Deal models capture the price and the synergies — not the integration work that delivers them
By Chris Beckage, Procom Technology Solutions
BOTTOM LINE
A defined-scope, time-bound integration project is a fundamentally different kind of work than the day-to-day operation of either organization before the deal closed, and staffing for one doesn’t automatically mean you’re staffed for the other.
What deal models capture and what they miss
Healthcare M&A models are good at capturing the numbers everyone expects: purchase price, projected revenue synergies, cost-out targets. What they’re consistently worse at capturing is the technology integration work required to deliver the outcome — folding a newly acquired practice, hospital, or business line onto the acquirer’s systems, without disrupting the care or the operations that were the whole point of the deal.
The integration work nobody scoped
That work is not optional and it is not small. Many acquisitions bring their own electronic health record, practice-management system, data model, or vendor relationships — and someone must reconcile all of that with what the acquiring organization already runs, on a timeline the deal announcement didn’t necessarily account for. This cuts both ways across the industry: organizations that named the integration work explicitly, with a dollar figure and a program lead attached, and organizations where it became apparent only after close that nobody had scoped who was going to do it.
How the stronger plans treat integration
The stronger plans treat systems integration as its own workstream with its own budget and its own timeline, separate from the deal’s financial closing. The ones that don’t tend to discover the gap the hard way — usually around the point where two different scheduling systems, two different billing configurations, or two different clinical records need to become one, and the internal team that was sized for steady-state operations is now also running a merger.
A good internal team is not the whole answer
None of this means the internal team isn’t good. It usually is. It means a defined-scope, time-bound integration project is a fundamentally different kind of work than the day-to-day operation of either organization before the deal closed, and staffing for one doesn’t automatically mean you’re staffed for the other.
Treat integration as its own project
The fix isn’t complicated, even if it’s often skipped: treat the integration work as its own scoped project, with its own timeline and its own owner, separate from whoever is keeping either organization running day to day.
QUESTIONS TO TAKE BACK TO YOUR TEAM
Before the next deal closes, confirm:
- Does the technology integration behind this deal have its own named owner?
- Is it staffed and scheduled as its own project, separate from daily operations?
- What happens to the timeline if integration gets treated as a side task instead of its own workstream?
Next steps
Procom Consulting Services works with healthcare technology leaders to work out what kind of gap they are facing, then matches the right approach: a specialist, a team of specialists or a defined project.
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About the author
Chris Beckage, Vice President, Consulting Services
With over 25 years in the staffing industry, Chris drives Procom’s Consulting Services efforts to expand market opportunities and partnerships across North America.
