Practice Management News

Top 10 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Vendors By Hospital Use

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions help hospitals and health systems to gain a comprehensive view of their financial health.

Top enterprise resource planning vendors by hospital use include Infor, SAP, and Evident

Source: Thinkstock

By Jacqueline LaPointe

- Healthcare providers have become increasingly interested in implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as part of their business intelligence and revenue cycle management suites.

ERP systems are business management tools that give users an integrated view of core business operations, such as cash flow, production capacity, orders and purchasing, and payroll. The systems gather and consolidate data from across several departments to facilitate information exchange and automate back office functions.

In healthcare, organizations use ERP systems to eliminate financial data siloes that have traditionally separated back office functions. With an ERP system, providers can break down the walls between front-end revenue cycle management duties, such as patient access, and back-end responsibilities, including claims management.

Providers also employ ERP systems to link healthcare supply chain management data to revenue cycle and other financial information.

By eliminating data siloes in the financial space, healthcare organizations gain a comprehensive picture of their revenue cycle.

READ MORE: NYC Health’s ERP System to Bring Business Ops to Digital Age

Value-based purchasing has also spurred providers to invest in the business intelligence tool. A 2016 Black Book survey revealed that healthcare executives are renewing their interest in ERP systems as their organizations implement alternative payment models.

The C-suite executives stated that their organization’s web of back-end software that manages the slew of business operations from finance and supply chain to payroll and coding prompted them to research ERP systems that would bring business operations under one system. Without an integrated view into their revenue cycle, executives stated that they could not identify cost-saving opportunities in preparation for value-based purchasing.

As providers and executives explore their ERP system options, they face a myriad of solutions from a growing number of vendors. Hospitals and other healthcare facilities have also turned to non-healthcare-specific companies to implement the business intelligence tool.

The following is an alphabetized list of the top ERP vendors by hospital implementation based on data from Definitive Healthcare.

Evident

Evident is an arm of CPSI dedicated to providing advanced EHR solutions to rural and community healthcare organizations. Through its Thrive EHR solution, Evident offers rural healthcare organizations a health record with integrated supports, such as patient and information management.

READ MORE: Top Revenue Cycle Management Vendors and How to Select One

As part of its suite of EHR supports, Evident offers financial and revenue cycle management tools. The company’s financial solutions include decision support for departmental investments, complete integration with hospital operational data, advanced reporting for real time insight into financial health, and shared data integrity checks.

Harris Enterprise Resource Planning

Harris Enterprise Resourcing Planning provides web-based software solutions to several industries, including utility, schools, the public sector, and healthcare. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Harris Computer Systems.

The company uses a web-based structure and flexible design with its ERP solutions to help users comply with current and future regulations. The systems are configurable and adaptable to evolve with user needs.

For the healthcare sector, in particular, the vendor offers MediSolution. The healthcare-specific ERP system allows providers to realize operational efficiencies, cost savings, and care delivery improvements through a variety of suites. The system includes suites for financial management, human capital management, and business intelligence solutions.

Healthland

As part of the CPSI team, Healthland develops health IT systems for community, rural, and inpatient psychiatric hospitals. The company established Healthland Centriq, a fully integrated EHR solution that supports the care continuum.

READ MORE: How Business Intelligence, CDI Focus Sharpens Revenue Cycle

The Minnesota-based vendor customizes its health IT solutions to address the unique needs and challenges rural hospitals may face. Through an integrated EHR and financial management system, Heartland aims to help rural and small hospitals retain staff, compete with other facilities in the area, and improve their community presence.

Infor

Providers can choose from either an on premise or cloud-based ERP system from Infor. The vendor offers hospital and outpatient providers, health plans, and medical technology and device companies an ERP system that contains human capital management, personalized views by user, common master data from any mobile device, and automated procure-to-pay processes.

The Infor solution also uses key performance indicators to expand an organization’s view on its financial health and make fast decisions based on financial performance. The ERP solution also supports clinical interoperability via Infor’s Cloverleaf suite and value-based purchasing implementation.

Intacct

Intacct manages ERP solutions for a wide range of industries. But its healthcare-specific ERP system aims to help hospitals and practices achieve scale while ensuring financial processes and performance improves across multiple locations.

The solution allows health systems and hospitals to centralize financial management data and processes across several locations as well as create consolidated financial statements at any time, not just at a month’s end.

Managers at any healthcare facility within the system can access the browser-based ERP system to access approvals and perform transactions.

McKesson

Through McKesson’s healthcare-specific ERP solution, providers and other staff gain access to the right information at the right time. The ERP system combines the power of the company’s supply chain, fiscal management, and human capital management solutions under one system.

In conjunction with ERP analytics tools, the system helps to streamline the enterprise continuum by integrating information exchange between key areas, such as scheduling, operation room management, and enterprise intelligence.

The web-based tool also enables users to access the ERP solution and data on mobile devices. Through the web-based functions, users can view managerial dashboards, budget versus actual reviews, requisition approvals and payment processing, self-service human capital functions, and par level management and inventory cycle counts.

MEDITECH

MEDITECH provides healthcare organizations across the size spectrum with an integrated ERP solution.  The ERP system works with the organization’s EHR platform to manage reimbursements and medical billing, decrease supply chain costs, develop profitable teams, and measure overall financial health.

Key benefits of the healthcare-specific ERP solution are real-time supply chain management, patient accounting tools that can create one bill for all services rendered, staff profitability and productivity assessments, and web-based business intelligence analytics.

Oracle

The cloud-based ERP and enterprise performance management systems from Oracle offer business intelligence to a wide range of industries, including healthcare. Major functions of the systems include accounting, financial planning and analysis, revenue recognition, risk management, financial governance, procurement, project planning, tax reporting, and financial closing.

Oracle ERP products also offer industry standards and updated best practices to help organizations measure and improve their financial health.

Prognosis Innovation Healthcare

The FinancialAccess ERP system from Prognosis Innovation Healthcare caters to rural and community hospitals. However, the solution allows hospitals of all types to integrate general ledger, accounts payable, time and attendance, payroll, fixed assets, and materials management into one system.

The ERP system links to the company’s EHR platform to automate financial management workflows and develop customizable reports.

SAP

The Germany-based SAP provides ERP solutions to a myriad of industries and customers across the globe. As one of the largest ERP providers, healthcare organizations have looked to SAP to integrate their core business operations into a single solution.

Providers can choose from on-premise, cloud-based, or hybrid ERP systems that target key business operations. The company offers healthcare-specific solutions for human resources, financial management, procurement and networks, data analytics, and Internet of Things use.