Q&A with CIO Debbie Cancilla, Part 1: “Culture Drives a lot of Your Capabilities.”

“The most exciting part of healthcare right now is the disruptors who are entering the market.” It’s not exactly a shocking sentiment; for quite some time, analysts have predicted that companies like Google and Apple could shake things up considerably. In this case, however, the statement was made by Debbie Cancilla, a CIO with 25 years of healthcare experience. She believes that by underestimating these disruptors, the industry could miss out on tremendous partnership opportunities, particularly when it comes to improving the consumer experience. On the other hand, those who are willing to keep an open mind can help move their organizations in the right direction.

Recently, healthsystemCIO spoke with Cancilla, who was named CIO at NJ-based Atlantic Health in 2017, about the Epic task her team faces, why she was hesitant to take on another major EHR rollout – but eventually accepted the challenge, and why culture really is king. Cancilla also talks about what she considers to be the most valuable leadership qualities, and what excites her most about the future of healthcare.

Chapter 1



* Learning from CIOs outside of healthcare – “There are so many parallels.”

* Atlantic Health’s Epic migration

* EHR rollouts: “They’re hugely rewarding, but also very exhausting.”

* Big-bang vs phased approach – “One size doesn’t fit all.”

* Assessing user readiness

* Previous experience w/ Epic: “You learn about the cycles & trends”

* The “unglamourous work” of dealing with legacy systems

* Shared services through HTC



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Bold Statements

We’re all focused on trying to make the experience for whoever we serve more convenient and more transparent, and to get engagement from that population. When you look at those things from a different lens, your mind starts to get incredibly creative about some of the things you can do.

Without having data that is centralized, and not in disparate systems; without having a model you know is sustainable and a team that can support you, you can’t really be innovative. You can’t innovate without having all that in place. So it became a no-brainer; we said, ‘yes. Let’s get this done.’ And we did.

Clinicians are incredibly smart. They know what’s going on across the country and in other facilities, and they understand. If you’re behind a bit in the direction that things are moving, you’re going to question why your organization isn’t there as well. So I think that definitely contributed to readiness.

There are cyclical things that happen. One organization might say, ‘we need to change this,’ but you have a calmness associated with it where you understand that these things happen in waves after an implementation, and that the organization will work through it.

Gamble:  For some background, Atlantic Health is a large system with six hospitals based in northern New Jersey. Because it’s a very densely populated area, with quite a few health systems, do you feel like you really have to stay on top of things and communicate often with other CIOs?

Cancilla:  I’ve actually found a lot of value coming out of discussions with CIOs from other industries. I find that to really tap into something different or try to help support the system in more unique ways, you need some creativity, and I often find that comes from discussions with CIOs from other industries.

 

Gamble:  Are there any particular industries you tend to work with more often?

Cancilla:  Being in the market that we’re in, I’ve had the opportunity over the past year to talk with folks from a multitude of different industries. There’s a CIO in the cosmetics industry that I’ve spent time talking with. You’d think our worlds are miles apart,