Southwest Washington Medical Center (SWMC) is a 323 bed community hospital located in Vancouver, Washington. The executive team at SWMC elected to outsource their information technology function to gain access to resources and capabilities for rapid implementation of clinical information systems (CIS).

Copperwood Group Services

The Copperwood Group utilized its six stage outsourcing procurement framework including:

• Assessing the in-house information systems function
• Evaluating the relative merits of both outsourcing and insourcing including development of business cases for each approach
• Leading the procurement of an outsourcer who would commit to implementation of the CIS in SWMC's timeframes
• Educating various hospital constituencies, including executives, hospital directors, IT and staff members about outsourcing
• Leading negotiation — including integrated outsourcing and legal advice — of the outsourcing agreement

Results

The Copperwood Group was able to complete the procurement process and negotiate the outsourcing agreement in six months from their hire date. The agreement includes several innovative outsourcing provisions including:

• Commitment that the CIS will be implemented on time and on budget
• A risk / reward program to ensure that CIS implementation milestones are met and that clinician adoption of the CIS occurs
• A comprehensive pricing approach that fixed the fee structure for the term of the outsource agreement to include procurement, implementation and ongoing operation of the new CIS together with existing systems at SWMC.
• SLAs that are designed to make sure that the outsourcer is responsive and fixes problems in a timely manner

Southwest Washington Medical Center Comments

• "I believe that information technology must be a competitive differentiator for SWMC and recognized that we needed help to achieve our IT objectives. I retained The Copperwood Group because of their objectivity, independence and outsourcing experience. Their deep understanding of outsourcing and objectivity was a key element in securing Board approval for our outsourcing initiative. I would recommend that others pursuing outsourcing retain experienced advisors to help with all aspects of forming the outsourcing relationship. The orderly objective process The Copperwood Group utilized was very effective for SWMC."

  Joe Kortum; CEO, Southwest Washington Medical Center

• "The Copperwood Group did an excellent job of presenting complex issues in a clear and cogent manner to facilitate informed decision making by the SWMC executive team and outsourcing selection committee. We believe that we got a 'great' outsourcing agreement because of their efforts."

  Renate (Rainy) Atkins, Chief Operating Officer

• "We retained The Copperwood Group to assist with choosing our outsourcing vendor and negotiating the contract because of their strong experience in legal, governance and contract management for outsourcing deals. They walked hospital executives through the outsourcing selection and negotiation process but insisted we make our own decisions. The advisory services provided by The Copperwood Group helped us more than anything else we did in the process."

  Kerry Craig; CIO, Southwest Washington Medical Center

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