How Small and Mid-Sized Healthcare Organizations Accelerate With Workday

In this article, we discuss:

• Benefits of Cloud ERP
• Obstacles for Small and Mid-Sized Providers
• Rapidly Deploy for Immediate Value
• Built for Growth

Healthcare providers, from the largest integrated delivery networks to the smallest specialty practices, are united by a mission to deliver quality care. They know that adopting best practices on the business side can translate into better support for the clinicians and staff engaged in direct patient care. Across the industry, organizations are looking to automate manual processes, leverage data for better insights, and transform enterprise functions from transactional to strategic.

Exactly how teams go about putting these strategies into action—especially in the face of shrinking margins, shifts in regulations and reimbursement models, and continued labor shortages—differs based on the size of their organizations and the systems they use.

With the increased focus on health equity, it is important to empower small and mid-sized providers that serve vulnerable communities. Critical access hospitals, federally qualified health centers, residential care facilities, and other small healthcare organizations need the same access to the tools and technologies as large health systems. That’s why we created Accelerate with Workday, an effective and innovative new program that paves the way for small and mid-sized healthcare organizations to access the benefits of cloud ERP quickly and efficiently.

As a former healthcare CIO and now healthcare leader at Workday, I’ve seen the incredible power cloud ERP can have in helping providers take on industry challenges and meet critical goals.

For one, it eliminates having point solutions for HR, payroll, finance, and supply chain, which create disconnected workflows and complicate maintenance. Managing all those functions in one unified ERP cloud provides speed and efficiency.

And, a reliable and secure cloud-based solution means no more worrying about budgeting for new servers, managing on-premise configurations, or being stuck with outdated software. For the business, insights are gained through access to cross-functional data. Leaders can make better decisions, pivot faster, and capitalize on opportunities.

For smaller providers eager to evolve and grow, agility in technology and operations is critical. A platform that supports expansion through mergers and acquisitions or organic growth is what physician practices, hospitals, post-acute care providers, and other organizations need in order to stay ahead of the market.

Obstacles for Small and Mid-Sized Providers

So why haven’t some smaller providers embraced modern cloud-based systems? The reasons are varied, but cost and risk are at the top of the list.

Moving an organization to a new core system requires financial and staff resources, making it easy to settle for “good enough” and stick with what’s in place now. Even leaders who understand the value of moving to a cloud ERP are concerned about its ROI. No healthcare provider can afford a technology project that goes over budget due to a lengthy and bumpy implementation, or weak employee adoption caused by poor change management.

Leaders may consider upgrading a legacy system, thinking it’s the easier and cheaper way to move to the cloud. The problem with a “lift and shift” migration—moving data, applications, and systems to the cloud virtually unchanged—is that it doesn’t modernize processes, so you don’t get the benefits of more efficient workflows or improved reporting that come with a true cloud ERP. The “lift and shift” practice is actually more costly for organizations in the long run and puts organizations at risk of not being able to adapt to new practices and regulations due to their outdated technology.

All of this is to say: It’s easy to see why many healthcare providers choose not to invest in the back office. If the system is working—even if it’s not adding any value—why not leave major upgrades to the next round of investors or the next CIO, CFO, or CHRO?

My answer to that question is simple: Change doesn’t have to be risky, and upgrading to a modern cloud-based ERP system doesn’t have to be hard.

Rapidly Deploy for Immediate Value

Accelerate with Workday is a program that makes it easier for small and mid-sized organizations to modernize. With our industry-specific Accelerate with Workday approach, we offer a solutions package specifically geared to help healthcare providers reach their goals with the #1 ERP for healthcare.

Two aspects of Accelerate with Workday enable quick value realization without straining your finances or team bandwidth:

1. A prescriptive package of essential capabilities lets small and midsize organizations modernize finance and HR with quick wins. With Workday, you can move the needle on your business goals while improving the employee experience. For example, Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific consolidated 25 financial systems into a single Workday system and saw a 40% faster financial close. Also, 95% of employees’ HR tasks are initiated independently using Workday, and they achieved 25% faster new-hire onboarding.
2. Our proven Workday deployment methodology uses configurations designed for healthcare organizations and ensures that capabilities work immediately. That includes built-in reporting and processes that drive efficiencies. With Workday, Dialysis Clinic Inc. quickly cut operational costs by $100,000 and created joint-venture statements in 1 second (compared to 45 minutes before). Says Angela Hammack, senior vice president of business information systems at Community Health Services of Georgia, “We’ve gained so much efficiency with Workday Financials—the ROI is huge.” Additionally,  turnover has been reduced by 10% across the organization.

We know that critical access hospitals and federally qualified health centers rely on fluctuating federal funding and need to show value for every dollar they spend. And, they’d like to see this year’s spend yield ROI in the same fiscal year. With Workday, on-time, on-budget deployments are the rule, not the exception. Dayton Children’s Hospital, for example, deployed Workday Human Capital Management (HCM), Workday Financial Management, and Workday Payroll on-budget in 6 months. After go-live, the finance team gained instant real-time access to view monthly statements (which took 45 days with their old system).

With more than 95% of Workday deployments delivered on time, we help healthcare organizations hit the ground running quickly.

Built for Growth

Many physician practices, clinics, and residential care providers adopt growth strategies to increase patient volumes and achieve economies of scale. Accelerate with Workday optimizes current operations and supports rapid expansion. As Gary Alicea, director of financial operations for ChenMed, shared early in its journey, “Workday enables the scalability and best practices that allow us to pursue our ambitious growth goals.”

Unlike competing solutions, Workday offers prebuilt business processes that match the way you want to work. And organizations can easily adapt processes as the business evolves and grows through configuration, not code. For ambulatory and post-acute providers dependent on equity investments attached to a closely tracked ROI forecast, Accelerate with Workday can help you meet those timelines and goals while improving day-to-day business operations.

The Workday platform is intuitive, offering a consistent user experience across desktop and mobile devices. That powers unmatched adoption rates, as employees gain access to valuable features such as real-time data and self-service HR processes. New efficiencies can free up time to create value where it most matters: delivery of healthcare.

After deploying Workday, CommuniCare, a post-acute care provider, achieved incredible growth and provided better data to its frontline caregivers. “That has absolutely benefited our residents, which is the whole mission of our organization,” CFO Robert Shoemaker says.

So while healthcare organizations can’t eliminate volatility, they can change more effectively and capture value more strategically by adopting a modern, cloud-based ERP. And looking at the results our customers have achieved, there’s no better choice than Workday.

Sticking with the status quo involves risk too, especially as the healthcare industry’s evolution speeds up. Ready for change? Learn more about Accelerate with Workday.