Meet the EHR
Game Changers
Leaders from across the health care spectrum have
played a role in the evolution of EHRs. By Gary Baldwin
Following are profiles of the recipients of Health Data Management’s third annual EHR Game Changers recog- nitionprogram. Theprogram
seeks to honor those throughout the health
care industry who have made substantial
contributions to the development and use
of clinical I. T.
The judges of this year’s program in-
cluded Chuck McDevitt and Vince Ciotti.
McDevitt is the vice-president and CIO for
Self Regional Healthcare, a 414-bed teach-
ing hospital serving 300,000 residents of the
seven-county, predominantly rural Lake-
land’s region of western South Carolina.
McDevitt is in charge of all aspects of infor-
mation technology as well as telecommu-
nications, bio-medical services, and health
information management at Self Regional
Healthcare. Ciotti has over 40 years experi-
ence in the HIS industry: 15 years working
for vendors in sales and implementations,
as well as 25 years consulting for hospitals
in I. T. assessments, system selections, and
contract negotiations. He is principal at
HIS Professionals LLC. Greg Gillespie, Joe
Goedert, and Gary Baldwin from the HDM
staff also judged entries.
Thinking big
When it comes to EHR deployments,
Catholic Health Partners defines big. Span-
ning 24 hospitals in Ohio and neighboring
states, the Cincinnati-based health system
began an enterprise rollout in early 2010
with the ambitious goal of a five-year com-
pletion. A key player in the effort is Stephen
Beck, M.D., charged with not only promot-
Name: Stephen Beck, M.D.
Position: Chief Medical Information Officer
Organization: Catholic Health Partners,
Cincinnati
Accomplishment: Massive EHR Roll-out
ing adoption of the EHR among physicians
and other providers, but guiding the overall
strategy for improved clinical outcomes.
He leads a team of nine clinical staff who
participate in the design, build and deploy-
ment of clinical I. T. Currently, half the hos-
pitals in the health system have gone live
with the EHR, from Epic, on the inpatient
side, while all 1,000 physicians employed
by the health system have adopted the
technology on the ambulatory side.
The Epic EHR replaces a mix of paper-
based and electronic systems. When com-
plete, Catholic Health Partners will have a
common patient record across all its sites,
drawing from a single database and built
around common workflows, Beck says. He
points to the emerging era of accountable
care as underscoring the need for a com-
mon system. “It’s important to have a com-
mon record as patients go from site to site,”
he says.
