Healthcare Supply Chain Management Software Development: Types, Benefits, Process and More

Through this blog, we’ll cover the essentials of healthcare supply chain management software development – what it is, how it helps, core benefits, and most importantly, why it is a worthwhile investment to offer more patient-centric care. Let’s dive right in!

Table of Contents:

• What is Supply Chain Management Software?
• Types of Supply Chain Management Software
• Why Should Hospitals Invest in a Healthcare SCM Solution?
• Benefits of Supply Chain Management in the Healthcare Sector
• Key Considerations for a Healthcare Supply Chain Management Solution
• Healthcare Supply Chain Software Development Process
• Key Tech Stack of Healthcare Supply Chain Management Software
• Choose Us as Your Trusted Partner for Healthcare SCM Software Development

A dedicated software tool, it helps execute supply chain transactions, manage supplier relationships & monitor associated business processes. It helps reduce numerous errors and unnecessary costs spent to fix them.

• Inventory Management
  IMS helps predict the demand for drugs, enabling manufacturers to determine the appropriate quantities for timely production. This allows consumers to place orders with suppliers in advance, ensuring stability in supply and ensuring optimal stock levels.
• Warehouse Management
  WMS helps manage the storage and organization of pharmaceutical goods in warehouse facilities. They track inventory levels, offer real-time visibility into your entire inventory ( both in the warehouse and in transit), and ensure proper conditions for drug storage, including temperature and humidity control.
• Order Processing and Management
  These versatile solutions operate bi-directionally, making them a vital tool in healthcare supply chain management. For consumers, they offer filtration options based on drug supplier priority. For businesses, they facilitate prompt order processing based on various factors such as priority, volume, urgency, and specific delivery conditions.
• Sourcing and Procurement
  These solutions cater to all market stakeholders, tracking resources and enabling flexible purchasing of various items, including raw materials, inventory, drugs, and equipment. They provide comprehensive tools for managing the procurement process.
• Shipment Monitoring
  These solutions manage the transportation of pharmaceutical products from manufacturers to end-users. They coordinate delivery routes, track shipments in real-time, and ensure compliance with regulations for drug transportation and storage during transit.

Medical facilities of today spend the majority of their operating expenses on healthcare supply chain management. However, the disconnect between the needs of patients, physicians & supply chain management causes tremendous efficiency. Therefore, healthcare supply chain leaders with dedicated solutions, have an incredible opportunity to drive transformation by better aligning supply chain operations and spending to care delivery models. It would lower operating costs, offer visibility into costs, automate procurement and make the supply chain process effective to enable clinicians to focus more on patient care and outcomes.

Healthcare Supply chain software simplifies and automates repetitive manual tasks such as Excel spreadsheets, paperwork, managing supply costs, inventories, and other supply chain activities.

Better Processes, Better Outcomes

• Supply chains are all about flow. Healthcare SCM automates purchasing, tracking & replenishing products and services that support your patients. It enables hospitals to manage costs, quantity, and supply levels by forecasting trends and proper planning.
• Supply chain data will become a competitive advantage to drive informed data-driven decision-making and understand the full cost associated with managing value-based care.

Improved Access to Insights

• Drug shortage has prevailed throughout the globe over a couple of years which has become a major challenge for hospitals. This results in increased spending on medicines experiencing shortages, for hospitals worldwide. Healthcare SCM solutions can provide real-time insights that improve access to short-supply products and act as a revenue accelerator for healthcare organizations.
• Facilitates transparency that assists healthcare providers to reduce potential supply chain disruption and ensure product availability during challenging times.

Enhances Transparency

• Supply chain management in healthcare industry improves the 3Cs of success – communication, collaboration, and coordination with the vendors, suppliers & shipping companies. This improves the flow of medical supplies, medicines, surgical equipment, and medical services from manufacturer to patient.
• Logistic errors in distribution, late shipments from vendors, and hold-ups on production lines can be avoided by using supply chain management software. This reduces the time delays in processes.

Reduces Inventory Waste

• Lack of visibility in supply inventory many lead healthcare organizations in poor management of product expiry dates. This could result in the waste of drugs or even worse, the use of expired products on patients. SCM solutions help hospitals reduce waste and ensure the right products are available at the right time.
• Supply chain management helps maintain a lean inventory and prevents medical supplies from expiring in storage.

Reporting and Analytics

• Real-time inventory reporting and calculation is a vital part and reason for having a healthcare SCM solution in the first place.
• Helps keep track of performance and improvements by offering deep dives into different levels of inventory information. from cost analysis to sales performance and more.

While the healthcare industry can be considered as a slightly new entrant in managing its supply chain capabilities, it can learn from mature industries, like manufacturing and more to develop & manage a sustainable, competing advantage source, delivering superior service and flexibility at a dramatically lower cost.

In our experience, a well-designed and customer SCM solution tailored to your needs is what you should eye for. Listed below are some of the factors one can consider while choosing the vendor and solution for their operations.

• Company size
• Budget
• Deployment type
• Postproduction support, training, and maintenance

Though it goes without saying, any basic SCMS would offer;

• Ease of Use
• Scalability
• Proper communication mechanism (between both clinical and financial systems)
• Accurate reporting and analytics

The development process for healthcare supply chain software is critical for improving efficiency and effectiveness in managing medical supplies. This process can be broken down into several key stages:

Step 1 – Requirement Gathering and Analysis

The initial step involves engaging healthcare stakeholders to understand their unique challenges and workflow complexities in logistics and supply chain management in healthcare. Map out existing supply chain processes to identify pain points and areas for improvement. This ensures the software addresses specific inventory management and supply chain operation needs.

Step 2 – Planning

Under this stage, you should prepare a comprehensive plan outlining the software’s scope and development roadmap. You must outline the software’s core functionalities, such as inventory management, procurement, distribution, demand forecasting, and analytics. It will help align the development process with organizational goals, which sets a clear direction for a smooth development process.

Step 3 – Software Design

This phase focuses on creating a user-friendly interface for healthcare professionals and developing a robust software architecture. Design the software’s overall structure, including the technology stack (e.g., programming languages, databases, cloud platforms). Ensure that the intuitive interface meets the needs of different user roles. You should define data structures and relationships to support the software’s functionalities.

Step 4 – Building a Prototype

Build an architectural design and develop a few prototypes of healthcare supply chain management software to gather feedback from stakeholders. Incorporate this feedback to refine the software before full-scale development begins.

Step 5 – Software Development

Make sure to initiate full-scale development of healthcare supply chain solutions after implementing all the feedback from the stakeholders. The software’s core features, such as real-time inventory tracking, analytics & reporting, and others, are implemented at this stage.

Step 6 – Testing

Conduct thorough unit, integration, and system testing to ensure quality and functionality. This ensures that the software functions correctly across various devices and scenarios, which is vital for accurate inventory tracking and management.

Step 7 – Integration

In this stage, integrate the software with existing systems, such as electronic health records (EHRs), enterprise resource planning (ERPs), and other relevant systems to achieve data accuracy and consistency.

Step 8 – Software Deployment

To ensure everything goes well, deploy the software in a test environment and examine its functionalities and performance. This process will help you achieve a smooth transition with minimal disruptions. Once validated, you can deploy the software in production environments.

Step 9 – Training & Support

Provide comprehensive user training to employees and staff on using the software efficiently. This will help in minimizing disruptions during daily operations. Also, offer ongoing support and maintenance post-deployment for any updates or issues.

Step 10 – Continuous Improvement

Monitor SCM software performance, identify areas for improvement, and update the software regularly to add new features or functionalities for the organization’s growing needs. Perform regular security and compliance audits to ensure adequate security controls.

Understanding the tech stack powering these solutions is essential for healthcare organizations seeking to streamline their supply chain processes.

• Data Science and Business Intelligence
  Predictive analytics and BI involve the application of statistics and information technologies for processing large amounts of supply chain information. These technologies assist in the formulation of decisions on forecasts, budgeting, and inventory at healthcare organizations.
• Artificial Intelligence
  It helps in enhancing supply chain efficiency through predictive analytics and process automation. AI/ML helps in optimizing routing, predicting equipment failures, and personalizing supply recommendations based on historical data.
• IoT
  The tracking and monitoring of medical supplies and equipment are made possible with Internet of Things devices. For instance, IoT sensors can help track cold-chain products, perform inventory checks, or assist in monitoring the usage patterns of medical equipment.
• Cloud
  Cloud platforms offer scalable, accessible solutions for storing and processing supply chain data. These platforms facilitate collaboration among stakeholders, enable real-time updates, and provide flexibility to adapt to changing healthcare needs.
• Blockchain Technology
  In the healthcare supply chain, blockchain ensures transparency and traceability. It can verify the authenticity of medical products, track shipments from manufacturer to patient, and securely share data among multiple parties. Blockchain helps achieve better regulatory compliance throughout the process.
• Digital Twin
  Digital twin technology creates virtual replicas of physical supply chain assets and processes. This allows for simulation and optimization of supply chain operations, predictive maintenance, and scenario planning to improve overall efficiency.

Footnotes:

1. https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-healthcare-supply-chain-management-market

2. https://www.ghx.com/resources/educational-brochures/modernizing-healthcare-supply-chain-through-cloud-report