COVID-19 ARMC Clinical Informatics Department  ·  Founded 2019  ·  Built and led through the pandemic  ·  San Bernardino County, California  ·  2020
🏢 ARMC  ·  2020  ·  Leading Through People

Built from nothing.
Led through everything.

The founding of ARMC’s first Clinical Informatics Department

In 2019, Dr. Reza Sadeghian was appointed Chief Medical Information Officer at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center and tasked with building something that had never existed there before: a dedicated Clinical Informatics Department. Then the pandemic arrived. What followed was one of the most demanding and defining periods of his career, and the team he built rose to every challenge.

Our Story → See the Results
34+Outpatient Services
54SNFs Onboarded
$1M+CARES Grants Won
97%Epic Engagement
Dr. Reza Sadeghian with ARMC Clinical Informatics team, September 2020
ARMC Clinical Informatics Department  ·  September 25, 2020  ·  San Bernardino County, CA
Dr. Reza Sadeghian
Dr. Reza Sadeghian, MD Founding CMIO  ·  ARMC
2020

How we built ARMC’s first Clinical Informatics Department

When Dr. Reza Sadeghian arrived at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in 2019, there was no Clinical Informatics Department. No infrastructure, no governance model, no dedicated team. He restructured the IT division, established the Medical Director of Clinical Informatics role, and began recruiting and developing the talent that would make everything else possible.

In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic reached San Bernardino County, the newly formed team was already in motion. Instead of stopping, they accelerated. Telemedicine programs that might have taken years were launched in weeks. County detention facilities and skilled nursing homes that had never used telehealth were onboarded. The team delivered over $1 million in CARES Act grant funding through two separate applications, an achievement that required not just technical execution but coordinated leadership under pressure.

The photograph on this page, taken September 25, 2020, captures that team at work, masked, socially distanced, and standing together. It is one of the defining images of what leading through people looks like in practice.

2019
Appointed CMIO at ARMC
Appointed by CEO and Board of Supervisors. Restructured the IT department and assumed Medical Director of Clinical Informatics. No existing department, no inherited team.
Early 2020
Department Built. Pandemic Begins.
Clinical Informatics Department fully operational as COVID-19 arrives in San Bernardino County. Team pivots immediately to telemedicine deployment and county-wide crisis response.
Mid 2020
Telemedicine Across 54 SNFs
Guided telemedicine deployment across 34+ outpatient services and 54 skilled nursing facilities across San Bernardino County, including County Detention Centers.
2020
$1M+ in CARES Act Grants
Secured over $1 million in telemedicine funding for ARMC through two CARES Act grants, under Dr. Sadeghian’s direct leadership and application effort.
Sep 2020
Team Photo — A Moment of Record
The Clinical Informatics Department team photographed together at ARMC. Dr. Sadeghian front and center. Masked. Together. Still building.
2021
Epic Engagement Reaches 97%
Governance model for Epic EMR program fully established. Clinician engagement rate reaches 97%, a benchmark result for any large health system implementation.
Change Management & Leadership

Leading through people means
building more than a department.

Dr. Reza Sadeghian’s leadership philosophy at ARMC was built on three principles: empower the team before the technology, build change from within rather than imposing it from above, and measure success by what remains after you leave.

🏛
Built from the Ground Up

There was no Clinical Informatics Department before Dr. Sadeghian arrived at ARMC. He recruited, structured, and developed the team that would carry the department through its most challenging period. Every process, every role, every governance document was created from scratch.

👨‍💻
Empower Through Change

Change management at ARMC was not a top-down mandate. It was a listening process. Dr. Sadeghian engaged frontline staff, clinical champions, and operational leaders to co-design workflows. The result was adoption, not resistance, even during a pandemic.

🤝
Inclusive Leadership Style

An inclusive leader who values honesty, transparency, forthrightness, and active listening. Dr. Sadeghian fostered an environment that valued information resources and assets, and built multidisciplinary teams to drive action-oriented results.

📈
Measurable Accountability

Every initiative had a metric. Epic engagement from 0% to 97%. Telemedicine from zero sites to 54 SNFs and 34 outpatient services. Denial reduction, cost reduction, and grant funding all tied to documented outcomes with responsible parties and timelines.

🋹️
Leading in Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic arrived as the department was just forming. Rather than slowing down, the team accelerated. Telemedicine programs launched in weeks. County-wide connectivity achieved in months. The crisis became a proof of what the team was built to do.

🎓
Lean & FMEA in Healthcare

Applied Lean manufacturing principles and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to healthcare operations, driving systematic process improvement and risk reduction across clinical and operational workflows at ARMC.

Team Development
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
for our management team.

ARMC Clinical Informatics  ·  2020

Dr. Reza Sadeghian ran the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment for the entire ARMC Clinical Informatics management team in 2020. The goal was not a personality exercise. It was a deliberate investment in self-awareness, communication, and team cohesion during one of the most stressful periods any healthcare team could face.

Understanding how each manager processed information, made decisions, and responded to conflict allowed the team to collaborate with intention rather than assumption. In a department being built in real time during a pandemic, that kind of foundation was not a luxury. It was a necessity.

ENTJThe CommanderStrategic leadership
INTJThe ArchitectSystems thinking
ENFJThe ProtagonistTeam empowerment
INFJThe AdvocateVision & purpose
ENTPThe DebaterInnovation driver
ESTJThe ExecutiveProcess & order
ISFJThe DefenderReliability & care
ESFJThe ConsulTeam harmony
Results & Impact — ARMC 2019 to 2022

What the team built, measured, and delivered.

97%
Epic Clinician Engagement
Governance model for ARMC’s Epic EMR program established from scratch. Clinician engagement reached 97%, a benchmark result for any large health system EMR implementation.
54
Skilled Nursing Facilities
Telemedicine deployed across 54 skilled nursing facilities throughout San Bernardino County, including County Detention Centers, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
34+
Outpatient Services
Guided telemedicine implementation across more than 34 outpatient services, transforming care delivery across the county during the height of the pandemic.
$1M+
CARES Act Grant Funding
Secured over $1 million in telemedicine funding for ARMC through two separate CARES Act grants, secured under Dr. Sadeghian’s direct leadership and application.
2
New Departments Founded
Established ARMC’s Clinical Informatics division and the Medical Director of Clinical Informatics role, creating organizational infrastructure that did not previously exist.
↓↓
Reduced Annual Costs
Implemented system efficiencies that increased productivity and reduced annual costs across financial management, budgeting, strategic planning, and organizational resource oversight.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

Chinese Proverb  ·  The founding principle of the ARMC Clinical Informatics Department

Writing & Publishing

Follow the thinking of Dr. Reza Sadeghian

Mediumreza-sadeghian.medium.com Read ↗
WordPress Blogrezasadeghian.wordpress.com Read ↗
Substacksubstack.com/@docrryan Read ↗
11 Books on Amazonamazon.com/stores/author View ↗
Contact

Get in touch with
Dr. Reza Sadeghian.

For speaking engagements, consulting, mentorship, media inquiries, or general questions, use the form below. All messages go directly to Dr. Sadeghian.

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