Information Services is typically the first department to meaningfully engage with organizational counterparts in a healthcare M&A environment. Their services are relied upon to establish information-sharing and communication channels in both the due diligence and the immediate post-closing periods. Whether the healthcare organization is experienced or new to M&A transitions, Information Services will often set the tone for the work ahead.

The post-merger work required of Information Services to facilitate integrated operations and consolidate redundant technology platforms is a considerable undertaking. Experiential leadership perspectives are imperative in both the planning and execution phases.

Despite the prevalence of healthcare mergers and acquisitions in recent years there is no definitive playbook for how to complete a transition. While there is a common denominator of Information Services deliverables across all M&As, the different flavors of M&A and unique objectives of each transaction creates many distinct pathways.  We have seen organizations struggle to gain footing with their transition efforts. Recurring themes include:  

Development of a credible transition plan requires concerted collaboration between IS leaders and executive stakeholders. What are the organization’s M&A objectives and what are Information Services’ considerations including timelines, budgets, resources, competing projects, security, and system architecture dependencies? When facilitating development of a transition plan with IS leaders and executive/operational stakeholders we distill the work into three general categories: 

Components of each category may be either sequential or concurrent based on objectives and underlying dependencies. This is a suggested means for how to categorize the work at a macro level to make the planning less daunting. It also helps frame the work for stakeholders whose objectives we are working to obtain, prioritize, and contextualize.  

Not everything can be done immediately or concurrently. We have a saying we often use: design with the end in mind. Some solutions will be temporary or interim, but this should be by design and not due to lack of foresight. Similar to a project request scoring system, the consideration of whether, when, and how transition activities will be completed should be a thoughtful one. We recommend using the 3 C’s when defining the timing, impact, and purpose:

Documenting this information allows for informed decision-making. This isn’t only to determine IF something should be done, but in what sequence things might be completed.

There is a seemingly endless number of transition items to consider and complete. Our future informational insights into our series on Healthcare Mergers and Acquisitions – The Information Services Transition will delve into specifics of some of the key areas including:

Leaders from Hitch Health IT have an abundance of experience leading complex healthcare delivery organizations through M&A transitions. Our demonstrated success and lessons learned can help your organization and Information Services Department develop and execute an M&A strategy that meets your objectives, timeline, and budget.

Email us for a confidential discussion focused on your organizations M&A strategy and needs.