title: Information systems for the materials management department: stand-alone and enterprise resource planning systems.
abstract: Materials management information systems (MMISs) incorporate information tools that hospitals can use to automate certain business processes, increase staff compliance with these processes, and identify opportunities for cost savings. Recently, there has been a push by hospital administration to purchase enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, information systems that promise to integrate many more facets of healthcare business. We offer this article to help materials managers, administrators, and others involved with information system selection understand the changes that have taken place in materials management information systems, decide whether they need a new system and, if so, whether a stand-alone MMIS or an ERP system will be the best choice.
mesh_terms: D016494:Computer Security; D003628:Database Management Systems / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000639:trends*; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D017721:Hospital Costs; D006751:Hospital Information Systems / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D007445:Inventories, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration; D008421:Materials Management, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017146:Models, Organizational; D011682:Purchasing, Hospital; D018511:Systems Integration; D014481:United States; D014584:User-Computer Interface