. Martz also shares his thoughts on how to build credibility with senior leaders, and why it’s essential to be recognized first as a executive.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3



* From Meadville to OVHS

* “You’re going to need a CIO.”

* The appeal of a “larger, more complex organization.”

* “I was pleased with the leadership team here and their drive for change”

* The “rich opportunity” to implement Meditech 6.1 (again)

* Strategy as the new CIO: “Watch, learn and observe”

* From “data plumbers” to true executives



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Bold Statements

I advised the CFO that to make this project successful, one thing they’re going to need is a CIO — not to manage the technology, but to manage the politics of the organization and all of the process change and the culture change that’s involved with making this successful.

I really like helping an organization change and improve for the better, be it through better data, better processes, better support for customers — whatever it is, that ability to make change and make improvements is something that really excites me.

I’ve intentionally taken the first six months just to learn what this group does well and where our real challenges are — to not make changes just because I like my way better, but really learn to adapt the best of what I know to the best of what they already know and already do.

There’s nothing more important for any executive, especially for a CIO, than to be transparent and credible with their peers at the executive table. We need to accept blame where we should and apologize when it’s appropriate, but we also need to feel fully comfortable holding others accountable.

A lot of the organization has wound up referring to IT for advice and guidance, and that’s exactly the kind of organization I want to see us be, where we’re looked up to as people who can help the organization — not just as data plumbers.

Gamble:  You’ve been there about six months, and I’m sure that it probably seems like longer.

Martz:  At times.

Gamble:  Can you talk about your decision to take on this role and what drew you to this particular organization?

Martz:  That actually wound up being an interesting story. I was talking with this organization while I was at Meadville purely on an advisory basis for a year, because we had just moved to Meditech 6.1 there, and this organization was choosing where they wanted to go in the future. They were looking at Meditech 6.1 or at Epic hosted through another organization, and were going through the evaluation comparing the two. They eventually decided that Meditech was the better platform to go to, which I was interested to see, but happy to see. And I had started communicating with them about how do you organize the project, how do you choose the consulting companies,