Overview
For healthcare organizations juggling contracts across multiple facilities, a fragmented process does not stay manageable for long.
This is what drove Central Maine Healthcare (CMH) and its Associate General Counsel, Andrew Hastings, to IntelAgree. The organization needed a contract lifecycle management (CLM) solution that could replace its patchwork of manual processes, disconnected systems, and paper-based approvals with something centralized, scalable, and built for a multi-facility hospital system.
Before IntelAgree, CMHC had no reliable way to track, access, or report on its contracts. Requests came in by email, agreements lived in disparate systems, and turnaround times on even standard contracts could stretch to two weeks. With IntelAgree, the team built a structured, searchable contract operation from the ground up — standardizing agreements with more than 60 full templates, cutting physician employment contract request turnaround to under two minutes, and saving $30,000 annually by consolidating eSignatures directly into IntelAgree.
"We templated out all of our different employment agreements for our physicians and advanced practice nurses. Because of that system, we have a completely standard contract and we're saving at least 20 minutes a contract."
About Central Maine Healthcare
Central Maine Healthcare is an integrated healthcare delivery system serving 400,000 people across central, western, and mid-coast Maine. The system operates three hospitals — Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Bridgton Hospital, and Rumford Hospital — along with a primary and specialty care practice organization and several specialized clinical services.
Challenges
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Lack of centralized storage, with contracts scattered across a shared drive and tracked via spreadsheets
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Manual intake and approval processes, resulting in excessive contract turnaround times
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Limited reporting capabilities, with no reliable method for extracting contract data or insights
Key Results
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Saved $30,000 annually by consolidating eSignatures into IntelAgree
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Built more than 60 standardized contract templates
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Cut report generation time from two hours to 30 minutes
Solution
From Contract Chaos to Centralized Control
Before IntelAgree, CMH managed contracts the way many growing organizations do: across a shared drive, through email chains, and on spreadsheets. A legacy system functioned as little more than a storage warehouse, with no reporting capability and no workflow functionality to speak of.
As Associate General Counsel, Andrew sat at the center of all of it — managing contracts across purchasing, leasing, vendor relationships, and physician employment at a multi-facility hospital system. IntelAgree consolidated the team's disconnected systems into one centralized, searchable platform, where the team built 73 active contract types and more than 60 full templates and cut the teams report generation time from two hours to 30 minutes.
"Because we have IntelAgree, we can provide data points to the organization when they're looking for them, like how many of our employed doctors have this provision in their contract," said Andrew. "I can generate that list as opposed to depending on my memory or having to do it manually."
14 Days to 90 Seconds: Accelerating Physician Contract Requests
Physician employment contract requests were not always a quick process at CMH. When Andrew joined, the average was 14 days, roughly 10 of which were spent physically passing a paper approval folder around to different signatories, and four more lost to intake delays, assignment, and manual drafting. Internal process improvements cut that to about a day and a half. From there, IntelAgree's standardized templates brought that same process down to 90 seconds.
The team built standardized templates for physician and advanced practice nurse employment agreements, covering the contracts that once required manual effort. Now, what previously meant locating the right document, pulling it from a separate system, and assembling it from scratch takes a single button click and produces a consistent contract every time.
"We templated out all of our different employment agreements for our physicians and advanced practice nurses," said Andrew. "Because of that system, we have a completely standard contract and we're saving at least 20 minutes a contract."
Cutting Costs by $30,000 with Native eSignatures
Before IntelAgree, CMH was paying for Docusign separately, a necessity that emerged during the pandemic when remote work made ink signatures impractical. Moving eSignatures into IntelAgree eliminated that cost entirely, saving approximately $30,000 annually. Equally as important, it meant one less system for the team to manage, one less place for a contract to get lost, and one less tool to learn.
The decision to go with IntelAgree also came down to how the platform was priced. For a multi-facility hospital system where contracts touch nearly every department, a per-seat licensing model would have forced the team to restrict access, limiting who could search, request, or view agreements. IntelAgree's unlimited user model removed that barrier, opening the platform up to the people across the organization who needed it.
"The unlimited user model was a huge draw for us," said Andrew. "We've got three hospitals, a couple of nursing facilities, and too many people who need to either view those contracts or request them to limit ourselves to a few licenses."
Beyond contract requests and searches, Andrew relies on IntelAgree's generative AI-based copilot, Saige Assist, to answer contract questions on the spot. When a colleague asks about a specific provision mid-meeting, he can query the contract directly rather than hunting through pages manually and get a reliable answer in seconds.
For Andrew, IntelAgree has delivered well beyond the initial promise of better contract management. IntelAgree's willingness to listen, incorporate feedback, and continuously improve has made it a genuinely collaborative vendor. "The system is constantly evolving," said Andrew. "If you want a contract management platform that keeps improving, IntelAgree is a great choice."
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