Federal Healthcare Contract Management

Case Study: Centralized Contract Document Repository

The Challenges

With the main office located in Washington D.C and remote offices located at six installations across the east coast of the United States; one of the major challenges faced by the new Director was the widely dispersed document files with dissimilar filing disciplines.  Many of the functions of the facilities are outsourced which means that there are many large and critical contracts that must be maintained.  With most documents in paper, it is almost impossible to efficiently track them.  There is also no ability to share the workload across the remote offices when the need arises. 

Whenever disputes occur or contracts expire, the original contract files need to be located.  Without a central repository and structured contract management, these files are often lost or misplaced.  There are literally millions of dollars at stake when a dispute arises on a large contract and the documents cannot be located.  Millions have been lost or needlessly spent over the last few years due to either losing a contract file or not knowing the contract needs to be reviewed and/or renewed.

Another challenge was tracking who is assigned to which procurement and at what stage the procurement is in.  With internal and external staff and resources located across remote sites, there is no central point of tracking.

Management Solutions In Healthcare

Central Contract Document Repository – The client now has a central repository that is accessed and used by everyone in the contracting offices.  The contract management structure is defined and controlled, enabling real-time contract sharing by all.  All contract documents are visible to authorized users, and management can easily search and view the contracts without pulling a contract specialist away from tasks.  

The solution also allows users to link documents to index screens in a master-detail relationship.  The new electronic contract process is similar to their previous process that created a coversheet for the contract folder.  When they add a document, they enter the document specific information and then one unique piece of information from the master record, such as the contract number.  Entering the contract number with the document information is what links the document to the contract master record.  

This new process eliminates the need to enter any of the base information over and over as documents are added.  When the user does a search, they can search on any piece of information contained on the master or detail record.  Cascading dropdown lists also enable for even faster retrieval and processing. 

Purchase Request Tracker – A workflow process now allows the central contract office to assign purchase requests to the various remote offices while inputting the tracking information.  The Contracting Officer (KO) then updates the task record that is in their task list as the procurement proceeds.  This allows the KO to see what their team is currently working on and allows the central management team to see exactly where each procurement is in the process.  Reports summarize this information for the Director.