Q&A with Laishy Williams-Carlson, Part 2: “The way we think about diversity has evolved a lot.”

With any major project, establishing guiding principles is an absolutely critical step, but it’s one that doesn’t come without a healthy dose of dissidence. In fact, Laishy Williams-Carlson believes “there are some things you should argue about,” especially with a major EHR rollout. For CIOs, what’s most important is being able to establish a consensus, even where there is disagreement, and use those principles “as your north star.”

During a recent interview, Williams-Carlson talked about the Epic project she’s taking on in her new role as CIO at Roper St. Francis, and how she hopes to leverage some of the many lessons learned during the pandemic to ensure a (relatively) smooth implementation. She also talks about how she has navigated the transition from Bon Secours Mercy to Roper St. Francis — a move she made “with eyes wide open,” the difficult balance leaders face in sticking to a proven formula while also remaining “tried and true,” and how her thoughts on work-life balance have evolved.

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Key Takeaways



* Having different departments and stakeholders aligned on a common initiative, rather than arguing about priorities, was perhaps the biggest factor in what IT teams achieved during Covid.

* As Roper St. Francis moves forward with its Epic rollout, Williams-Carlson’s top priority is “structuring the right governance and oversight.”

* A critical aspect in any major initiative is to develop strong guiding principles, which means wading through some difficult conversations. “These are things you should argue about.”

* Part of being a female leader in a traditionally male-dominated field is in recognizing the challenges it presents, and embracing the opportunities.





Q&A with Laishy Williams-Carlson, Part 2 [Click here to view Part 1]

Gamble:  During the past year, we saw a recognition of what IT teams can do and how hard they worked, especially during the early days of Covid, and I think for a lot of organizations, the thinking has been, how can we capitalize on that?

Williams-Carlson:  I could not agree with you more. Recalling that I’ve just been with Roper St. Francis since mid-January, having spent all of 2020 with Bon Secours Mercy, I think it was eye-opening how quickly we stood up capabilities for virtual visits. We were the health system that [Epic CEO] Judy Faulkner quoted about going from 50 virtual visits pre-pandemic across our entire health system, to having more than 8,000 virtual visits in a single day; and that happened within a month.

The capability was there, just not that burning platform of both providers and patients feeling like they wanted to do virtual visits. And so it was an immense source of pride for me that our team was able to step up and build on that infrastructure that was already there. We also made many changes in our Epic system to accommodate new workflows for Covid units and new dashboards — just a lot of great work.

The power of alignment

I’ve done some reflecting on why were we able to get so much done, so much more quickly during the pandemic than in a typical business year, and I think there were a couple of key things. Actually, I wish I could bottle that — without a pandemic, of course. But I do hope to use some those lessons learned with our Epic implementation.

The first thing that was obvious to me is the power of having the entire organiz...