Financially strapped health systems may be hesitant about making significant IT investments now that promise returns in the future. But by aligning IT and finance goals, organizations can better evaluate current challenges, select the best partnerships and work together to achieve effective digital transformation.
In a Becker's Hospital Review webinar sponsored by Workday, Sarah Hickman Auger, industry director of healthcare solutions marketing for Workday, facilitated a discussion between Tim Fitzgerald, vice president of treasury and financial systems at Geisinger, and John Kravitz, head of healthcare industry at Workday.
Four key takeaways were:
- Health systems' financial and IT challenges are intimately related. "As a finance officer, I have responsibility for Geisinger's financial sustainability," Mr. Fitzgerald said. "Most health systems are now in a situation where it costs more to produce a unit of care than we're getting reimbursed, which is not sustainable. We have to look for transformation that will reduce cost and increase efficiency — and frequently that transformation is coupled with the IT stack that we deploy."
- Ensuring the entire organization understands the "why" is critical to a successful digital transformation. According to Mr. Kravitz, it's important for both finance and IT to have ongoing discussions with their teams to understand the overall direction, set the strategy and buy into the reasons for the changes. "It's important to work with the folks who are in the trenches because they are the ones who are dealing with the systems day to day," he said. "Having them involved in the review of the systems, setting their expectations of what the system needs to be efficient and weighing in on that final decision is important because then they have skin in the game. It isn't just a decision that is just pushed down from the top."
- After a successful initial implementation, Geisinger is now focused on automating entire processes. "We are adding to that platform and are excited about the ability to automate fully across a process," Mr. Fitzgerald said. "Too often in the past, we automated only one piece, like the approval of an invoice, but not the ordering or payment of the item. We think it will be very powerful to have processes automated seamlessly, not in buckets, across the entire spectrum."
- Geisinger sees significant soft returns on investment that have longevity. Mr. Kravitz emphasized the importance of choosing a cloud-first solution. "By moving to the cloud, there's less internal maintenance, hardware and staff required," Mr. Fitzgerald agreed. "It frees up IT capabilities and bandwidth for more strategic initiatives. That's probably a bigger return than simply the direct financial numbers."
"There's also a real tangible return on attracting labor and using that labor more efficiently," he added. "These aren't short-term benefits; they are benefits that are accrued to the organization for long periods of time."
By working together, IT and finance can align their goals, solicit team buy-in and realize significant returns on investment from effective digital transformation.
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