Industry
Surgical Hospital
Challenge
Surgery Partners was growing rapidly through mergers and acquisitions and needed a fast, reliable way to evaluate the IT health of potential new facilities. Growth at this pace can introduce hidden risks like technical debt, fragmented EHR environments, and security vulnerabilities that drive up integration cost and complexity. To stay on track and scale confidently, Surgery Partners needed a standardized decision-making tool to assess IT risk during due diligence, along with a clear readiness roadmap to ensure newly acquired facilities could meet enterprise-wide technology standards.
Results
CereCore helped Surgery Partners scale confidently by institutionalizing IT due diligence and readiness assessments as part of their growth engine. We delivered technical and operational evaluations for 18 potential care locations, mitigating risk before acquisition. By performing current-state EHR assessments and providing expert staff augmentation, we ensured each new facility could be seamlessly integrated into the Surgery Partners ecosystem while maintaining strong clinical standards and operational efficiency during rapid scale.
Services Provided
IT Assessment & Advisory, MEDITECH, EHR Optimization
About the Provider
Surgery Partners operates over 180 ancillary service locations in 35 states, including ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) and surgical hospitals. Treating over 600,000 patients annually, the organization is a leader in the shift toward high-quality, cost-effective surgical care. Their mission is driven by strategic partnerships that enhance patient quality of life through technological and operational excellence.Scaling Through Strategic IT Due Diligence
As Surgery Partners expanded its national footprint, the ability to quickly and accurately assess the IT infrastructure of target acquisitions became a competitive advantage. CereCore provided comprehensive due diligence assessments for 18 care locations, evaluating everything from network security to EHR hardware requirements. These assessments served as a powerful decision-making tool for executive leadership, allowing them to understand the true cost of integration and identify potential "red flags" before closing a deal.
Key Outcomes:
Mitigated Acquisition Risk: Delivered due diligence reports for 18 locations, identifying technical liabilities and integration costs prior to acquisition.
Strategic Decision Support: Provided leadership with a standardized framework to evaluate the IT maturity of potential partners.
Standardized Readiness: Completed EHR readiness assessments that served as the blueprint for migrating legacy 6.0 facilities to MEDITECH Expanse.
Expert Resource Continuity: Filled critical gaps in Lab and Revenue Cycle expertise through flexible staff augmentation, ensuring no loss of operational efficiency during transition periods.
Scalable Integration Model: Established a repeatable "onboarding" process for IT that allows Surgery Partners to integrate new facilities faster and more reliably.
EHR Readiness and Workflow Optimization
Growth is not just about adding locations; it is about ensuring those locations are ready for the next level of technology. CereCore conducted EHR current-state and readiness assessments for key facilities, including OakLeaf Surgical Hospital and Lafayette Surgical Specialty Hospital. These assessments went beyond technical specs to evaluate application usage, clinical satisfaction, and workflow gaps. The resulting roadmaps allowed Surgery Partners to prioritize which facilities were ready for a MEDITECH Expanse migration and which required infrastructure remediation first.
Agile Staffing to Bridge Growth Gaps
Rapid expansion often creates immediate resource gaps that can stall projects. CereCore supported Surgery Partners' growth response through strategic staff augmentation. By providing subject matter experts in specialized areas—such as an IT System Administrator and MEDITECH experts for LAB and Revenue Cycle—CereCore acted as an extension of the internal team. This allowed Surgery Partners to maintain momentum on enterprise-wide initiatives while their internal resources remained focused on long-term organizational strategy.
Hear from Surgery Partners
Varun Gadhok, CIO: Scaling an IT Department to Support Growth (and Why Managed Services Makes Sense)
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Result
These advisory and readiness initiatives provided Surgery Partners with the strategic clarity needed to scale confidently, ensuring that growth never outpaced the organization’s technical or operational stability.
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