Skip Rollins, CIO & CISO, Freeman Health System, Chapter 1

When it comes to partnering with vendors, there’s one thing a CIO needs to keep in mind: if it isn’t working, you must be willing to walk away. Skip Rollins has done just that, but he’s also been involved with co-development projects that have been very successful for both parties. The key, he says, is putting trust in each other. In this interview, the CIO of Freeman Health System talks about the pros and cons of partnerships, along with the major decision his team faces in selecting a core EHR vendor, one that he believes can’t be made in a vacuum, and can’t be rushed.

Rollins also opens up about his past experience in consulting and why he decided to return to the CIO world, how his organization is dealing with recruiting challenges, and why he believes continuous learning is a critical component of the health IT leader’s role.

Chapter 1



* Freeman’s 3-hospital system: “We see ourselves as a cornerstone of the community.”

* Working in a multiple-vendor environment

* EHR selection process — “We’ve done a thorough vetting of the market.”

* Setting a goal for end of 2017

* “Knee-jerk reaction decisions rarely turn out well.”

* Patient flow initiative with TeleTracking — “It’s all about maximizing our resources.”



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Bold Statements

We see ourselves as a cornerstone of the community, and that’s not always the same when you get into larger metropolitan health systems where everybody has a little piece of territory staked out.

We’ve done a thorough vetting of the market. We’ve done cost analysis for the three big players and have looked at both 5- and 10-year TCOs to make sure that we understood the full impact of doing business with any of them. We’ve analyzed the numbers. And honestly, we’re struggling

Knee-jerk reaction decisions very rarely turn out well. You’re much better off to vet it and understand the implications in the long term. And it’s frustrating for folks when you’re deliberate about your decision-making, but the prudent thing to do is to make sure that you understand everything around you before you make an important decision

We wanted to make it so that the departments were owning the schedules, and if there were changes to be made, they were made with the department and we were simply the people that pushed the button to make the alert.

Gamble:  Hi Skip, thanks for joining us today. I think the best place to start is by providing some information about Freeman Health System — what you have in terms of hospitals, clinics, and where you’re located.

Rollins:  Freeman Health System is a community health system. We’re located in Southwest Missouri, in an area that generally is called the Four State Area because Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri all come together in a very close vicinity. We pull customers from all four areas. We’re a three-hospital health system with just under 500 beds. We’re a regional health system. We draw customers from generally about 50 to 60 miles around us. Freeman has been open and been in this area since the 1920s, and they like to say that they’ve never shut their doors. It’s what I would consider to be a very typical community health system.

Gamble:  As far as being a locally-owned organization, what does that mean from your perspective?

Rollins:  Profitability is always important, but it’s not as important as being a good steward of the community. And Freeman is the largest employer in Joplin. Therefore, we see ourselves as a cornerstone of the community, and that’s not always the same when you get into larger metropolitan health systems where everybody has a little piece of territory staked out. We see ourselves as the healthcare provider for a large geographical area and actually a...