Health system realizes cost savings by outsourcing system integration and ad-hoc IT projects

Client background

An established, not-for-profit health system in the Bay Area consisting of two hospitals that offer 24-hour emergency care, intensive care, and surgical and diagnostics services. The two hospitals combined consist of nearly 200 hospital beds with more than 100 providers.  

The business challenge 

The health system does not offer 100% remote work and is located in the Bay Area where there is a high cost of living, causing difficulty finding qualified IT talent that is willing to relocate. The client was looking to outsource the support and integration of their InterSystems IRIS Integration Engine upgrades – which they needed additional support for after one of their full-time employees was on extended leave – as well as management and other ad-hoc integration IT projects. They also did not need a full-time employee or consultant for 40 hours per week, but on an as-needed basis.  

Baker Tilly’s solution-driven approach 

The health system decided to outsource the work of their InterSystems IRIS integration with Baker Tilly. In addition to outsourcing the work of the initial integration, Baker Tilly also provided: 

• Upgrades to InterSystems’ software 
• Guidance on best practices 
• Mentorship and training to staff 
• Maintenance services 
• Assessment, troubleshooting and optimization with existing interfaces 
• On-call support – both during business hours and after hours – as integration needs arose  

After the successful upgrade of a prior implementation and integration of Ensemble – which was the initial scope of the engagement – the health system decided to extend their contract with Baker Tilly by outsourcing work for additional IT projects as well as other integration services, as requested. From the initial Ensemble integration, the health system has worked with Baker Tilly on a variety of large-scale projects, as well as consulting activities over the past 12 years, including: 

• Implementation and integration of a new picture archiving and communication system (PACS), including interface development, data transformation processing, testing, training and go-live support 
• Data integration into the health system’s billing system, including data identification, integration, insurance billing and coding, etc.  
• Implementation and ongoing maintenance of the health system’s 1Call PBX system for looking up the names and information of doctors, patients, etc.  
• Change over support and integration to a new virtual private network (VPN) software  
• Interoperability support between Cerner codes and other software and systems 
• Automation of data transformation processes between additional systems, monitoring and reporting services, and other ad-hoc IT requests as-needed 

The accomplished results 

By engaging and utilizing Baker Tilly, the health system has continued to benefit from having an outside professional streamline operations and provide solutions to projects that the client’s existing IT staff do not have the capability to do and/or capacity to take on. This has also saved the health system the cost of not having to hire an additional FTE since they do not need a consistent 40-hour-a-week level of support for their IT needs. By also having Baker Tilly on retainer, the health system’s director of applications and information technology has a consistent, reliable team of dedicated IT subject matter specialists to consult on IT projects as issues and questions arise.