Recently, I interviewed Senior Business Operations Executive, Kent Fraser, about his handling of a healthcare merger that added a 500-bed tertiary medical center, a community hospital, and 13 separate specialty clinics to the organization, supported by six different telephone system suppliers.<\/p>\n

The merger necessitated a switchover to an integrated system. Kent said, \u201c\u2026added facilities were needed to replace a hodge-podge of some 13 various phone systems from six different vendors.\u00a0Procuring and implementing a corporate-wide system had strategic importance as it presented an opportunity to unify daily phone operations within the organization and the community. Just as the organization was moving to standardize on one email system, and one IT network, it also had the opportunity to standardize a create one telecommunications system.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put together combined RFP criteria and sought bids for a standardized system that would be reliable, low in maintenance costs, cost-effective to purchase, and portable across the various campuses; and the proposal received $5M capital approval.\u00a0 The solution that I championed — and implemented — gave the operational flexibility of departmental and individual\u2019s phones to be moved to any of the 20 locations without changing the phone number. Furthermore, the public was not subjected to learning new phone numbers when a clinic or business office moved. The new system was large with nearly 10,000 lines, 20 sites, a voicemail system, and an Automated Call Distribution (ACD) system.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Kent explained to me, \u201cThe project came in 16% under budget, supported by a service speed moving from 6 days to 3.5 days, after the installations were complete. Combined, this saved $137,000+ annually in operating expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch full video interview below.<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

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