Central Maine Healthcare Saves $30,000 Annually with IntelAgree's eSignatures
Central Maine Healthcare, an integrated healthcare system serving 400,000 people across three hospitals in Maine, used IntelAgree to standardize 60+ contract templates, cut physician contract turnaround from 14 days to 90 seconds, and save $30,000 a year by consolidating eSignatures.
“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.”
The challenge
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.
The challenge
For healthcare organizations juggling contracts across multiple facilities, a fragmented process does not stay manageable for long. That was the position Andrew Hastings, Associate General Counsel at Central Maine Healthcare (CMH), found himself in. Requests came in by email, agreements lived in disparate systems, and turnaround times on even standard contracts could stretch to two weeks.
- Lack of centralized storage, with contracts scattered across a shared drive and tracked via spreadsheets
- Manual intake and approval processes, resulting in excessive contract turnaround times
- Limited reporting capabilities, with no reliable method for extracting contract data or insights
“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. I can generate that list as opposed to depending on my memory or having to do it manually.”
The 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 team's report generation time from two hours to 30 minutes.
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.
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.
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.
“The system is constantly evolving. If you want a contract management platform that keeps improving, IntelAgree is a great choice.”
The results
By centralizing contracts, templating physician employment agreements, and consolidating eSignatures into a single platform, Central Maine Healthcare turned a fragmented, paper-driven process into a scalable operation — with hard dollar savings and dramatic turnaround gains to match.