ERP systems and software have been a key factor behind the growth and expansion of various industry verticals. One sector that we normally don’t associate ERP with is the healthcare industry. With the operations getting wider and multiple facets to look into, ERP systems can be a powerful tool for the healthcare domain. ERP systems will allow hospitals to organize their work and increase their efficiency and effectiveness. This productive environment also allows the healthcare industry to attract world-class researchers and physicians increasing the overall quality of the sector. Being a software that has modules built into it for monitoring and analyzing data and improving the communication between the various departments within the organization ERP is a perfect match for the healthcare industry. This improved communication also allows the employees to work better and by doing that it will improve the overall quality of the organization. ERP systems are also crucial to transform lame functional organizations to process oriented ones. Still many hospitals are hesitant to implement ERP systems due to the complexity and high cost of implementing the system but proper implementation and monitoring of ERP systems will help hospitals to streamline their operations and work like a well oiled machine. Now let’s take a look at some of the noteworthy points that shows how the adoption of ERP systems can have a positive impact on your organization.
1. Improving Patient Care: Ultimately hospitals are running to serve the people and treat the patients. The implementation of ERP will allow the organization to store all the personal and treatment information of a patient in a central location. This helps hospitals on multiple occasions and ensures that if that patient is coming again, his/her previous records are stored properly which can also be easily accessible. This centralized storing will also help each and every department to have easy access to the patients’ details reducing the unwanted confusions. Overall this will help doctors and physicians to provide a better and more effective treatment for the patients.
2. Ensuring Safety and Confidentiality of the stored data: Hospitals will have huge chunks of data related to their patients’ treatment and the organization's operations with them. Storing it in the ERP system will allow them to store that confidential data in a safe and secure place avoiding the loss of important data. This will also help organizations to update and review the data if and when needed.
3. Improved Business Intelligence: Decision making is an essential part of running any organization and hospitals are also the same. ERP system will allow hospitals to take better and informed decisions at the right time which is crucial in today’s world. ERP will also allow organizations to gain information about the various aspects of their operations including budgeting and the total number of patients visiting the hospital. This also ensures that patients are given the right treatment in all circumstances.
4. Improved Finance Management: Finance and finance management is an essential part of running a hospital. With a multitude of areas to look into many of the hospitals will be lagging behind on their finance management. With ERP providing all the information based on the data stored in it, organizations can have better control over its finance. Proper implementation of ERP and accurate interpretation of the information provided by the ERP system will also help the hospitals to reduce their administrative costs significantly.
5. Helps to formulate strategic planning: Planning is crucial to succeed and survive in this competitive environment and ERP systems will help managers and administrators to formulate strategic plans and thus increasing the overall efficiency of the organization.
