Healthcare Supply Chain Management Software (SCM): Types, Solutions

Healthcare Supply Chain Management Software Market

During the Covid-19 pandemic to this day, the pressure on the healthcare system has increased significantly.

Growing competition, restrictions resulting from new government regulations for the healthcare system, high costs, and increased requirements from medical institutions have complicated the interaction of the supply chain entities.

But the key disadvantage of this situation is the impact on the end-user of pharmaceutical products, the patient.

Unlike consumer goods, specific drugs cannot be replaced by available analogs and are required without delay.

That is why the cost of SCM is on average 25% of the healthcare system, which is still above the acceptable threshold for savings of 10%.

Innovative technologies for optimizing supply chain management in healthcare, such as ERP systems, blockchain, remote control of individual stages of the chains, and RFID, will provide affordable services in medical institutions to end-users and reduce costs for all parties.

The importance of SCM in healthcare

In a global sense, SCM is the complex of measures to optimize a pharmaceutical product in terms of managing the logistics cycle: from the supply of raw materials to pharmaceutical companies to the delivery of drugs to clinics and pharmacies.

Optimization of all procedures should be based on the integration of planning, automation, and the complex interaction of all participants.

J.Mathew, Joshin John, and Dr. Sushil Kumar analyzed the healthcare market and calculated that the average order fulfillment time is 1,000 to 8,000 hours in developing countries.

At the same time, order processing takes 2 times less time in developed countries. It is due to the consolidation of finished products by 80% from wholesalers who cooperate with local distributors more quickly.

The key advantage of the developed country model is flexible management of warehouse processes and orders thanks to specialized software.

That’s why 69% of leaders of healthcare procurement and technology made SCM a top priority and asset back in 2017.

As Coherent Market Insights reports, the global SCM management industry is projected to grow by 9.3% annually in 2021-2028, and now the technology market in this direction is estimated at $2080.6 million.

This growth is justified by several important market needs related to:

1. Implementation of GS1 standards in healthcare products. Barcoding of pharmaceutical products allows solving several critical problems at once: assessing the authenticity of products, analyzing the cross-border distribution of goods, and controlling the speed of goods arrival to end consumers, which became vital during the Covid-19 pandemic.
2. Growing requirements for inventory management. Minimizing storage space, optimizing warehouse stocks according to the manufacturer’s recommendations, and differentiating storage conditions for pharmacological products require even the smallest medical institutions to pay more attention to the warehouse.
3. The need to increase the availability of drugs for the population. In the context of the growing load on medical institutions by patients with a presumptive diagnosis of coronavirus infection, certain categories of people with chronic, systemic, or incurable diseases, even in an outpatient treatment format, must receive prescribed drugs in time.

Combining digital solutions in supply chain management in hospitals allows achieving the results necessary for the entire industry, which ensures cost reduction for all market participants.

Solutions in SCM depending on the needs

The complexity of supply chain management can be considered in two aspects:

• By the entities involved in the supply process.

• By stages of supply processes.

Нospital supply chain software is an online analytical platform or a synergy of several solutions to manage goods in the chain, control their movement, predict the demand of individual market participants, optimize communications between various entities, and improve the delivery of goods to end consumers.

Such software solves two main tasks: it provides transparency of costs to minimize investments in problem stages and satisfies the momentary need of patients for essential drugs when needed.

Depending on who the consumer is and what supply stage requires management optimization, there are several types of IT products.

Types of solutions for optimizing supply chain management

First of all, such tools must consider the needs of an individual participant or a group of market participants. Depending on the tasks, the solution provider has the possibility to implement the required functionality only, avoiding the integration of unnecessary features.

Which solution is suitable for you? Contact GloriumTech, and we will develop a solution to any problem of your company or group of medical institutions!

AboutAnna Vozna

Account Executive with Glorium Technologies. My role is to constantly improve cooperation, integration, communication, customer relationships, and lead the department to success through sharing the company's vision among team members.