SAP management control for health companies: Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù

Health companies (Hospitals and public and private clinics) are composed by an elevated number of activities and specific needs all focused on the patient’s health: constant updates regarding registry Data, drugs distribution, short waiting times either is the booking of a test either in getting the results of it, a skilled and empathic staff. It also needs to be add to all these aspects the study of expenses and the constant research of a perfect match between efficacy (providing a high quality service to the patient) and efficiency (optimisation of time and the number of internal operators). Because of this, health companies when looking for implementing a management control System are asking for something created ad hoc for them like SAP. Technis Blu implemented a customized ad hoc solution for one of the most important hospitals in Italy.

The client

The Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù has contacted Technis Blu directly, that represent the biggest Policlinic and Paediatric Research centre in Europe. We are talking about the first paediatric hospital in Italy, built in 1869 by commission of the Salviati’s duke and donated later to the church.

The Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù sees 3300 professionals working actively and is the biggest reference’s health for children and teenagers coming from Italy and foreign countries. Thanks to the wide portfolio of services available for the patients, the health assistance is based on four recovery and cure poles.

To enhance the dimensions of the hospital we can underline the following numbers:

• 28000 recoveries;
• 29000 chirurgic operations;
• 43000 day hospitals;
• 84000 emergency room accesses
• Almost 2 million of clinics service

These numbers can give an idea about how complex is a company of this size, and how important could be a management control in health companies.

The needs

The Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù has expressed since the beginning the need to re-engineer their IT System integrating it with a more structured solution. The last objective was, indeed, to manage all necessary information to optimise quality and speediness of the services directly from a single terminal: accounting, management of the drug warehouse, co-ordination of the work shifts, management control in research orders and lot more.

The whole process had, clearly, to conform to the different needs expressed by the single patient. Objectives and ambitions have been fully satisfied by Technis Blu, which for OPBG implemented a SAP solution ad hoc.

Initial phases of the project

The project proposed by Technis Blu and accepted by OPBG’s management, is made up of few steps. Compared to the traditional solutions realised from the roman company, the SAP functional analyst who dedicated to this has focused his attention on:

• The OPBG processes (not on the single areas) in a view of bigger integration.
• The use of a pre-set up solution since the beginning, which contains the basic answers to the needs asked from the health company, reducing drastically the deadline for the final project.

Both these aspects have allowed the users (company’s operators) to get in touch with this new System since the beginning without waiting for a final implementation. This can be traduced in an acceleration in the workforce training time.

The final SAP implementation

As already explained, Technis Blu used a pre-set SAP module defined Agile Accounting. This System includes an integrated solution suitable to cover each single hospital process, in other words, exactly what OPBG was asking for. Agile Accounting presents as a structure characterised by

• Flexibility
• Scalability

These characteristics make the Agile Accounting perfectly compatible with any type of business. Moreover, this solution bases also on a technology in-memory, another fundamental part for the whole System: each department can insert Data inside a central internal System, which shows since the beginning the edits made, by constantly updating Data between the different business departments.

Pre and post implementation operations

Technis Blu understands how complex could be, for the internal staff in the health centre, to switch from one day to the other the management System used therefore, within the project realised for OPBG, the different interventions made before and after the ‘go live’ situation have gained high importance. Particularly:

• Before the management System implementation, the users have been trained according to their interested sector, functions and activities.
• Some key users concerning different SAP functions were created when the implementation ended.
• Contextually, have been integrated, optimised and sharpened the operational processes implemented.
• In the post ‘go live’ phase have been implemented ‘training on the job’, this is a training with consultant’s support.

Thanks to the training given to the staff, has been possible to understand the daily activities of the hospital from an internal point of view, this gave the chance to improve the internal activities by integrating the automatization and customizing Systems for the specific needs not only for the hospital, but for each single business department.

The results

With a customized solution ad hoc for the management control for healthcare companies, OPBG has benefited of an improved efficacy and organisation in each task: for instance, has been improved the Data management section related to each department from the relationship with suppliers, quotes, orders and the production cycle. With the analysis of Data ‘on the fly’, is possible to spend less time for the study of Data and answer promptly to the market dynamics thanks to a full wide overview of the hospital updated real-time.

SAP strength stands out by the normalisation of processes and the integration of these on a platform that gives homogeneity in Data management.  OPBG managed to make a fundamental change management, mixing a technological change with a new interpretation of business processes and improving even more the quality of the offered services. In other words, what makes this hospital the most important centre in Europe for children and teenager healthcare.

Conclusion

The good collaboration between OPBG brought Technis Blu to understand even more the importance of an efficient and customizable management control System for the healthcare companies.

Because of this, indeed, the service offered by these is rough and incomplete due to the high number of activities and issues that they have to face. Therefore, having a customized SAP management System is crucial to allow a patient to get all the answers promptly and feel secure.

How can SAP help you to make your activities in a health centre easier? Talk with Technis Blu analysts and adopt a SAP solution inside your company to offer the best to your clients.