Delivering 4x Faster Credentialing for a Leading US Healthcare Institution

Client Overview

The client, a top-tier U.S.-based healthcare system, manages a large and growing network of medical professionals and is known for its commitment to clinical excellence and operational innovation.

The Challenge

Credentialing Inefficiencies Impeding Workforce Agility and Revenue Growth

Despite the client’s strong market position and reputation for operational excellence, its provider credentialing process had become a critical bottleneck. The heavily manual workflows, reliant on physical document handling, fragmented communications, and redundant verifications, resulted in extended credentialing timelines.

This caused delays in new provider onboarding and compromised the organization’s ability to scale care delivery in response to rising patient demands quickly. Moreover, administrative inefficiencies increased operational costs, heightened compliance risks, and negatively impacted the provider experience, leading to frustration and potential talent attrition.

Facing intensifying competition and the need for accelerated speed-to-workforce, the client sought a strategic partner to reinvent credentialing as a faster, more intelligent, and scalable process, without sacrificing compliance rigor or quality standards.

Sutherland Solution

An Automation-Led, Data-Driven Transformation of Credentialing Operations

Sutherland partnered with the client to architect a next-generation credentialing solution, grounded in intelligent automation and process optimization principles.

Our multi-pronged approach included:

• Strategic Workflow Redesign: We conducted a comprehensive diagnostic of existing credentialing operations, identifying pain points and engineering an optimized future-state workflow that eliminated redundancies, standardized verification steps, and improved handoff efficiency.
  
• Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Implementation: Intelligent bots were deployed to automate high-volume, repetitive tasks such as document validation, background verifications, and data population – dramatically reducing human intervention and cycle times.
  
• End-to-End Digital Integration: Credentialing workflows were seamlessly integrated with the client’s provider management systems and onboarding platforms, ensuring real-time data visibility and eliminating silos.
  
• Embedded Compliance Frameworks: Automated credentialing checkpoints ensured adherence to regulatory and accreditation requirements, reducing compliance risks without adding operational burden.
  
• Advanced Analytics and Reporting: Custom dashboards provided real-time tracking of credentialing milestones, process bottlenecks, and performance KPIs, empowering leadership to drive continuous improvement and strategic decision-making.

Through a collaborative change management approach, Sutherland ensured stakeholder alignment, smooth adoption of new tools, and lasting operational transformation.

The Outcome

Credentialing Reimagined: Accelerated Growth, Elevated Experiences, and Operational Excellence

The solution delivered profound and measurable improvements across multiple strategic dimensions. Credentialing time was cut by more than 50%, enabling providers to become workforce-ready in half the previous timeline and dramatically enhancing workforce agility and service capacity. Faster credentialing cycles also led to accelerated revenue capture, improving financial performance and maximizing return on investment for provider acquisition efforts. By streamlining and digitizing the onboarding process, the client significantly improved the provider experience, boosting satisfaction and strengthening its reputation as an employer of choice. Operational efficiency was notably enhanced, with automation eliminating manual errors, reducing administrative overhead, and freeing credentialing teams to focus on higher-value, strategic initiatives. 

Finally, the implementation of a digital-first credentialing ecosystem positioned the client for future-ready scalability, allowing operations to expand seamlessly in alignment with growth ambitions – without proportional increases in cost or complexity.

That’s Digital Outcomes Delivered!