ERP for Healthcare
ERP in healthcare manages finance, procurement, staffing and logistics for hospitals, care homes and practices, distinct from clinical documentation.
ERP for Healthcare: Requirements
- Procurement and materials management
- Managing medical products, implants and consumables with batch and expiry tracking, so individual lots can be traced back to a department in the event of a recall.
- Shift-based workforce planning
- Rosters spanning day, night and weekend shifts, with allowance calculation, qualification records and statutory rest periods, given a high share of part-time staff.
- Billing under Swiss tariff systems
- Billing to health insurers under SwissDRG for inpatient care and, since 1 January 2026, under TARDOC and the new outpatient flat-rate tariffs in place of TARMED for outpatient care.
- Cost centre and cost object accounting
- Separate reporting by department, service line and case, as the basis for solid cost object accounting and reporting to cantonal and supervisory authorities.
- Separation and interface with clinical systems
- The ERP covers the business side. Patient data, bed occupancy and clinical processes run in the clinical information system and connect through defined interfaces such as HL7 or FHIR, not by rebuilding them in the ERP.
- Asset accounting for medical equipment
- Depreciation, maintenance and calibration schedules plus service contracts for costly equipment such as MRI, CT scanners or lab automation, so deadlines are not tracked in tools disconnected from the ERP.
ERP for Healthcare: Common problems
- ERP and clinical information system are poorly connected, data gets entered twice
- Material consumption cannot be allocated accurately to a department or a case
- Shift rostering runs separately from HR, allowances are reconciled by hand
- Cost object accounting needs manual data preparation because cost centres and service data are not linked end to end
- Procurement grew department by department and is hard to steer or negotiate centrally
- Maintenance and calibration deadlines for medical equipment sit in disconnected tools instead of an asset register, and dates get missed
ERP for Healthcare: Matching systems
- SAP S/4HANA
- Common in larger hospitals and hospital groups, with developed cost centre and cost object accounting, asset accounting for medical equipment, and international procurement.
- Abacus
- Suits smaller institutions, retirement and care homes, with built-in payroll compliant with Swiss law for shift and part-time models.
- Infoniqa ONE 200
- Suits mid-sized care home groups and home care (Spitex) organisations of roughly 10 to 1000 employees, with Swissdec-certified payroll for shift allowances and order management in one system.
Swiss healthcare is one of the most cost-intensive sectors of the economy: in 2025, healthcare spending reached around CHF 100.7 billion, equivalent to 11.6 percent of gross domestic product. Care delivery rests on a dense but organisationally fragmented network: the Federal Office of Public Health’s “Key Figures of Swiss Hospitals” lists around 270 hospital operators, alongside cantonally organised retirement and care homes and home care (Spitex) organisations. Since 1 January 2026, the new TARDOC individual-service tariff structure and outpatient flat-rate tariffs have replaced the previous TARMED physician tariff, and ERP and billing systems need to represent the new tariff positions cleanly. At the same time, the shortage of nursing staff is intensifying planning pressure: the nursing initiative (Pflegeinitiative), approved by voters in 2021, is being implemented in two stages since 2024; the training offensive is already under way, and a second stage covering working conditions and staffing levels is expected no earlier than 2026 or 2027. For ERP systems in healthcare, this means solid shift planning, clean cost object accounting and a clear interface to the clinical information system matter more, regardless of an institution’s size.
ERP for Healthcare: Frequently asked questions
Does a hospital need an ERP alongside its clinical information system?
Usually yes. The clinical system handles patient data and clinical processes, the ERP the business side with finance, procurement and staffing. The two connect through interfaces such as HL7 or FHIR, rather than duplicating data entry.
What is specific to Swiss care homes and nursing institutions?
Payroll with shift allowances and billing under cantonally different long-term care financing rules. A solution with Swiss localisation and Swissdec certification is practically a prerequisite here.
What changes in 2026 when TARDOC replaces TARMED, and what does it mean for ERP billing?
Since 1 January 2026, the TARDOC individual-service tariff structure and new outpatient flat-rate tariffs replace the previous TARMED physician tariff. For ERP billing this means invoicing and cost object modules need to correctly represent the new tariff positions and flat rates without breaking existing reporting retroactively.