When you have timelines in place and milestones to meet, as CIOs always do, the last thing you want is to delay them. But when disaster strikes – and poses a strain on your team’s resources – difficult decisions have to be made; projects need to be put on hold and expectations need to be adjusted.
It’s a difficult scenario for any organization; particularly one specializing in behavioral health, where “patients can be even more distressed and have more anxiety and worry.” For BestSelf, which was formed by the merger of Child & Adolescent Treatment Services and Lake Shore Behavioral Health, meeting this needs of this population is one priority that cannot be put on hold, according to Kevin Wiese. Recently, he spoke with healthsystemCIO about how his team worked to ensure care continuity during the pandemic, all while ensuring a major EHR migration stays on track, and how he has been able to leverage his previous experience in project management. He also discussed the key challenges in going through a merger, how the organization is looking to improve security, and what he enjoys most about working in the behavioral health setting.
Part 1

* About BestSelf (formed through the merger of CATS and Lake Shore Behavioral Health)
* Migrating to Cerner Millennium
* Leveraging his project management experience: “Involve the right people and get the right input.”
* Assigning committees and super users to “to keep everybody in the loop.”
* Covid-19 response: “We were in a good position to scale our technology.”
* Phone counseling and Zoom group sessions to ensure care continuity
* Reprioritizing during the pandemic – “We have timelines in place and milestones to meet.”

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Bold Statements
I’m just trying to guide the process here. We really need clinical and business experts to have the most input when it comes to the decisions on build and workflow and implementation.
We were in a good position to scale our technology. We made some server infrastructure improvements right when we thought we might have to deploy some people to work remotely, and so we were able to get that done pretty quickly.
We’ve worked with some folks who had never used a lot of technology. In some cases, we’ve helped folks create an email address, for example, or instruct them on how to use an app on a smartphone or use Zoom for meetings. It’s been a great experience in that respect.
We have had to reprioritize and put a pause on a few of the initiatives or projects we had going on. Once we reached a steady state from a service standpoint, we started to reengage some of our other projects that were on our roadmap for 2020.
 
Gamble:  Hi Kevin, thanks so much for taking some time to speak with us. Let’s start with a high-level look at the organization so we can get some context.
Wiese:  BestSelf is a large, community-based behavioral health organization serving children and adults in Western New York. We serve mostly folks with mental health and substance use disorders, and we provide a full continuum of person-centered trauma and forum behavioral health treatment rehabilitation and recovery services. BestSelf was created in June of 2017 when two organizations merged: Child & Adolescent Treatment Services and Lake Shore Behavioral Health. We have approximately 15 outpatient clinics in Buffalo and surrounding areas, and we provide services in over 70 locations.
 
Gamble:  And you belong to HEALTHeLINK?
Wiese:  Correct. We participate in HEALTHeLINK,