DaVita: HR Transformation and EHR

Client Background
DaVita is the largest independent provider of dialysis services in the United States. The company serves nearly 100,000 patients in more than 1,200 outpatient dialysis centers across 41 states and the District of Columbia. The company also provides acute inpatient dialysis services to more than 300 US hospitals. In 2005, DaVita reported revenues of approximately US$3 billion. With its October 2005 acquisition of Gambro Healthcare, DaVita expects its 2006 earnings to approach US$700 million.

Recently, DaVita recognized the need to create an organizational infrastructure that would further differentiate the company and provide a solid and stable foundation for growth. This effort comprised a number of initiatives, including:

• Clinical System Transformation: Under its existing operations, the company had multiple ways of recording clinical services, billing and collections. By implementing standard clinical systems and processes, DaVita believed it would be able to improve its compliance levels, enhance employees' access to timely information, enable better communications among workers and deliver more consistent care for the thousands of patients that had come to rely on DaVita's critical services.
  
  
• Human Resources (HR) Transformation: As it planned to complete its acquisition of Gambro Healthcare, DaVita knew that it would need a more robust HR system to seamlessly accommodate hundreds of employees from approximately 520 Gambro facilities.

For help in stabilizing its infrastructure in these two key areas, DaVita turned to Accenture. Accenture first teamed with DaVita to assess its readiness for change, and then helped deploy new clinical systems and processes to hundreds of clinics throughout the United States. The project spanned several key areas:

• System Deployment. Accenture helped manage the implementation of the custom-built clinical system with a comprehensive change strategy that encompassed change management, communications, organization design, training and measurement components.
  
  
• Training Program. Accenture assisted in the development of an instructor-led training program to help employees use the new clinical system and processes most effectively.
  
  
• Incentive Program. To further confirm buy-in and help ensure a seamless transition to the new clinical system and processes, Accenture developed and implemented a unique and innovative incentive program to reward regional directors, training deployment teams and administrators of facilities that met key requirements 90-days post implementation. The incentive program proved to be a critical enabler of the project's success.

To create even greater organizational stability, Accenture turned its attention to helping DaVita transform its HR processes. The goal was to deploy a new HR and payroll system and Accenture and DaVita selected PeopleSoft 8.1. In addition to the implementation of PeopleSoft HR/Payroll, Accenture provided guidance in redesigning the payroll organization and developing an HR Service Delivery model to support Davita's new ability to process payroll internally.

With Accenture's help, DaVita has stabilized its organization and transformed its operations to support long-term high performance. By standardizing and transforming critical systems, DaVita is realizing immediate benefits:

• Clinical compliance in recordkeeping has now reached 100 percent.
  
  
• The new standardized clinical processes are helping DaVita improve productivity, while lowering costs.
  
  
• The streamlined training environment has contributed to more efficient operations, lower employee turnover and greater employee satisfaction.
  
  
• The new PeopleSoft HR system is allowing DaVita to analyze its business more effectively and gain insights that lead to better decision making.
  
  
• With the core HRMS platform in place, DaVita has the ability to cost-effectively scale its processes to support the additional growth of the business.

These clinical and HR transformation efforts have been particularly important in supporting DaVita's acquisition of Gambro Healthcare. According to Gina Imbrenda, senior director, HRIS, "The Gambro acquisition doubled our size and reach. Having standardized systems and processes in place ensured minimal disruption during the transition. This was critical since minimal disruption translated into greater revenue and uninterrupted service to tens of thousands of patients."