7 challenges that drive ERP modernization in healthcare

As healthcare organizations seek to enhance operational efficiency, many turn to an ERP solution as the connective tissue. It can serve as a single source of truth across mission-critical departments, such as finance, human resources, supply chain, electronic medical records, healthcare CRM and more.

But often, the decision to pursue transformation through a healthcare ERP system starts with an assessment of your processes and procedures.

Below are seven common challenges healthcare organizations face as they start to pinpoint critical gaps across their technology systems and core functions. Discover how these basic challenges can often be the forcing function for your organization to evaluate more integrated, modern ERP solutions.

Challenge No. 1: Our financial planning and analysis (FP&A) process isn’t integrated with our accounting system

Healthcare organizations must navigate a complex web of financial systems, reporting and forecasting. To account for expenses and staffing changes and to allocate costs, you need access to comprehensive financial reporting along with the ability to drill down into each layer of the budget. An ERP can integrate budgeting, forecasting and planning (BP&F) with other financial systems for detailed dashboards that allow you to meet current and future budgeting needs.

It might be time to explore an ERP-enabled strategy if:

• Your current approach to financial management is failing to meet your organization’s needs for comprehensive, intelligent budgeting and reporting.
• The budgeting system is not configured to integrate with your accounting platform for easy access to enterprise data.

Challenge No. 2: We’re spending significant time trying to connect the dots between payroll and broader financial management for our healthcare organization

Across clinical and operational staff, healthcare organizations need to understand and adjust staff allocations based on patient needs and budget considerations. But many are relying on manual imports and journal entries to connect human capital reporting to financial and accounting systems. You can configure an ERP to automate those connections and allow for in-depth reporting and insights.

It might be time to explore an ERP-enabled strategy if:

• Your human capital reporting is separate from the enterprise financial management systems and your organization relies on manual data integration.
• Your organization struggles to estimate the number of hours or human capital needed per grant or staff allocation.

Challenge No. 3: We have a complex supply chain but don’t have a reliable mechanism in place that tracks actual inventory coming through the system

Materials management is a common source of frustration across healthcare organizations. You need to manage a complex supply chain, accurately track inventory and forecast and mitigate costs for materials management over time. An ERP can be integrated with healthcare supply chain management to help automate the process and evaluate the costs of materials within broader financial considerations.

It might be time to explore an ERP-enabled strategy if:

• There are financial risks in continuing to use manual resources to keep your current system in place for materials management.
• Your healthcare organization has not yet explored opportunities for more precise supply chain management, such as three-way match, barcode scanning and optical character recognition (OCR).

Challenge No. 4: Grants make up a large bucket of revenue for our healthcare organization, but we struggle to track grant allocation and impact

When grant management is separate from enterprise financial dashboards, it becomes difficult for your healthcare organization to plan for critical funding down the road. This is particularly a challenge when grants make up a significant portion of your revenue. An ERP can be configured with reporting requirements for grants so your healthcare organization can track your impact with accuracy and better position for future funding.

It might be time to explore an ERP-enabled strategy if:

• Current grant reporting does not allow your organization to rapidly and accurately track or seek out grants and funding.
• Your organization would benefit from integrating grants and allocations into a streamlined financial management software.

Challenge No. 5: Our EHR software is disconnected from our financial platform, and it’s difficult to make financial decisions that actually improve patient care

Financial decisions should ideally be made to improve the delivery of care — the core mission of a healthcare organization. But between the EHR and the ERP, patient and service line data is often siloed and separate from enterprise-level financial records. With clinical information integrated into financial systems, your healthcare organization can make data-driven, informed decisions about investments in patient care.

It might be time to explore an ERP-enabled strategy if:

• Your EHR data does not speak to your financial records, but your organization needs the ability to calculate service line or provider profitability and utilization.
• Dashboards that combine clinical, billing and financial data would help your organization make decisions and run the business more effectively.

Challenge No. 6: We have a CRM for scheduling and managing treatments but haven’t figured out how to align patient experience with value-based care models

Many healthcare organizations tap into a standalone CRM for its standard functions to manage patient interactions and experience, but there is significant value when the CRM links with other enterprise systems. When properly connected through APIs, a CRM can automate and personalize your patient care and engagement process.

It might be time to explore an ERP-enabled strategy if:

• Your organization has not yet integrated the CRM with ERP and EHR systems.
• The connection of disparate platforms would ease the burden on administrative staff and improve patient relationship management.

Challenge No. 7: We are struggling with data management and don’t have a single place to store and analyze all our data

As a healthcare organization grows as a business, its data management also becomes more complex in nature. There can be disparate data sources, locations, formats and reporting requirements. With a common data warehouse and analytics that connect with accounting and financial records, your organization can more easily manage, govern and deliver insights with confidence.

It might be time to explore an ERP-enabled strategy if:

• There is not a clear governance structure in place to oversee the collection, management and delivery of data across departments.
• Your organization lacks a unified data warehouse to support analytics, visualization and reporting.

Turning challenges into a path forward

From manually updated spreadsheets to siloed financial and clinical systems, legacy practices present significant risk in operating a complex healthcare organization like yours.

Enterprise transformation requires stepping back to see the bigger picture — and your organization’s core challenges — to explore what is truly possible through an ERP implementation.

Wipfli can help. We’ve put together a practical guide for healthcare ERP adoption.

And as specialists in ERP implementation, customization and change management, our healthcare advisors and technologists are here to get you started or help you finish your journey. Learn more here.