SEI Atlanta consultant Julie Peel shares how SEI is helping healthcare clients implement technologies that improve patient experience.
As a consultant with nearly 2 decades of experience, Julie Peel knows the profession inside and out. She spent the first seventeen years of her career working for a small boutique firm in Atlanta. There, she worked closely with clients in healthcare, finance, and technology industries on a variety of projects, and developed deep cross-industry expertise. Beginning as a staff consultant, she steadily rose through the ranks to become partner.
Before arriving at SEI, Julie served as the executive director of the Enterprise Project Management Office for a large healthcare delivery system in Atlanta. As a hands-on leader, Julie helped build out and mature the newly created department. Working closely with colleagues, she helped create the infrastructure of the department and define its internal operations. While she enjoyed her leadership role at the EPMO, Julie found herself missing the day-to-day work of consulting.
She knew that consulting was her passion, but she was looking for a firm that would fit her ambitions. SEI presented the perfect opportunity. Julie was attracted to the firm’s flat hierarchy and the employee ownership model and decided to give it a try.
Helping to Put Patients First
Since joining SEI, Julie has focused on helping healthcare clients improve the patient experience. Working alongside client stakeholders, she helped healthcare systems streamline their intake processes by implementing paperless, self-service patient registration technologies. Self-service applications enable patients to update their insurance, upload relevant documents, complete medical history questionnaires, and make payments online.
Her work on patient-centric projects has been especially rewarding. When the pandemic hit in March 2020, she and her team helped expedite the rollout of a self-service patient registration portal. It helped minimize face-to-face interactions between staff and patients and streamlined visits where face-to-face interaction was absolutely necessary. Since COVID-19 disrupted routine hospital visits and operations, introducing patient self-service has helped provide patients with more ways to receive the care they need. This year, she assisted with the rollout of a paperless, online registration capability for patients scheduling their COVID-19 vaccinations.
When asked how she sees the healthcare market developing after the pandemic, Julie points to increased competition and greater focus on the consumer in general. “I believe retail medicine and price transparency will be key influencers in healthcare over the coming years,” she says. Consumers now have access to more information about pricing options. They also have a better understanding of the metrics for different patient outcomes. As a result, Julie anticipates they will become more selective in choosing their healthcare providers.
“Cutting Edge of Consumer Preferences”
Having gotten to know SEI over the past two and a half years, Julie observes that it’s the “quality of the team” that sets the firm apart. SEI hires seasoned professionals, and the firm focuses on leveraging collaboration across its national organization. This structure enables consultants to deliver tailored results and empowers them to help clients drive organizational change.
“SEI draws from a wide pool of cross-industry experience,” Julie explains. “We help our healthcare clients remain on the cutting edge of consumer preferences by leveraging knowledge gained in a variety of industries.” She and her team rely on their experience with different technology vendors and across various industries to optimize client approaches to patient experience, data mining, and data visualization. Additionally, SEI consultants have years of experience working with regulations in the healthcare industry. They are adept at helping clients navigate new pairing opportunities and implement new approaches while staying compliant.
This depth of expertise is reflected in the firm’s broader approach to healthcare. “Our team has deep experience across a variety of healthcare technology platforms and project management methodologies,” Julie observes. “We can objectively help our healthcare clients set strategies that work within their unique environments and markets.”
Unlike other consultancies, SEI consultants provide end-to-end project support, starting with strategy design through full implementation and change management. Once the course is set, Julie and her team partner closely with clients to ensure that their initial vision is realized.
In addition to supporting the client’s vision, SEI team members also support each other. “This team has become an extension of my family,” she says. “In the last year in particular, we have supported each other and our clients in creative ways as we all learned to navigate this unprecedented world. Honestly, I can’t imagine a better team to weather any storm with!”
