Skip Rollins, CIO & CISO, Freeman Health System, Chapter 3

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

Chapter 2

Chapter 3



* Working with Avante on a “fully-integrated” project management tool

* 15 years in consulting

* Coming to Freeman in 2014 — “I really liked the culture.”

* Focusing on the “bigger picture” as CISO

* Partnering with local schools to recruit talent

* “It’s all about the person and their personality.”

* Continuous learning: “If you snooze, you lose.”



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Bold Statements

It gives us a fully-integrated task management and project management tool that allows us to do a lot of things around understanding our productivity that we could have never got in place without spending a ton of money and without forcing integration between systems.

It allows me to not have to get into the nuts and bolts of what’s going on, but instead to really look at it on a big picture scale and work with the executive leadership team around security, and it’s been good. It really folds into my CIO job pretty seamlessly.

It’s all about the person and their personality. We can teach them what we need them to know when it comes to technology, but are they a fit for the culture in this organization? And even more so, are they a fit with our culture in IT? Do they communicate well? Can they adapt to change?

We all continue to evolve ourselves, and honestly sometimes struggle to keep abreast of the technology that’s out there, the trends in the industry, and the legislative challenges. Those are all things where if you snooze, you lose, because it changes very quickly.

Gamble:  What were some of the other areas where you’re doing co-development work with vendors?

Rollins:  We’re doing a pilot for a new product with Philips around patient monitoring. I wouldn’t say co-development; it’s more of an early adopter pilot. So we’re doing some things with them, and we’re also doing an early adopter pilot with Mobile Heartbeat on a physician-nurse communication platform. That one is certainly a co-development effort. We’re doing a lot of work with them to try to get through that product as well.

Gamble:  All right. As far as some of the other initiatives on your plate, obviously you have the big EHR decision, but is there anything else that’s a big priority for you and your team right now?

Rollins:  Like everyone, we always have to put regulatory things first. We were relieved to see them back off a little bit on Meaningful Use 3. We’re also doing things with telemedicine and broadening those efforts. We’re also doing some pretty innovative things where our physicians are going out to nursing homes in our community and rounding...