Acadia Healthcare CIO Wins Tennessee Orbie Award

 TennesseeCIO recently awarded Laura Groschen, executive vice president and chief information officer at Acadia Healthcare, with the CIO of the Year award in the Enterprise category at the 2024 Tennessee Orbie Awards. The Tennessee Orbie Awards is considered the premier technology executive recognition program in Tennessee, honoring CIOs who have demonstrated excellence in technology leadership.
Acadia Healthcare, based in Franklin, Tenn, named Groschen as CIO in January 2023. The company tasked her with shaping and advancing Acadia Healthcare’s information technology strategy.
A group of fellow CIOs in Tennessee made the decision to honor Groschen with the award. The Enterprise Orbie is given to a CIO at a company with up to $5 billion in annual revenue.
“Truly an honor to be recognized by this community,” Groschen wrote in a post on LinkedIn. “To me, this is a team award as it would not be possible without the incredible partnerships with the business and the hard work, dedication, and innovation of the IT team.”

Orbie Awards Recognize Achievement in Fast-Paced Tech World

TennesseeCIO offers Orbie awards across seven categories: global, large enterprise, enterprise, large corporate, corporate, public sector/government, and leadership.
“Tennessee’s top CIOs know that technology moves fast, and connected leaders move even faster, which makes the Orbie awards so meaningful,” Carman Wenkoff, TennesseeCIO chair and EVP/CIO at Dollar General, said in a news release. “Award winners are chosen by fellow CIOs who understand the challenges of technology leadership. The Tennessee Orbie awards honor CIOs who are driving transformative change in Tennessee’s economy, and we’re proud to celebrate these exceptional achievements in the Volunteer State and beyond.”
The award recognized Groschen for her leadership, management skills, and the value she has created through technology innovation. She has overseen an expansion in the use of technology in Acadia Healthcare’s network of facilities, including the adoption of electronic medical records at acute care hospitals and investment in digital tools designed to improve patient care and enhance safety for both patients and staff members.
Groschen came to Acadia Healthcare with more than 25 years at large health care and consumer-focused IT organizations. That included serving as business unit CIO at Medtronic, where she also led the IT strategy for mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. She also worked as business unit CIO for UnitedHealth Group, where she led implementing technology solutions for federal and state governments in support of the Affordable Care Act.
At the time of her hiring, Acadia Healthcare CEO Chris Hunter said Groschen was a good fit for the company.
“She brings the right complement of IT and business leadership experience and a strong history of leveraging technology and supporting a culture of innovation for leading health care companies,” Hunter said. “As Acadia continues to grow, we are committed to creating and implementing best-in-class IT solutions that will further enhance the delivery of care and support the patients we serve. Laura will be an integral part of this transformation, and we are excited about our renewed IT focus as we continue to execute our growth strategy.”

Advances in Technology at Acadia Healthcare

Investment in technology is part of Acadia Healthcare’s growth strategy. The company has allocated about $100 million in incremental technology investments.
Adoption of technology has lagged in the behavioral health industry when compared to other areas of health care. That’s due in part to the fact that the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 largely excluded behavioral health providers from the HITECH Act’s financial incentives that were meant to drive implementation.[12] 
As a result, many behavioral health organizations continue to use paper-based systems due to the high costs of adopting electronic medical records. Acadia Healthcare expects to have 65% of the company’s acute care hospitals equipped with EMRs by the end of 2024.
“The behavioral health industry is very ripe for automation and technology because it has traditionally been a paper-based, manual part of health care,” Groschen told Behavioral Health Business. “Acadia Healthcare is committed to investing in technology to really focus on two things: our patients’ experience and all our clinicians who are helping our patients.”
Groschen continues to receive recognition for her technology leadership. She is a finalist for CIO of the Year from the Greater Nashville Technology Council, with winners to be announced at an awards ceremony on Feb. 27. Additionally, she has been named a finalist for the 2025 National Orbie CIO of the Year award, with that ceremony scheduled for Feb. 11.
Groschen’s award is one of several recently earned by the company. Newsweek named Acadia Healthcare as one of the Most Trustworthy Companies in America for 2024. Also, Newsweek included seven Acadia Healthcare facilities on its list of America’s Best Addiction Treatment Centers 2024