| January 25,
2001
University of Pennsylvania Health
System Awards Contract for Information Technology Management
Services
Outsourcing Agreement Expected to Bring Savings
and Improved Service
(Philadelphia, PA) --
The University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS)
announced the signing of a five-year agreement with
First Consulting Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCGI) and Affiliated
Computer Services (NYSE:ACS) for the provision to UPHS
of specialized healthcare information technology (IT)
management services. This outsourcing agreement is a
continuation of the Health System's comprehensive financial-recovery
plan, and is expected to save UPHS approximately $19
million in operating costs over the life of the contract.
Under the terms of the agreement, FCG and ACS (operating
as a subcontractor to FCG, and providing services through
its operating division, ACS Health Solutions) will operate
as a team with current UPHS information services leadership
to manage the Health System's information systems infrastructure
and applications support. The integration of highly
specialized technical and managerial skills is crucial
to the success of a major academic healthcare information
management organization. Outsourcing is proving to be
a highly effective strategy for focusing skills, reducing
information management costs, and meeting strategic
goals.
"The University of Pennsylvania Health System's commitments
to the information-intensive areas of patient care,
medical education and research require that we constantly
improve information management while reducing unit costs,"
said William I. Ferniany, Ph.D., Senior Vice President
of Administrative and Network Services for UPHS. "Our
contract with FCG will bring us an extensive range of
resources and experience in developing the kind of cost-effective
IT solutions that we require. By combining the strengths
of FCG and ACS with UPHS, we believe we will be able
to increase the value returned to our health system
by our information technology investments."
"This innovative agreement marks a milestone in focusing
diverse skills on a common goal in academic, not-for-profit
healthcare," said Steve Heck, president of FCG. "The
University of Pennsylvania Health System has designed
an IT management strategy that will allow UPHS to focus
on its mission and core goals while gaining improved
IT performance and flexibility to meet its changing
needs in a fast-evolving healthcare market. We are also
pleased about our new systems infrastructure and support
teaming agreement with ACS, which enables us to expand
our data center and network management capabilities
significantly."
Under the terms of the agreement, FCG will assume direct
responsibility for managing a variety of UPHS information-technology
functions, including its Help Desk, local area networks,
applications support and applications upgrades. ACS
will manage mainframe and midrange computer operations
and wide-area networking, and will join FCG in service-level
management. UPHS will retain most of the IT responsibility
for its School of Medicine and telecommunications divisions,
as well as its Phoenixville Hospital facility. As requested
by UPHS, during the term of the contract, FCG will introduce
the Carnegie-Mellon Software Engineering Institute's
Capability Maturity Modeling (CMM) best practices into
the UPHS IT environment. The contract was completed
with the assistance of the Everest Group, a consulting
firm.
In addition, approximately 179 of UPHS's current information
services staff will be hired by FCG or ACS. "An important
part of our negotiation has been to ensure the best
possible outcome for affected employees," said Ferniany.
"Indeed, a major criterion for vendor selection was
that they provide our current employees with the opportunity
for rehire into the outsourced positions."
"We know the University of Pennsylvania Health System
to be a leader in patient care, research and medical
education," said Luther Nussbaum, chief executive officer
of FCG. "With this agreement, it is joining the ranks
of academic health systems that have chosen innovative
ways of improving IT value without losing their focus
on their core mission." He added, "The basis of this
contract is the shared confidence of UPHS, FCG and ACS
in UPHS's ability to improve the value UPHS receives
from its information technology investments, its ability
to control and accurately predict costs and its ability
to use service-level agreements to enhance performance."
Together, FCG and ACS bring a clear value proposition
supported by more than 20,000 associates, experience
in thousands of healthcare engagements, and demonstrated
mastery of information technology. FCG provides consulting,
integration and management services to healthcare, pharmaceutical
and other life-sciences organizations in North America
and Europe. The firm's services are designed to increase
its clients' operational effectiveness -- resulting
in reduced costs, improved customer service, and enhanced
quality of patient care. More information about FCG
is available at www.fcg.com or 800-345-0957.
ACS, a Fortune 1000 company comprised of nearly 20,000
people in 21 countries, provides technology solutions
to commercial and government clients worldwide. The
company delivers e-solutions, systems integration services,
and a complete range of technology outsourcing and business
process outsourcing solutions to world-class clients.
More information about ACS is available at www.acs-inc.com.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System was established
in 1993 as the nation's first fully-integrated health
system. It comprises four wholly-owned hospitals [Hospital
of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), the nation's
first teaching hospital; Pennsylvania Hospital, the
nation's first hospital; Presbyterian Medical Center;
and Phoenixville Hospital]; the University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine, the nation's first medical school;
educationally-affiliated hospitals; multispecialty satellite
facilities; a primary-care provider network; home health
care; and hospice and long-term care. The University
of Pennsylvania Health System is committed to continued
excellence and innovation in the related areas of patient
care, medical education and research. This year, HUP
was ranked one of the nation's top ten "Honor Roll"
hospitals by U.S. News & World Report in its annual
survey of best hospitals in America; and that same publication
ranked Penn's School of Medicine as third in the nation.
Penn ranked second in the U.S. among all medical schools
that receive research funding from the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) -- which is perhaps the single most
important barometer of research strength.
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