How Catholic Health Services Halved Approval Time with ContractWorks

With 38 healthcare facilities and over 7,500 patients served annually, Catholic Health Services (CHS) faced mounting challenges managing physician agreements, vendor contracts, and service provider documents across its organization. The approval process was fully manual—contracts were physically routed between desks, and signatures were obtained using pen and paper.

This outdated system led to:

• Lost contracts and lack of visibility into approval status.
• Delayed approvals, often taking weeks for full execution.
• Unintended contract renewals due to missing alerts and poor tracking.
• Resistance to new technology, stemming from past administrative hesitance to adopt digital solutions.
• Pressure from leadership to find a more cost-effective, digital alternative to their previous tools.

CHS needed a secure, healthcare-compliant contract management platform that would modernize approvals, increase visibility, and improve organizational buy-in.

CHS implemented ContractWorks, an Onit company, to centralize and digitize its contract workflows. With features like electronic signature, custom alerts, and a user-friendly interface, ContractWorks enabled the team to streamline their entire contract lifecycle—from creation to approval.

Implementation highlights:

• Issued 10 electronic signature licenses to accelerate multi-party approvals.
• Deployed centralized contract tracking, eliminating confusion about contract status.
• Provided full visibility for Legal to monitor progress, identify bottlenecks, and drive accountability.
• Worked closely with ContractWorks’ customer success team to ensure adoption and training.

“Electronic signature has put an end to rummaging through desks. We typically have five approvers per contract, and I can always see the status of where it is in the process.”
– April, Contracts Administrator, Catholic Health Services