When Wes Edwards joined MedFirst as CFO, the 40-clinic urgent-care and family practice network in the Carolinas faced staffing gaps, messy systems, and investors expecting both operational discipline and eventual transaction readiness.
To stabilize and scale, Wes turned to Consero as a partner, seeking the cohesive, Finance as a Service (FaaS) solution that could tighten the close, restore audit credibility, and free leadership to focus on growth.
MedFirst at a Glance
MedFirst operates family practice and urgent-care clinics across North and South Carolina, with a mission to expand access in secondary markets.
- Private equity–backed by Sverica Capital; Wes joined in October 2018.
- Grew from ~25 centers on arrival toward ~40 clinics, serving communities outside large hospital systems.
- ~80 providers (primarily NPs and PAs) with five MDs on staff.
- Primary care that fills access gaps where patients lean on local clinics for a wide range of needs.
Day-One Diagnosis: Close and Control
Before strategy, Wes prioritized getting the core finance engine running reliably because, without timely, defensible numbers, “strategic partnering” is just talk.
“If you can’t close the books then you can’t partner with everybody,” said Edwards.
- Make the close non-negotiable: Establish calendarized tasks, ownership, and QA gates to deliver a clean, complete close every month.
- Insist on audit-grade processes: Build documentation and controls that withstand third-party rigor (auditors today, buyers tomorrow).
- Sequence strategy after stability: Strategic projects wait until core accounting and reporting are accurate, timely, and repeatable.
- Align to unit economics: Rebuild visibility to clinic-level performance so operators can act quickly and consistently across locations.
Why Consero: Depth, Discipline, and Sector Know-How
Wes evaluated Consero not only on capability, but on their domain depth in healthcare and their disciplined approach to understanding scope and outcomes.
“There was real depth there within healthcare… and I found [it] helpful.”
- Sector expertise that reduces noise: Practical fluency in third-party reimbursement, revenue recognition, and A/R meant faster alignment.
- Structured scoping, not hand-waving: A rigorous sales-to-solution process mapped specific deliverables (including board exhibits) before kickoff.
- Right model, right blend: Consero’s team delivered the platform, while MedFirst retained a corporate controller to manage nuances unique to healthcare.
- Outcome clarity: From day one, the target was transparent: month-end reliability, audit readiness, and decision support for operators and the board.
Onboarding That Fixed the Past and Enabled the Future
Implementation wasn’t a simple lift-and-shift. Consero had to repair a flawed Great Plains rollout, reconstruct historicals, and then move MedFirst onto modern tools and workflows.
“They actually delivered the month-end close… a month early.”
- Remediation first: Clean up the legacy GL and rebuild what the prior system missed, so the new environment starts accurate.
- Replatform with purpose: Migrate data into the new stack (e.g., Intacct and SIMPL) with reconciliations that tie-out and survive scrutiny.
- Backstop staffing gaps: When internal turnover hit, Consero covered the close, maintaining continuity without sacrificing quality.
- Accelerate value: With the foundation stabilized, the team could pivot to analytics and unit-level profitability—exactly where a multi-location provider wins.
Results: Audit-Ready, Banker-Ready, and CFO Time Freed to Lead
The payoff showed up in audits, lender conversations, and Wes’s calendar – now tilted toward value creation rather than firefighting.
“You took this business that couldn’t really engage with third-party auditors… [and] it can get through an audit in 60 days.”
- Audit timeliness restored: 2017–2018 audits completed (after prior delays), then 2020 finished in May – light-speed compared with the starting point.
- Month-end discipline: Books typically close around the 12th business day, enabling consistent board reporting and faster decision cycles.
- Capital-market credibility: Clean, organized packages shorten diligence cycles and strengthen positioning with lenders and equity sponsors.
- Productivity and ROI: Costs aligned with prior U.S.-based staffing, but delivered far more capability, effectively lowering the cost per outcome.
- CFO leverage unlocked: With the close dependable, Wes spends more time with Operations, HR, and capital markets—becoming the strategic partner everyone expects.
Finance Built for Scale
MedFirst’s turnaround wasn’t magic—it was method. Start with the close, insist on audit-grade rigor, and pair domain expertise with disciplined execution.
Consero brought the platform, process, and people to fix the foundation and free leadership to grow.
If you’re wrestling with delayed closes, incomplete audits, or limited finance capacity, consider partnering with Consero. The same playbook that helped MedFirst deliver reliable numbers, accelerate audits, and regain investor confidence can deliver similar results for you so your finance function becomes a true engine for scale.
