Podcast Interview with CIO James Wellman, Part 1: “Developing Trust Is Key.”

During a time as challenging as the one in which healthcare finds itself, agile isn’t a buzzword. It’s a means of survival. And as leaders face an onslaught of hurdles — some of which are constantly changing — the COVID-19 pandemic is “shining a light” on those who aren’t willing or able to respond, said James Wellman, CIO at Blanchard Valley Health System. “You can’t hide from this. If you’re not able to adapt, we’re going to see some fallout.”

Wellman is no stranger to adapting, have just joined the organization — and become its first administrative-level CIO — in July of last year. In a recent interview, he talked about the strategy he used to adjust to the role and gain the trust of his team; an approach that paid off when disaster struck a few weeks ago. He also discusses how they’re leveraging tools like Zoom and TEAMS to support the growing remote workforce, and most importantly, how they’re enabling providers to deliver care.

Part 1



* About Blanchard Valley

* Using a remoted-hosted EHR: “As much as I can push out to the cloud, I’m going to do it.”

* BVHS’ first CIO

* Developing trust early on – “That has been key.”

* Standing up a remote workforce

* Quick Zoom install – “The physicians have all embraced this.”

* Healthcare’s “wartime innovation mindset”

* Collaboration during crisis



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Bold Statements

It’s much easier to restore some semblance of communications than it is to rebuild the data center. And so, as much as I can push out to the cloud and get offsite, I’m going to do it.

They had a lot of good processes in place; that was one of the really nice things coming here. So it felt like I was here to polish, rather than to rebuild.

Developing that trust has been key, because if I had spent that time rounding and nobody knew who I was, or I wasn’t walking around, and then I walk into a situation like this, that’s rough. It’s a rough time for people to be meeting me.

The physicians have all embraced this. They’re working really hard. Our utilization numbers are amazing; when I look at the Zoom dashboards, I see everyone using the system and coming up with new ideas and new things to do every single day. It’s been great.

Gamble:  I’d like to talk about what your team is doing, and how the strategy has changed. But first, you’ve been at Blanchard Valley since last summer, correct?

Wellman:  Yes, I arrived in July.

 

Gamble:  Can you give a little information about the organization — where you’re located and what you have in terms of hospitals, things like that?

Wellman:  We’re in Findlay, Ohio, which is in the northwest. We have two hospitals: 150 beds at our primary location, and a 25-bed critical access hospital in Bluffton. We have 3,000 employees. It’s a really nice area; we’ve enjoyed moving here.

 

Gamble:  Is it a fairly rural area? How would you describe it?

Wellman:  Findlay is kind of an anomaly. It’s a micropolitan; the population is less than 50,000, but it’s the number one rated city in the U.S. for five years running, and the hope is to make it six. It’s an amazing place to live.

I also wanted to mention that Blanchard joined the Mayo Clinic Care Network in 2019. Less than 45 health systems in the world are part of that, and so we were honored to meet their criteria.

 

Gamble:  It sounds like it was a good landing spot. In terms of EHR, what do you have at this point?

Wellman:  We have Millennium at both facilities.