Accenture Helps Northside Hospital Drive Down Energy and Telecom Costs
ATLANTA, Ga; June 19, 2018 – Accenture (NYSE:ACN) is helping Northside Hospital generate millions of dollars in savings by transforming supply chain and procurement operations to drive down utilities and telecommunications costs.
Accenture helped Northside Hospital establish a model that is expected to generate $5 million in annual savings. Using a managed services approach, Accenture helped Northside dramatically simplify bill review and payment activities and rationalize its portfolio of energy and telecom service providers. In addition, Accenture helped set up online billing portals to improve visibility into detailed account information and also helped the hospital migrate processes from paper to digital means, enabling faster analysis of aggregated expenditures.
"Selecting Accenture to manage several indirect spend categories allowed our supply chain organization to focus on our core competencies during a period of rapid growth," said Carl Waller, vice president of Supply Chain at Northside Hospital. "Effective leveraging of internal and third-party resources and expertise has provided the proper balance for yielding optimal savings across the system. Accenture had the category expertise, data analytics and advanced methods essential for enabling us to save millions of dollars on utilities and telecom."
Accenture's work is helping Northside Hospital achieve significant financial and operating improvements, including $3 million in annual telecom savings and the identification of $1 million in annual energy savings. The initiatives also resulted in one-time refunds of $800,000 for telecom contracts; quick-hit refunds of approximately $400,000 for energy contracts; and improved contract compliance.
The energy and telecom initiatives are part of an overall procurement sourcing effort at Northside Hospital. Working closely with Northside personnel, Accenture audited bills to identify adherence to existing contracts, looking for overpayments and potential refunds. Leveraging best practices, the project team negotiated refunds and more favorable terms for energy and telecom contracts.
"Accenture is proud to work with Northside Hospital to identify savings and efficiencies, shore up the bottom line and increase funds available for mission-critical objectives, charity and improving patient care," said John Walko, managing director of Accenture's healthcare supply chain services. "Northside Hospital has experienced dramatic growth over the last few years, especially in outpatient operations, which now number well over 200 locations throughout the state. We are committed to helping Northside, one of the largest integrated health systems in Georgia, optimize healthcare processes and delivery."
The Northside system consists of an extensive network of state-of-the-art facilities that include three not-for-profit hospitals in the Atlanta metro area: Northside Atlanta, Northside Forsyth, and Northside Cherokee. With more than 800 licensed beds, Northside operates more than 200 hospital-affiliated outpatient centers and medical office buildings throughout the state of Georgia. There are more than 2,500 physicians on staff and over 14,500 employees at Northside. Northside ranks in the top 1 percent in all robotic surgery programs in the country.
Jenn Francis
jennifer.francis@accenture.com
Health & Public Service
Process & Innovation Performance