Getting to Yes in Six Steps: Valley Medical Center’s Journey

Changing technology vendors is a huge deal for any organization: will the change impact cost? Will it impact workflow? Would you know where to begin the journey? 

During XCHANGE 2020, Kim Petram, Director of Valley Medical Center, the largest nonprofit healthcare provider between Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, shared an inside look at the six steps she took to get to yes and start a successful partnership with Xsolis.    

Step One: Educate Yourself

You can’t expect others to hop on board a plan when you don’t know much about it. That’s why Kim made sure her first step was to educate herself. She did this by engaging with the Xsolis team for multiple product walk-throughs, reading available resources, watching webinars, and reaching out to Xsolis’ existing clients. 

Step Two: Find Your Champions 

Armed with the knowledge she needed to forge ahead, Kim began educating others to find champions who would support putting innovative change into action.  

You can share Xsolis’ executive summary with leaders, forward webinars and resources, do whatever you can, whenever you can to get the attention you need,” explains Kim. “Those who pay attention are your champions.  

Kim’s biggest champion turned out to be Valley Medical Center’s Chief Financial Officerwhich proved to be an enormous win as she moved forward. Demonstrated ROI and financial impact certainly don’t hurt the process! 

Step Three: Identify Your Barriers 

Next, Kim had to consider the barriers she would face in her journey.  To overcome these barriers, she felt the smartest thing she could do was make sure to involve the right people in decision-making early. She met with chief stakeholders to make sure their goals aligned with her Xsolis’ solution.    

Step Four: Strategically Plan Your Approach 

Kim made sure that she had a strategic plan in place that included setting up remote presentations with key stakeholders, bringing the Xsolis team on site, and preparing followup meetings and course corrections along the way. 

She worked with Xsolis on an ROI assessment that showed the anticipated savings Valley Medical Center could expect – hundreds of thousands of dollars within the first year. 

Next, Kim created an SBAR assessment – Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation – that laid out why an Xsolis partnership was imperative to the future of Valley Medical Center 

It really was crafting a story of where we were, why our situation was the way it was, and an assessment of what we’d lose if we didn’t move forward and fix the problem, says Kim.  

Step Five: Anticipate Roadblocks 

It’s essential to prepare for pushback, no matter how far down the road you are in the process. Kim learned this when she came across a major roadblock with the cost estimates. Valley Medical Center’s IT Department estimate did not match up with the one provided by Xsolis, but she remained persistent and used Xsolis as her advocate. Her IT resources were able to come around through her leadership and were an essential part of the implementation process. 

Step 6: Be Persistent & Close the Deal 

Kim was almost to the finish line when a last-minute delay threatened to push back the project. She refused to give up. 

I crafted a visual of what would happen if we didn’t do this,” says Kim. “I showed them all the money we gain for signing the contract now versus what we will lose the longer we wait.”  

That presentation showing the month-over-month loss in revenue sealed the deal, and Valley Medical Center’s leaders swiftly signed the contract. 

While it took months of persistence to get to yes, it only took three months to see tremendous resultsWithin the first 90 days of implementation, Xsolis helped Valley Medical Center achieve a 45% reduction in concurrent self-denials. Positive impact continues to extend across financial and operational metrics for VMC, especially pertinent in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 For more information about her process and lessons learned, read the Valley Medical Center case study.

To begin your own journey, schedule a product walk-through today. 

 

ROI projections are estimates based on similar system information and averages over the first 2 years of utilization. Such ROI projections do not guarantee future results. Actual ROI will vary based on various conditions and factors for each customer, including, but not limited to, client baseline information, best practice utilization of the products, etc.