Guidehouse has released a Navigant survey, conducted by the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), revealing 75 percent of provider executives believe their corporate services spending could decrease without negatively impacting quality or efficiency, the company announced on Thursday.
"Revenue growth remains a constant challenge for hospitals and health systems due to such aspects as stagnant reimbursement and meager inpatient growth, prompting many providers to grow inorganically via M&A while targeting corporate services for meaningful cost reductions," said Robert Green, partner at Guidehouse.
The survey has revealed that providers fall in leveraging technology and automation of back-office corporate services functions through robotic process automation (RPA) and enterprise resource planning (ERP), shown to reduce costs and improve accuracy and efficiency.
Specifically, Guidehouse has reported that 15 percent of providers have automated their corporate services functions, one-in-three providers have deployed an ERP system and 12 percent have optimized these systems. Moving forward, 51 percent of providers predict they'll deploy or optimize an ERP over the next 2 years.
"New technologies leveraging RPA, ERP, and machine learning have unlocked significant opportunities to drive back office efficiencies," said Jeff Palmieri, associate director of robotics automation at Guidehouse. "As many providers have learned the hard way, overlaying technology as the 'solution' without first reengineering the processes and concurrently embedding a change management program has proven to be frustrating at best, and value-degrading at worst."
About Guidehouse
Guidehouse is a leading global provider of consulting services to the public and commercial markets with broad capabilities in management, technology, and risk consulting. We help clients address their toughest challenges with a focus on markets and clients facing transformational change, technology-driven innovation, and significant regulatory pressure.
Across a range of advisory, consulting, outsourcing, and technology/analytics services, we help clients create scalable, innovative solutions that prepare them for future growth and success. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the company has more than 7,000 professionals in more than 50 locations. Guidehouse is a Veritas Capital portfolio company, led by seasoned professionals with proven and diverse expertise in traditional and emerging technologies, markets, and agenda-setting issues driving national and global economies.
