Information Technology Steering Committee

An analysis of the technology applications at Stratum Shareholders was an integral component of Stratum’s early strategic planning process. The key driver for this initiative was to identify the value that Stratum’s model of standardization and collaboration could provide to our Shareholders when applied to the information technology arena. In theory, it was possible, through the complete standardization of practice management systems and eventually electronic medical records, that Stratum Shareholders could save millions of dollars in the cost of acquisition and implementation. However, the reality was and is that multispecialty group practices come together with various levels of technology sophistication and more importantly have invested significant capital in the systems that they currently operate. Consequently, the cost of a wholesale abandonment of current technology commitments and adoption of a single standard operating system was prohibitive.

Recognizing that the decentralized model, with Shareholders operating divergent information systems, was going to be the reality, Stratum determined to focus on opportunities where collaboration and standardization could benefit all or a subgroup of Shareholders. As a result, Stratum focused its energy on monitoring the technology environment, conducting due diligence and negotiating software and other information technology contracts on behalf of its Shareholders. In order to add value by diminishing the risk associated with adopting new technology, Stratum also undertook the development of pilot implementations of new technology at selected Shareholders. This pilot approach has proven successful. The knowledge gained was shared across the Shareholders making subsequent adoption and implementation less costly and more effective.

An early example of the use of collaboration was the selection of business software by four Shareholders. Stratum assisted these Shareholders in negotiating a corporate license with PeopleSoft, which enabled each of the four collaborating Shareholders to install financial, purchasing, inventory, human resource, payroll and benefit administration modules of this product. This joint implementation was followed by a shared support team located at McFarland Clinic that provided technical support and report writing for the other participating Clinics. On a larger scale, virtually all Stratum Shareholders engaged in a systematic review of their disaster recovery plans and together developed model disaster recovery policies, procedures and systems so that each Shareholder could adopt the most effective disaster recovery for their operations. This collaborative effort saved Shareholders untold hours of work and provided greater confidence that the recovery concepts that they had adopted would be successful in the event they needed to be utilized.

Another area of focus for Stratum’s technology strategic planning was the utilization of improved systems to enhance transcription services and reduce overall costs associated with transcription and dictation. Initially, Stratum assisted Shareholders in developing license agreements for dictation systems and negotiating master contracts for outsourced transcription services. However, throughout this early period, Stratum recognized that the long-term solution for managing transcription and dictation quality and cost was the adoption of sophisticated speech recognition technology. For several years Stratum monitored the market for this technology and was one of the earliest companies to recognize a breakthrough in this area, which was achieved by eScription. Stratum negotiated a master licensing agreement with eScription and began pilot projects at two Shareholders. Simultaneously, Stratum negotiated new contracts with transcription outsourcing companies and has developed a consortium of smaller transcription firms to address specific Shareholder needs. The rollout of the eScription voice recognition product has achieved millions of dollars of savings for Shareholders as well as improved quality and is an ongoing Stratum project.

The most recent initiative focuses on electronic registration. Stratum recognized that other industries had significantly reduced costs and improved efficiency utilizing electronic registration processes. To bring this technology to our Shareholders, Stratum identified two vendors for this service and negotiated pilot projects to test the efficacy of the technology and the value it could provide to our Shareholders.These pilot projects are currently underway and early results are quite favorable.

The Stratum IT Steering Committee made up of Shareholder Chief Information Officers and Chief Executive Officers regularly meets to develop new concepts and to exchange information. This group has accomplished a number of projects including the evaluation of handheld charge entry devices, systematic review and evaluation of electronic medical records systems, automatic prescription writing systems, optical scanning equipment and many other technologies. These studies have enabled Stratum Shareholders to adopt sophisticated technology solutions and at the same time avoiding the risk of failed implementations.