Lacy A. Knight, M.D., M.S., has joined Piedmont Healthcare as Chief Health Information Officer (CHIO), a role that is significant for oversight of the system’s electronic health record (EHR), Epic. Dr. Knight is an emergency medicine physician who brings with him over 20 years of healthcare experience, much of this time working with clinical technology.

Epic has played a major role in Piedmont’s strategic growth and quality improvements by achieving efficiencies and standardizing clinical processes at each of the system’s 11 hospitals and 660 locations. With six As in the most recent Leapfrog Group Safety Grade, Piedmont is the safest system in Georgia. As CHIO, Dr. Knight will play a critical role in working as a bridge between Piedmont’s clinical teams that provide bed-side care and its Information Service team to make sure communication is effective and efficient for the benefit of the more than 2 million patients that Piedmont treats annually. As Piedmont continues to grow, Dr. Knight will oversee EHR implementations.

For the last 20 years, Dr. Knight worked in Illinois, most recently as chief medical information executive for the North Region and physician director of Health Informatics at Northwestern Medicine, a system with 10 hospitals and 600 locations. He has also worked as an Emergency Services medical director, independent consultant and emergency physician. Dr. Knight was the physician lead for implementations of clinical technology at several hospitals in that area.

“We are pleased to announce Dr. Knight will be joining us at Piedmont – his talent and experience speak for themselves,” said Piedmont Healthcare Chief Medical Officer Leigh Hamby, M.D. “While working in the Chicago area, Dr. Knight served patients by assisting with implementations of clinical technology. We know he will continue his great work here by helping us realize our vision of creating a one-of-a-kind experience that puts patients first.”

“I am very excited to join the Piedmont team, which has a growing reputation nationally for its clinical quality,” Dr. Knight said. “As someone whose career has combined technology and medicine, I look forward to being part of a system like Piedmont whose values include embracing technology and placing the patient’s experience at the center of the organization.”

In 2015, he earned a Master of Science degree in Medical Informatics from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. He received a Bachelor of Arts and medical degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine in Kansas City, Mo.

Dr. Knight and his wife, Bernadette, have three children: son, Morgan, and two daughters, Jameson and Dylan.