Lynne Jones was named president of the newly formed EDCO Health Information Solutions Inc. The health care technology company previously operated as a division of St. Louis-based EDCO Group Inc., which was formed in 2001 after investors purchased a majority interest in the 40-year-old Springfield firm that transferred paper medical records to microfilm. EDCO was founded in 1961 by Drury University alumni Ron Elkins and Perry Davis. EDCO Health supports 100 hospitals across the United States and Canada, and Jones directly manages its 215-employee Springfield operations from a St. Louis office. She said the company is hiring another 30 workers as new clients have come on board.
The Spin Off “My position originated with EDCO Group Inc., and we were comprised of two divisions. Health Information Solutions has a patented technology called Solarity, and with (it) we provide a combination of software services and process knowledge to optimize (patient) health information in hospitals. … We had a structure in the combined company such that Bill Glassman, who is now the chairman and CEO, was really wearing dual hats and running the division of Health Information Solutions. I was working for (EDCO Group) as the chief administrative officer handling all of the human resources, training and compliance functions. … As we spun the company off, the resulting structure has myself as the president.”
Conflict of Interest “We also have an office in Sioux Falls, S.D. That technology office is a very critical backbone to our company. Our other [former] division deals with plaintiffs and moving electronic and medical records in the insurance and legal space. The commonality is we deal with electronic medical documents. As we matured with (ABI Document Support Services), it seemed it could be perceived by our hospital clients – because we have employees residing in hospitals – we could have hospital clients providing hospital records for our ABI employee in pursuit of a lawsuit, so it seemed like a conflict of interest. … One part of our business is back-file scanning, and that’s a declining business. The growing business is day forward (scanning), where we are dealing with active medical records.”
Before EDCO “I was with (Charter Communications) for approximately nine years (most recently as) senior vice president of human resources. We were across 21 states, and I led 160 human resources professionals. I also dealt heavily with our board of directors as I reported to the CEO. The human resources area is an interesting one because it crosses over different industries. When I left Charter, I actually did a little bit of consulting work with EDCO Group Inc. … I had an opportunity to come on board as the VP of human resources to establish a single culture between really three separate (divisions) – with ABI Document Support Services, Health Information Solutions and Solcom, which was the Sioux Falls technology group. I (came four years ago) to establish a really strong performance management system across the company where we march to fully aligned goals that cascade down from the CEO.” Video Chats “I do travel and always have. Springfield is three hours down Interstate 44, so it is not a lengthy (trip) at all. Additionally, we conduct a lot of our work via video conferencing. … When you have leaders in different geographical areas, it is quite easy to run a really solid company and collaborate cross-functionally via video conferencing. I think the role of a leader anywhere is to be a kind of orchestra leader where you are leading a team and facilitating that collaboration to make sure you have the necessary alignment cross-functionally to bring really solid services to our customers. … With the transition this year, I’ll travel maybe not once a week, but certainly at least once a month if not twice a month.”
Leading Leaders “My current duties are to oversee a strong group of leaders in operations and sales, (which) is headed by Jim Horton, our (vice president) of operations. … It has been a very comfortable progression. It’s all about putting the right people in the right seats and having the right skill sets of those people fully aligned in terms of what they are doing and accomplishing together.”[[In-content Ad]]
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