Surviving SAP Implementation in a Hospital

Elevator Pitch: The case emphasis on ERP implementation in a hospital. In a competitive healthcare sector, hospitals
have to focus on their processes in order to deliver high-quality care while at the same time reducing costs. Many
hospitals have decided to adopt one or another Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to improve their businesses,
but implementing an ERP system can be a demanding endeavour. The systems are so difficult to implement that some
are successful; many have failed, causing multimillion dollar losses. The VLF hospital is ranked among the third best
hospital in Latin America and the best in Colombia. VLF moved to eliminate the challenge of coordination. Prior to the
implementation of ERP, the hospital used the traditional methods of running the organizations operations. Each patient
visiting the hospital required that the hospital management coordinate all processes that occurred from the initial
encounter with the patient to the last stage after implementation. This case showcases how the hospital achieved this
ambitious goal. It exhibits how organizations can manage large-scale change processes.

1) Primary reasons of adopting SAP in a hospital is to automate or implement the requirements based on implementation
of electronic medical records, resource planning and coordination of staff members. This will lead to the implementation
of business process that is adaptable by most of the department in the organization to overcome the mentioned reasons.

2) ERP stimulates both proficiency and productivity. The competitions, as well as expectations, are never ending here;
from management to patients all look for facilities that would ease up efforts and save time both. Implementation of
ERP in the hospital helps the organizations against all the contingencies in management and patient pleasure.
Implementation of ERP at Hospital helps in: Instant Access: ERP integrates the whole system in the hospital hence
helps a doctor to have instant access to his patients.Since the whole system is centralized, access to various services is
at the touch of a finger. Standardizes Capacities: The integrated system helps to store information about various
departments of a hospital in a single database hence increasing the work capacity of employees. Easy and Cost-effective
management: It integrates a range of health-related processes, which helps in the flawless management of a hospital. It
optimizes the maintenance of inventories, medical records, lab report records, patient records, and revenues. Greater
control: The main aim behind ERP designing is to lay a cohesive platform for controlled functioning. It gives a clearer
overview of various departments hence accelerating performance and functioning. It enables greater control on routine
planning, nursing care, and surgeries. Guarantees Patient satisfaction: The success of hospitals depends basically on
satisfied patients. When the staff working in an organization works under a well-coordinated system, it serves its
customers without a hitch.

3) SAP implementation in a Colombian hospital helped in processing the work accurately and on time. For example,
Pharmacy management (Pg18) was made easier than how it was before implementation of SAP which helped in
reduction of manual errors. SAP also helped in reducing the processing time for billing and retrieval of patient’s medical
history. SAP implementation also helped in file management of patients record based on their admission criteria. It
improved and helped in better co-ordination between administrative and medical departments.

4) :), For the ERP implementation A grade can be awarded. This is because ERP project implementation within VLF
was finished within time and budget constraints. It also provided for all the benefits with an implementation of an ERP
system in a hospital setting. It helped in paperless management of the insurance process, cash flow, payroll, purchasing.
It also helped in better coordination in between different departments of the
hospital like OPD, emergency etc and also documentation of the prescription
referrals by doctors.

5) Leadership (1): Management were hesitant for change management. But the
organization moved towards taking risk of changing their system from manual
to electronic and implemented ERP. Hence, leadership can be considered as a
positive step
BRP (1): (Pg18) explains the success of business process with inventory
management, e-billing and supply chain management
Acquisition (1): VLF hired computent for implementation of SAP ERP which
seemed to be more stabilized after 6 months.
EDI history (1): Since most of the work in the organization was done manually hence EDI history did not progress (0).

6)1) “Understanding ERP system implementation in a hospital by analysing stakeholders”, Albert Boonstra Mark J.G. Govers
2) John E. Ettlie, Victor J. Perotti, Daniel A Joseph, Mark J. Cotteleer, (2005) “Strategic predictors of successful enterprise system
deployment”, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 25 Issue: 10, pp. 953-972,
https://doi.org/10.1108/01443570510619473
3) J. Ettlie, Managing Technological Innovation, New York, Wiley, 2000, pp. 276-277).