New Shared Services dept. will support LLUH’s contract decision making

Analyzing Loma Linda University Health’s situation regarding its various contractual agreements is the role of Cassondra Barnett, Shared Services Division’s new contract manager. 

A member of the LLU Children’s Hospital staff for more than 15 years, Barnett joins the Shared Services team in this new role designed to enhance the organization’s contract systems and increase automation and collaboration for all agreements across all LLUH entities. In addition, by increasing analysis and reporting capabilities, Barnett’s work will help LLUH leadership make more knowledgeable decisions about contractual arrangements.

"There are thousands of contracts across our organization,” said Richard Hart, MD, MPH, Loma Linda University president. “This is a major step forward in how we deal with those relationships.”

Barnett’s initial efforts have included meeting with various LLUH stakeholders and subject matter experts to introduce the new approach’s emphasis on enhancing end-user experience. Once the departments with the greatest opportunities and needs are identified, Barnett and LLUH senior leadership will work to establish priorities lists. At the same time, Barnett has begun the implementation of a pre-configured contract management software module within Oracle that LLUH already owns.

“This module offers standard reports, forms, and contract documentation,” Barnett said. “There is value in utilizing the Oracle enterprise contract management module because there is unrealized potential in connecting our contracts to the other Oracle tools already in use.”

Barnett is also locating and organizing existing contracts and agreements to prepare them for implementation, identifying expiring contracts and creating a process to notify involved parties, and providing online access to appropriate personnel. In addition, she sees opportunities through enhanced collaboration and consistency across entities. 

“Having a central repository will help manage our institutional complexity and give us visibility into contracts that we haven’t had before,” Barnett said.

Once this significant amount of groundwork is completed, future contract management initiatives include:

• Developing a reporting system.
• Approval and contract workflows.
• Establishing an E-signature process.
• Maintaining institutional standards for future contracts.