New Products, New Connections Take Center Stage at Annual CFO Meeting
(12/06/2006)

Many hospitals today grapple with the question: how can we support safe, quality care and still ensure our organization's financial fitness? Executives from a diverse mix of health care organizations recently gathered to discuss just that, at MEDITECH's second annual CFO Advisory Committee Meeting. By networking with their peers as well as with MEDITECH staff, attendees explored ways to take advantage of the latest technologies in order to protect the bottom line.

Tools Designed to Help CFOs
"Our goal was to provoke some thoughtful discussion about the tools and reports that MEDITECH hospitals can use to monitor their financial health," said Larry O'Toole, business relations manager at MEDITECH. "The participants' feedback allows us to gauge how we are doing as a company and whether we are meeting the needs of our financial leaders."

At the meeting, O'Toole highlighted how key aspects of the MEDITECH system can help organizations to manage their finances, including MEDITECH's Human Resources Planning product—which now boasts on-line recruiting, salary graph technology, and workflow improvements for employee efficiency. "In addition, multi-facility capabilities in MEDITECH's Supply Chain Management product enable hospitals to leverage buying power and better bargain contracts," he said.

O'Toole also called upon attendees to provide feedback as MEDITECH continues to refine these solutions. "We are currently in the midst of developing a flexible, comprehensive CFO Desktop, and we've recently put together a task force to deal with the evolving EDI and EFT transactions," he said. "So now is a perfect opportunity for customers to let us know if we're going in the right direction."

Customers Discuss Industry Issues
In addition to sharing information about new products, customers also explored a variety of hot financial topics at the meeting, including how financial executives can use MEDITECH reports to help them improve their bottom line. Participants discussed the types of reports that CFOs find the most valuable, as well as suggested reporting aspects that are of specific interest to financial executives.

"As a CFO, I look at 100 plus reports a day," said Bill Overbey, CFO, CIO from Hays Medical Center (Hays, KS). "For us, reporting needs to be centrally located, automated, intuitive, and in real time."

Another issue of major interest involved the benefits an integrated system can bring over best-of-breed applications. Attendees discussed how integration can not only improve care delivery, but also save money in the long run.

"For many years, we followed the best-of-breed approach, so we ended up with a patchwork quilt. We were doing manual entry and had significant lost charges," said Darlene Rodowicz, CFO of Berkshire Health Systems (Pittsfield, MA). "One of the best decisions we ever made was to go with MEDITECH. Now, we're seeing an increase in revenue, while manual charge entry has been eliminated altogether."

Looking Ahead
As the meeting drew to a close, MEDITECH reminded attendees of the expanding educational opportunities that are available to our financial customers. These include operational assessment visits, WebEx Seminars, NPR Share, Road Forums, annual workshops, and the CFO portal. These forums are all part of MEDITECH's on-going efforts to reach out to hospitals, and ensure that we are helping them to reach their long-term strategic goals.

"We truly value the expertise and knowledge that CFOs bring to the table," stressed O'Toole. "And we look forward to strengthening these connections at future CFO Advisory Committee Meetings, as well as through other venues."

MEDITECH
Medical Information Technology, Inc.
MEDITECH Circle
Westwood, MA 02090
781-821-3000
www.meditech.com