Patty Lavely, SVP & CIO, Gwinnett Health System, Chapter 3

When Patty Lavely stepped into the CIO role at Gwinnett two years ago, one of her top priorities was to build a strong relationship with the CNO. It was something she had admittedly struggled with in the past, but one of the many lessons she learned during her time in consulting was that relationship management is an essential skill for today’s CIOs. In this interview, she shares more takeaways from her time in consulting, including how to build trust, and how to avoid the common trop of hiding behind bureaucracy. Lavely also discusses leading a major EHR selection process, how the organization revamped the security process by reassigning responsibilities, and the “daily challenge” CIOs face with prioritization.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3



* Interim CIO

* Guardrails for demand management — “It was quite eye-opening.”

* Consulting experience in her back pocket

* Introverts managing relationships

* Building trust

* Evolving CIO role — “We have to understand the business.”

* “Innovation isn’t easy.”



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Bold Statements

I don’t want to use bureaucracy for a demand management strategy. I’d rather get back to this idea that, yes, we have a budget, yes, we have processes, but we need to be doing what’s right for the organization in a timely manner.

I’m very open to people bringing me issues. I will take it and then assign it to someone, but make sure there’s follow-up regardless of who it is. Rather than to say, ‘call the help desk, or, ‘you need to call so and so,’ I facilitate that process.

In years past, we could get away with just knowing the technology. That’s not the case anymore; we have to understand the business.

One of the most important skills, other than identifying innovative technologies that would be a good fit, is identifying the right people and building those relationships.

We weren’t usually not the brightest personality in the room in days past. I think that’s changing now and I think it will continue to change, because it does require a personality to develop those relationships and to bring people together.

Lavely:  One of things I did discover while consulting is, I still like the leadership positions. I really enjoyed going in as an interim leader. I did some other consulting that was more project based and that wasn’t as appealing to me. One of the nice things about being a consultant that is different from when you’re an employed CIO, which was quite an awakening for me, is when you’re employed, there’s a lot of obligations that you have as an executive of the organization or as part of the management team that take a lot of time. Whether that be management team meetings, mandatory education, or social events, there are a lot of different things that you have to do and when you’re an interim leader, you don’t have to do any of that. You just go in and get the job done, and I found that very rewarding. It really sort of clears away all of the corporate, I want to say, busy work. And I don’t mean to minimize it because it’s really all necessary, but most of it doesn’t contribute to the work at hand — it’s in addition to. And so, it really helped me to take a look at where I spend my time and what I prioritize.

The other thing that became very clear to me is that corporate organizations — Gwinnett and all of the ones I’ve been a part of — have this bureaucracy that you work within. It’s pretty much the same, although there are nuances to each organization,