Leadership Spotlight - April 2026 - Class of 2026 Finance Fellowship Action Project Highlight

At our recent CFO Spring Forum, we celebrated the Class of 2026—16 outstanding healthcare executives from our Finance Fellowship who spent the past two years leading strategic action projects within their organizations. Throughout the program, these Fellows led impactful work addressing some of healthcare’s most complex challenges—from value-based care redesign and capital allocation strategy to revenue cycle optimization, transfer center development, and system-wide finance transformation. What makes this group especially remarkable is not just the scope of their projects, but the mindset they bring—thoughtful, forward-looking leaders committed to advancing the future of healthcare.

This month, we are thrilled to feature a strategic action project from a recent graduate who is driving meaningful impact within his organization and the broader healthcare landscape.

2026 Finance Fellowship Program

Fellow: Eric Atkinson, CPA, MBA CFO, Oklahoma State University Medical Center, Executive Director, Finance, Saint Francis Health System, Oklahoma State University Medical Center

Leading Health System Mentor: Deborah Dage, CFO, Oklahoma State University Medical Center

Action Project Title: Traversing the Oracle of ERP

Opportunity & Problem Statement

Oklahoma State University Medical Center (OSUMC) identified a critical need to modernize its enterprise systems, which relied heavily on manual processes and paper-based workflows across multiple platforms. In addition to operational inefficiencies and control risks, rising costs associated with legacy system archiving and a prior internal control breach accelerated the need for change. Implementing an integrated ERP system presented an opportunity to streamline over 350 processes, strengthen controls, and avoid more than $265,000 in annual costs.

Methods

OSUMC initiated an RFP process in early 2023 and, recognizing the scale of the transformation, partnered with Chartis to support vendor selection and develop a 10-year total cost of ownership model. Following Board approval, OSUMC engaged Alithya for implementation and executed a phased go-live strategy—launching Finance and Supply Chain in July 2024, followed by HCM, Payroll, and EPM in January 2025.

Results & Conclusions

The ERP implementation was completed on time and under budget by over $5.8M, while also avoiding more than $200K in annual legacy system costs. The transition to an integrated platform has driven measurable improvements, including a 30% reduction in manual journal entries, a two-day acceleration in monthly close, and enhanced operational efficiency across Finance, Supply Chain, HR, and Payroll. OSUMC also became the first healthcare organization to go live on Oracle’s Workforce Scheduling. Ongoing optimization efforts continue to unlock additional value, reinforcing the long-term impact of a fully integrated enterprise system.