Memorial Healthcare System: 21st Century Excellence in Finance through Continuous Monitoring

In a project directed by the Finance department, Memorial implemented ACL’s turnkey Continuous Controls Monitoring (CCM) solutions for the Purchase-to-Payment cycle. In just three months, the team is on track to meet its projected ROI and has identified key areas for controls enhancement, procedural improvements and cost savings.

For over 50 years, Memorial Healthcare System has been providing high quality healthcare services to the residents of South Florida. Facilities include six hospitals and multiple outpatient locations and high profile centers such as the Joe DiMaggio
Children’s Hospital and Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood. Memorial provides a comprehensive array of health services and is one of the largest employers in Broward County, with more than 10,000 employees. Memorial’s facilities have earned multiple awards, including honors for South Florida’s best hospitals, quality care leadership, 100 Most Wired Hospitals and Health Systems, best nursing staff and best pediatric hospital.

Memorial Healthcare System uses ACL’s CCM solutions for the Purchase-to-Payment cycle – an enterprise assurance solution designed according to the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) framework. The COSO framework is recognized as the internal controls standard for supporting Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 compliance.

While currently not subject to the provisions of SOX, Memorial’s management acknowledges the applicability of the principles behind SOX for the institution.

Enhancing business procedures and internal controls

The Memorial Healthcare System is committed to achieving the highest standards of financial governance and stewardship. As such, the CFO and Director of Financial Controls began a search for monitoring solutions that would help evaluate and strengthen critical business processes.

Continuous monitoring with ACL analytics

This ongoing project quickly enabled the team to identify key areas for procedural and operational improvements. Even within a short timeframe, Memorial pinpointed more than a half-million dollars in potentially recoverable payments that had occurred over the past three years

The CCM Purchase-to-Payment solution provides increased visibility into higher risk areas of the business, early warnings to management, and enables real-time evaluation of all transactions.

Additionally, the CFO and Director of Finance plan to expand the use of ACL CCM solutions to other process areas, including General Ledger and Payroll.

Three months after Memorial Healthcare launched its continuous monitoring project with
ACL’s powerful business analytics, the organization has been able to:

• Enhance the control environment and isolate procedural improvements that will boost efficiency and visibility
• Eliminate third-party audit commissions and reduce costs

" We are looking forward to expanding the use of CCM solutions and achieving similar results in other critical business areas’’, says Robert Gutholc, Director Financial Controls, Memorial Healthcare System.