Mike Canfield, VP of Operations & CIO, Firelands Regional Medical Center, Chapter 2

When it comes to assembling an EHR selection committee, organizations have to think like Goldilocks; not too big, and not too small. Too big of a group means too many opinions to reconcile, and too small gives off the impression that only a few voices count. And so when Firelands Regional put together a group, CIO Mike Canfield opted for somewhere in the middle, a move he believes will pay off come decision time. In this interview, he talks about why the organization is ripping out its EHR system and why it’s critical to have a vendor that will serve as a true partner. Canfield also discusses the major changes he faced after joining Firelands, why having a solid knowledge of project management is a must, and what 20 years in health IT has taught him.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2



* Creating the right-sized EHR selection team — “We’re not trying to do a backroom deal.”

* Relying on consultants to fill in the gaps

* Vendor management — “It’s a whole different relationship now.”

* Sharing best practices — “I’m a huge fan of stealing shamelessly.”

* 4 years at Firelands

* Dealing with a leadership shake-up



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Bold Statements

The risk of involving a bunch of people is that when you pick a system that isn’t their favorite, instead of feeling part of the process, they feel disfranchised and disappointed. We don’t need that going into a system implementation.

The systems are extraordinarily complex, and the demands are so significant that you really need a vendor who can partner with you and help you make sure you get the most possible out of their system.

It’s a great opportunity to talk with both of them about everything from their system selection process to the actual implementation, the consultants they use, the value the vendors have brought to the table, and the challenges they’ve had in their C-suite as they try to make this all happen.

Implementing systems and working out workflows and reporting needs and all the normal IT stuff that you do on a day-to-day basis really does give you a good understanding of how all the different units in a hospital operate, so it really wasn’t as foreign as you might think to make a move to actually start overseeing some of those organizations.

It was a little disconcerting to see them leave and have obviously a new CEO come in the middle of that and have him try to get his bearings with the organization, as well as manage that level of change. It was difficult, but we did well.

Gamble:  That’s something I’m sure is an interesting thing to approach. Do you have ideas on how you’re going to do that just as far as getting input on the different systems and doing visits, things like that?

Canfield:  It’s been an interesting discussion, so on one end of the spectrum is get everybody in the organization involved and have a really, really large team so that you’ve got good communication upfront and you’ve got everybody understanding what we’re trying to do and people starting to feel a sense of ownership because they’re part of the process. And of course, the other end of the spectrum is have a relatively small group of people sit down, look at the data and information, do a couple of site visits, and make a decision. I think we’re starting to trend toward the smaller-sized team for a lot of decision-making and for offsite demos. We’ll certainly involve as many people as we possibly can for onsite software demos that we do, but the risk of involving a bunch of people is that when you pick a system that isn’t their favorite, instead of feeling part of the process,