Legacy Systems in Healthcare - 'It works today, so why Digitise...'

It's not uncommon in The Pharmaceutical and Homecare verticals, for core Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems such as SAP or Manufacturing Execution Systems, like Oracle, to be used in a Patient Management Capacity. In some ways it was the obvious choice for companies without a dedicated Electronic Patient Record System.

Whilst ERP and MES platforms do a fantastic job supporting manufacturing, warehouse management, distribution, invoicing etc. (intended use), they require significant human effort to plug the functional gaps when used in a patient management capacity. Whilst this is a situation many companies have 'sleep-walked' into, and guess what? It works, so why fix it? It comes with several significant drawbacks:

1. Limited digital progress - Legacy ERP and MES systems work well for manufacturing but aren't conducive to Digital Patient Engagement (Apps, Chat, Self-serve) or ease of connectivity between internal teams or external partners in the NHS for example.

2. Cluttered IT landscape - Home-grown systems such as MS Excel / Access and or satellite applications are built to fill the gaps. These become core parts of a complex process. They run the risk IP loss if the person who designed the Excel/Access model leaves.  This concoction of functional applications increases the burden on site VMP

3. High Effort for Patient and Business – Operationally, patient care is stitched together by people, workarounds and lists

4. AI resides in Digital Channels. If you're organisation is predominantly Voice and Email you are not AI ready

Coming from a background in Workforce Planning within the Contact Centre World, my role in the early 2000-2010 period, was to align headcount to the customer call demand. The objective being 2-fold: 1. Ensure customers can get through and do business with us (IE adequately staffed) and 2. Reduce costs through precise interval forecasting and resourcing (IE not overstaffed). 

From 2010 onwards, it became more about controlling the demand through contact deflection to self-serve or lower effort channels such as live chat, myaccount, apps, SMS.  Over the last 15 years the Service Industry has saved billions in headcount costs and now Artificial Intelligence is becoming the 2nd rung on the customer service ladder, prior to speaking to a human.

Apps - AI - Human

Whilst headcount savings may not be a driver for healthcare, but striving to do more with existing resources should be a priority with the current global shortages of HCPs at all levels.

Organisations who manage large cohorts of Patients in the Healthcare Industry have huge opportunities to become more efficient and significantly increase output.

The starting point is to define your end-to-end digital patient journey and put those legacy systems in the parts they serve best. Then rethink the gaps differently.