Process Improvement and Resource Restructuring Case Study:
Tufts Medical Center; Boston, Massachusetts

Warbird enhances process outcomes in month-end reporting to help Tufts Medical Center provide more timely information and increase operating performance

The Opportunity
A world-class academic medical institution operating in the highly competitive Boston healthcare market, Tufts Medical Center wanted to improve the quality and timeliness of its financial reporting without the cost of adding new staff resources. Although Tufts Chief Financial Officer Okey Agba believed the needed process improvements and staff realignment were feasible, his busy schedule prevented him from devoting the time necessary to designing and implementing the changes.

The Solution
In order to devise and execute a process and realignment strategy, Okey and Tufts Controller Kathy Davis engaged Warbird Consulting Partners’ Healthcare CFO Network. Jim Fox, a former CFO with 35 years of healthcare experience and a senior consultant at Warbird, worked with Okey and Kathy along with a small group of Tufts Medical Center employees. With Jim’s expertise and guidance, the Tufts CFO and controller were able to develop a strategic process map to improve the timely production of month-end financial statements through more effective utilization of resources.
The overall strategy/plan and the first phase of implementation were completed in 60 days, and the Tufts team continued to improve upon the process under Kathy’s direction. Jim continued to be involved over the next few months with ongoing consultation and periodic check-ins to ensure the plan remained on track. The new process flow has been sustained and further refined over the last 12 months.

Results
The Tufts Medical Center project demonstrates how Warbird Consulting Partners can assist an established finance team in developing and executing a new process plan, while also enhancing existing capabilities to achieve superior outcomes. The process improvements and resource restructuring allowed Tufts Medical Center to refocus on strategic operational priorities aimed at maintaining its competitive position in the Boston market. Other benefits of the Warbird engagement included:
• Decreasing unnecessary steps in the production of month-end financial statements
• Reducing by one-third the amount of time required to produce month-end financial reports
• Lowering the number of FTEs within the finance department
• Reducing special-request reports that diverted staff resources from essential finance functions