Health Care Advisory Council

Peter G. Churgin, MD, FCFP

Dr. Churgin was a pioneer in the use of the electronic medical record system (EMR). He led the EpicCare (Epic Systems) implementation at Cigna HealthCare in 1993 and published several articles describing that experience. He entered limited private practice in 2000 and has since provided frequent consultative services to many large healthcare organizations using EpicCare, concentrating on optimized implementation, physician efficiency and the use of EMR to improve quality of care and better manage the health of populations. He worked with the Kaiser Permanente KP HealthConnect national implementation team from February 2003 until December 2006, serving as the Clinical Content Quality Manager, and currently serves multiple other organizations in implementation support. He authored the text, Advanced Charting Techniques for EpicCare Physicians: Super Efficiency with SuperPhrases, in 2003. Popularly known as “the red book” this text presents a rich schema of organized documentation tools and has helped guide many physicians in their efficient use of charting. A new edition will be published in early 2007.

Dr. Churgin graduated from the McGill University School of Medicine in Montreal, Canada in 1978, completing residency in family medicine in 1980 at the University of Western Ontario. He is certified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada. Licensed in both Arizona and California, he has practiced family medicine primarily in managed care in Arizona since 1980.

Claire McCarthy, MA

Claire leads change management efforts that speed organizational transformation by reducing resistance to change. Her career has been devoted to helping people successfully transition to future states and is a recognized expert in change management, technology adoption, cross functional team development, organizational design and infrastructure development, and cultural and operational integration of acquisitions and subsidiaries.

As Director of Organizational Effectiveness for Kaiser Permanente’s national electronic medical records (EMR) deployment, Claire is responsible for leading a national community of practice focused on developing end user readiness. Through integration of cross functional work in change management, training, communications, labor relations, lessons learned and workforce planning, end users are prepared to assume new roles and responsibilities in support of organizational objectives.

With 25 years of healthcare industry Technology Adoption experience, Claire has designed and led the human side of technical implementations in a wide variety of software deployments, including electronic medical records, practice management (scheduling, registration, billing, claims), materiel management/supply chain, client relationship management, contracting and sourcing, e-commerce, and health plan product management. She is a collaborative system thinker with strong customer focus. She has the ability to provide positive leadership and achieve results by changing the way people think about their work.

Claire is a certified William Bridges Organizational Change practitioner, and is accredited in Accelerating Implementation Methodology from Implementation Management Associate, Inc. She holds a master’s degree in Qualitative Sociology from the University of Montana.

Doug Eastman, Ph.D.

Doug is an organization development consultant with extensive experience managing large scale change initiatives. With over 16 years of consulting experience Doug’s focus is to help organization’s grow and manage change by unleashing human potential. His specialties are organizational transformation, process redesign, executive coaching, strategic planning, program and tools development, facilitation and technology adoption.

Currently, Doug advises senior operational and project executives on the country’s largest electronic medical record (EMR) system implementation at Kaiser Permanente, a $31 billion national health care organization. He has leveraged best practices from across the program and developed implementation readiness tools and methodologies, as well as post go-live strategies and programs aimed to ensure end users are building the requisite level of system skill proficiency.

Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, Doug’s consulting career includes positions with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), Watson Wyatt Worldwide, and a boutique employee relations consulting firm. He was also the vice president of operations for a technology services firm that grew 200% during his tenure.

Doug serves on the Board of Directors for the Childhood Anxiety Network (SMG~CAN) and holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology, an M.A. in Psychology from Pepperdine University, and a B.A. from The Ohio State University.