Stephanie Lahr, MD, CIO & CMIO, Regional Health, Chapter 2

If an organization wants to ensure a successful EHR rollout, there are many components that are important, but one that is absolutely essential. The people who will use the technology must be “intimately involved in developing the strategy and testing the workflows.”

It may sound simple, but in reality, “It’s very easy not to do that,” said Stephanie Lahr, MD, CIO and CMIO at Regional Health. As a physician, she knows firsthand how difficult it can be to dedicate the time needed to sit down with everyone from OR surgeons to the front-desk staff and utilize their input in creating a roadmap. But it absolutely has to happen.

Recently, healthsystemCIO spoke with Lahr about her organization’s transformation – including why they chose to do a big bang, what it took to lay the foundation, and why they contracted with a third party. She also discusses the importance of having a “physician-driven governing body with a technology focus,” her team’s vision for the future, and how she is able to balance dual leadership roles.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2



* Operational engagement in EHR rollouts – “It’s imperative.”

* Clinical transformation driving by end users, not IT

* Big-bang, organization-wide Epic rollout

* “We weren’t going to be experts at go-live”

* Contracting w/ Nuance for support and clinical help desk

* “That made all the difference.”

* Dual CIO & CMIO roles – “It’s been a learning process.”



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Bold Statements

The operations team that’s doing that work day in and out day, all day long — the physicians working in the emergency room, the surgeons in the OR, our clinic physicians — they’re the ones we really have to engage.

It wasn’t something where IT came out and said, ‘It’s time to get a new EHR.’ It was very much the opposite; it was the end users saying, ‘We need something different.’

There are more ways to do things, which sometimes is great; but sometimes, it’s difficult to learn the new workflows, and you run into stumbling blocks. We needed our clinical folks to have that support any time, day or night, that they might need it.

From the very moment we went live, if a patient that was in one of our smaller hospitals needed to be transferred to our larger, tertiary care hospital in Rapid City, we were able to do that, leveraging the full information-sharing capabilities of the system.

Gamble:  I imagine it’s really important to have the right approach, especially when you’re dealing with this type of change.

Lahr:  As a physician in a CIO role, it probably is easier for me because I came into the IT side from operations. Still, you have to have a clear focus on the operational impact of what it is you’re giving to people. And even though I come from a clinical background and still have some limited clinical practice, the operations team that’s doing that work day in and out day, all day long — the physicians working in the emergency room, the surgeons in the OR, our clinic physicians — they’re the ones we really have to engage. And that goes for our front desk staff, our billing folks, and the nursing staff both in clinics and in the hospitals as well. The best way how to figure out how to build them what they need is to get their engagement and their participation.

I think the key to success with any rollout — whether it’s an EHR or any other technology system — is to ensure the operational folks who need that technology are intimately involved in developing the strategy and testing out the workflows; and it’s very easy not to do that. It’s easy,