Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/977748
69 Executive Briefing consultants again. In our world, you just keep paying your [software- as-a-service] fee, and we deploy new releases on a quarterly basis. You get the updates pushed to you in bite-sized chunks." The need for speed Since hospitals that affiliate with one another need to interoperate their data and systems as quickly as possible, speed is yet another critical factor for IT implementations. "The ability to move fast is a key driver here," Mr. Marquardt says. "I hear that every single day." Healthcare's unique processes and data, and the direct impact on patient care, add a lot of complexity to the ERP implementation. Having a cloud-based solution designed for this market greatly accelerates the time to realize value. "The traditional philosophy [was] you take a manufacturing-based system and bring in teams to customize it for you," Mr. Marquardt explains. "Hospitals tried to customize those systems to work in their organizations, but that could take five, six, seven years. … When you have a system designed for healthcare, it's very different." Peoria, Ill.-based OSF Healthcare, one of Premier's members, experienced the company's focus on rapid implementation firsthand. In 2017, OSF Healthcare and Premier brought 12 facilities live on its new cloud-based ERP in less than 12 months. OSF Healthcare recently acquired two additional facilities from Chicago-based Presence Health in February. With the help of Premier's experts, OSF Healthcare helped the two facilities go live on its cloud-based ERP platform in just four months. Beyond the platform: Making data in ERP solutions actionable To draw out the full value of information housed in an ERP platform, hospitals see value in partnering with vendors that understand how to make healthcare data actionable for a range of issues, such as minimizing supply expenses or enforcing purchasing compliance. "Of the ERP software vendors in the market, we're the only one that also manages data," Mr. Marquardt says. He credits Premier's work in this space to the company's 30-year background in group purchasing services, business intelligence and analytics. "Benchmarking and performance improvement are in our DNA," he says. Mr. Marquardt noted three key benefits organizations gain from transitioning to cloud-based ERP systems with data and analytics capabilities built in. 1. Maintain data integrity. Clean, consistent and reliable data are critical to realizing the value of an ERP system and business intelligence tools. Without it, transactions fail, resulting in costly re-work, and stakeholders question the validity of analytics. Given Premier's long history with data, it maintains the essential vendor, item and pricing data that power ERP transactions and analytics. Premier can maintain this data in the ERP, keeping it current, and reducing the amount of manual work traditionally managed by hospital staff. As an added value, there is consistency between the data users see in their analytical tools and the ERP. 2. Workflow solutions that operationalize strategic decisions. When health systems manage their analytics and ERP systems independently, they struggle to fully implement change. But, by consolidating on a single platform, health systems can ensure they realize the value of strategic decisions, and enforce standardization and consistency. For example, after a supply chain committee determines the best brand of gloves to purchase based on quality and cost, supply leaders can use the ERP platform to standardize the type of gloves that departments may order enterprisewide. Standardizing SKUs helps improve purchasing compliance, ensuring a health system capitalizes on contracted savings. Analytics-enabled ERP platforms like Premier's make it easy to monitor the effects of these strategic business decisions in terms of cost savings and utilization rates. Many health systems also partner with group purchasing organizations like Premier to drive financial performance and supply chain management across an enterprise, rather than relying on individual facilities to negotiate with vendors. By coordinating group purchasing of medical supplies and devices, healthcare leaders are able to tap into significant savings systemwide. "Health systems have found all the low-hanging fruit. You're not going to find a whole lot of savings by negotiating the price of a box of Band-Aids anymore," Mr. Marquardt says. "What you really need to do now is start to look at, 'What is the impact of device selection, of drug utilization, on patient care?'" 3. Monitor business performance across disparate facilities. Performance metrics are yet another type of actionable data housed in Premier's cloud-based ERP platform. As hospitals and health systems continue to consolidate, they must maintain benchmarks across their flagship facility while simultaneously evaluating the financial performance of acquired hospitals, ambulatory facilities and physician practices. When hospitals and executive teams can access benchmark data alongside a physician practice's data related to staffing, payer mix, procedure mix or referral patterns, leaders are able to make more informed decisions about budgeting and managing operations. Mr. Marquardt says his goal is to pinpoint where facilities are losing money so health system leaders have the time, knowledge and resources to turn the problem around. "We think about our role not just as providing the technology, but providing the insight and data to help hospitals perform better," he says. "That's the endgame for us: performance improvement." Conclusion Healthcare M&A is set for a record year in 2018. However, to realize the full value of a new merger or acquisition, health system leaders need solutions that unify their network of facilities and streamline oversight of day-to-day operations across the system. A cloud- based ERP platform offers a solution that scales quickly across an expanding network, improving data visibility and eliminating redundant technologies. n Premier Inc. is a leading healthcare improvement company uniting an alliance of approximately 3,900 U.S. hospitals and 150,000 other providers to transform healthcare. Pre- mier is passionate about transforming American healthcare and plays a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, collaborating with members to co-develop long-term innovations that reinvent and improve the way care is delivered to patients nationwide.