How ERP Transforms Pharma and Healthcare Facilities for Maximum Efficiency

Introduction

Enterprise resource planning ERP has become an important part for the Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare sector. It helps businesses to streamline its operation.  For example, making business processes more efficient and faster by automating tasks, reducing unnecessary tasks, managing resource planning etc. It initiated more development in the patient care sector. With growing difficulties in these industries due to changes in regulatory bodies, higher cost etc. ERP provides a system which integrates different functions for better accuracy and decision making.

This article helps to explore how ERP solutions benefit the Pharma and Healthcare sector in terms of Management cost production and overall operational increased efficiency. 

Problems Faced By Pharma And Healthcare Industries And How ERP Helps To Overcome These Problems

Law based compliance-
Pharma and health care facilities have to follow the rules fixed by regulated bodies such as the Food and Drugs Administration( FDA)-USA 
European medicine agency (EMC)- Europe
(WHO)World Health Organisation- globally

Changes in the laws can bring  several challenges to the pharmacy sector during, such as maintaining detailed records for inspections, keeping up with law changes, and maintaining the quality of medicine. But with the help of ERP one  can overcome these challenges.

How does ERP help?
ERP software can be updated with recent rules which have been changed.
Maintaining digital records of all documents, patient history and rules and regulation

Maintaining adequate inventors: managing inventory is necessary for both pharma and Healthcare sectors.

Poorly driven inventories can lead to shortage of stocks or overstocking  which may impact business and Patient Safety.

How does ERP help?

ERP helps in maintaining inventory which prevents shortage and over stocking. 
It sends alerts when there is a shortage of stocks. 
It Maintains the records of expired or nearly expiring products which reduces the waste generation and helps in reducing financial losses.

Reduction in production cost -

Production costs of pharma and Healthcare facilities are generally high, due to high salaries paid to staff, high equipment cost and managing cost. An ERP system helps to control the production cost.

How does ERP help?

Helps in budget planning- it tracks raw material cost, production cost such as labours machineries, maintenance electricity etc. 

ERP does a profitability analysis: which includes deciding which medicines will provide higher profit and where the cost can be reduced. 

Increased efficiency in patient care sector
Hospitals should provide the best facility to their patients and it should be one of its priorities. But manual system can lead to delays which may affect patients health and service quality.

How does ERP help?

Accessibility-  ERP provides quick access to patients medical history test reports and prescriptions 
scheduled appointment: ERP helps to optimize doctor schedules and book an appointment for the patient. 

Maintains security:

It is the responsibility for the healthcare and pharma industries to maintain the secrecy of patients data. It must be protected against any virus. 

How does ERP help?

It restricts the data access to authorised personnel only.
Have secure backups of the data or information related to the patient.

Future prediction

It is important for the Healthcare sector to adapt to the changes which are going to take place in future without decreasing its efficiency. 
ERP helps in maintaining the scalability of these sectors. 

How does ERP help?

Use of AI for better decision making- ERP enables the use of AI for getting access to different locations which helps to make better decisions.  
Maintaining large pharmaceutical chains which enables the pharma to work more effectively.

Researching and developing new drugs-

Research and development is the backbone of Pharma and Healthcare Industries responsible for discovering new drugs which have to be launched in the market but this process is time taking and costly. 

How does ERP help? 

By maintaining systematic records- ERP stores data in an organized manner which allows decent access to the researchers and scientists 
Helps in patent management- ERP helps in managing intellectual property right such as patent which is just as trademark used for scientific invention 

CONCLUSION

ERP solutions are reshaping the  Pharma and Healthcare industries by increasing efficiency in law based compliance, optimising resource utilisation, reducing production cost, increase in patient care facilities and ensuring data safety.  As technologies are evolving day to day ERP systems are becoming stronger,  smarter and harder day by day.
By  investing in ERP systems a company can  reduce their risk and provide better Healthcare facilities to their patients.