What are the possible causes for ERP to be introduced in healthcare?

Healthcare is yet another booming industry that enjoys unlimited growth opportunities through the globe. The obvious reason is that science and technology leads to both vices and virtues. The diseases are rapidly multiplying at a rate faster than the invention of medicines. No doubt it has become a very lucrative profession be it medical professional or paramedical professional or corporate hospitals.

Some of the reasons for the increased usage and preference of ERP are as follows:

Computerization

ERP function becomes very important in this context. The attitude of personnel in hospital industry is quiet different from that of the others. When people quickly respond to computerization and automation it is practically difficult for the trend to follow suit in hospitals. The reason is doctors are keener to update about medical terminologies and surgical trends than any about any other office equipment. This has also increased the percentage of erp use.

This could not last for a long time. The situation changed slowly. In addition to the other departments medical and paramedical professionals have taken the necessary steeps to keep them abreast of the latest technology as it is directly or indirectly connected with the profession. ERP function helps to achieve this.

The concept of enterprise resource planning has made the process of segregating bills and patient records much easier. This industry also realized the need to adapt to ERP. Hence the industry was able to save more lives (but at the cost of an individual's privacy) as it enabled to access the database of patients and medical histories through the common database shared by hospitals and that too at a quicker rate.

The cost Factor

This still remains a problem and prevents the full-fledged intervention of ERP in the entire industry. Corporate hospitals don't bother to spend on ERP once they are convinced because it is no more than a fraction of their capital. All these factors decide the percentage of erp use.

On the other hand when it comes to lesser known enterprises the exorbitant costs incurred acts as a barrier. This is also being sorted out largely because these units also arrange finances from their own resources and borrowings to implement ERP once they strongly believe that the investment will be justify and help them to achieve the status of "Elite hospital" from a multibed hospital.

Reduction in IT staff

Though this does not happen to be a positive issue in the labor friendly atmospheres it becomes one of the deciding factors for management to churn ERP. It becomes easy to bring down the number of IT staff in hospital industry than any other sector.

When it comes to other sector IT personnel could be engaged in constantly developing applications and not necessarily assisting in the automation of office work. This is the major difference when it comes to hospitals and hence managements go in for ERP (at least) for this reason. ERP function is put to use as a tool for them to control manpower cost.

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