Your First Steps for a Successful Health Center Transition

With any big undertaking, things don’t always go as planned. Despite an organization’s best intentions, the vendor they brought in to build and manage their onsite health center may end up not being the right fit. Bringing in a new vendor to take over and transition the center can be challenging, but the steps you take from the very beginning can help ensure a smooth, positive process for everyone involved.  

Communication is Key 

Completing a vendor transition, or “lift-out,” is a big change for a lot of people – your employees, their families, and your health center staff. Communication is a critical first step to ensure everyone is aware of what is happening and why it’s an exciting thing for them! Your new vendor will work closely with you to determine the best communication plan for both the current vendor and your health center staff. When sharing the news with the staff, the best-case scenario is having you or other key leaders from your company participate in the conversation. This helps keep the messaging positive and provides transparency on why the transition was necessary. Prioritizing this communication will display trust, making everyone feel like part of the process.  

When thinking about communication, don’t forget about your employees who rely on the center for their care! Your new vendor will help you craft the perfect communication plan for your employees and their families. When sharing the news, take the opportunity to highlight any new services that will be available or any areas of excellence your new vendor has. Most importantly, let them know things may look a little different, but they’ll still have access to high-quality, convenient care at their onsite health center.

Face Time

Once your onsite wellness center staff are aware of the change, a best practice is to allow your new vendor to meet with them. Not only is it an opportunity for your new vendor to make a great first impression, but it also provides one-on-one opportunities for your health center team to address any specific questions or concerns they have related to the transition. During this meeting, the new vendor will provide an overview of their company, benefit plan offerings, and next steps for onboarding or application, as necessary. 

Introducing your employees to their new center and healthcare providers is also a best practice. Consider hosting a grand “re-opening” of your wellness center for employees and their families! This allows them to tour the facility and meet any new staff, ask questions, and understand what’s new now that the center is being operated by a new vendor. 

Planning Meetings

As you meet and work through your implementation, your new vendor will help you ensure the right people are involved from the start. When considering who should be included, think about which departments will be impacted by the implementation. This could include employees from: 

• Human resources 
• Employee health and safety 
• Facilities 
• Information technology 
• Marketing  
• Legal 

In your initial implementation meetings, a major task will be planning an appropriate timeline. Committing to something realistic will get you to a grand opening sooner than a plan that is expedited and poorly thought out. An average lift-out implementation takes around 150 business days, but it can vary depending on the scope of your project.

Lift outs can be challenging, but by prioritizing important first steps at the start, you can have a successful project that meets your goals. This is an exciting moment – a smart plan will lead to less stress and more time to focus on the positive! 

At Premise, we understand that lift outs are unique. We’re proud to be the industry leader in transitioning programs away from another provider, whether internal or external. In fact, 60% of our current clients transitioned to us from other programs. If you want more out of your current onsite healthcare program, connect with us to see what we can provide for you and your employees.