In September 2005, Keith Hagen took the helm of QuadraMed Corp., a Reston, Va.-based software and services company focused on helping healthcare organizations increase profitability, and brought with him a new executive team and a new mission.

Keith HagenThat mission was to transform the company from a siloed organization with best-of-breed component solutions to one with a more comprehensive and holistic approach to solving its clients problems. To support that strategy, QuadraMed developed a marketing program devised its “Care-based Revenue Cycle Solutions” strategy.

“The idea is that while hospitals and healthcare organizations take care of people, and that's why they exist, they also have to look at the full picture of what it takes to make that care turn into positive financial outcomes,” says Hagen.

The new strategy is built on four pillars: access and identity management, care management, health information management, and revenue cycle management.

Internal management and budgeting also changed at QuadraMed, says Hagen, with more of a focus on ROI. “We also implemented a culture of making sure that we were keeping our expenses in line with our revenues and not spending on things that didn't provide value to the business or to our customers,” he explains.

QuadraMed also focused on its internal talent, making sure each executive was involved in making decisions and contributing to the direction of the company.

“So that helped drive things — the people drive the culture and the culture drives the results of the business,” Hagen says.

The results seem to have followed the changes, as sales bookings grew 25 percent in 2006 and the company saw net income of $11.9 million compared to a net loss of $3.9 million for 2005. Income from operations also jumped to $10.8 million for the year, compared to a loss of $1.4 million the prior year.

On the MandA front, QuadraMed was quiet in 2006, as well as in the product-launch arena. But that may not be the case for 2007. “We now have a solid core and a lot of cash and no bank debt,” Hagen notes. “I said on our earnings call that we are going to be looking at some acquisition opportunities during 2007.” But any potential purchases would have to fit into QuadraMed's overall care-based RCM strategy, he stressed.

As far as Hagen's concerned, the future looks bright, with a new management team, new strategy and new focus.

“We now have a clear vision and we've operationalized that vision. We've built a positive culture and communicated that to the market,” he adds. “Now we have to make sure that our clients know that we understand the challenges they have as an enterprise, and that we have wide-ranging products and services that can help them solve those problems.”