How Leading Health Systems Are Operating Pharmacy at Scale

Operating pharmacy at enterprise scale

Medication availability is now an enterprise performance issue. Drug shortages, labor constraints, rising costs and fragmented inventory data increase complexity and financial exposure. Poor visibility into what is available and where it is needed affects patient care, margin and organizational resilience.

Leading health systems are treating pharmacy as a system-wide operating capability, standardizing operations across facilities and connecting pharmacy with supply chain and finance. Software-enabled workflows and shared data reduce manual inventory work while giving leaders clearer visibility, tighter control and greater confidence in decisions affecting medication access and financial performance.

Key findings and executive implications

Survey findings from Tecsys’ “The Visibility Crisis in Health System Pharmacies” report reveal a clear operating challenge: pharmacy leaders are being asked to manage enterprise-level risk with incomplete visibility, inconsistent processes and early-stage analytics.

The findings point to a maturity gap. Pharmacy has become a strategic lever for margin protection, patient access and operational resilience, but many health systems still depend on reactive processes. Closing that gap requires enterprise visibility, standardized workflows, investment in connected technology and better coordination between pharmacy, supply chain, finance and clinical operations.

of organizations report real-time inventory visibility across care settings, while 80% continue to rely on delayed, disparate or manual tracking methods

of respondents identify drug shortages as a major operational disruption, underscoring the need for stronger mitigation planning and cross-team coordination

of health systems report they are not fully prepared to manage major disruptions. The gap points to a need for more proactive operating models, not just faster reactions

of organizations fully deploy AI and machine learning for forecasting and shortage prediction. Most health systems need stronger analytics capabilities to support pharmacy decisions

The pharmacy operating maturity model

Where does your organization fall?

Inventory visibility

Foundational: Visibility limited to individual sites, departments or storage areas
Advancing: Multi-site reporting with periodic reconciliation
Leading: Enterprise-wide, real-time visibility across care settings

Shortage management

Foundational: Reactive response after shortages create disruption
Advancing: Coordinated planning for priority medications and alternatives
Leading: Predictive monitoring, mitigation workflows and clear escalation and communication paths

Data and analytics

Foundational: Historical reporting and manual analysis
Advancing: Performance dashboards and periodic trend reviews
Leading: Predictive and prescriptive insights that guide operational action

Automation

Foundational: Inventory work is largely manual, with limited use of software-enabled workflows
Advancing: Automated triggers, task routing and alerts support selected priority workflows
Leading: Workflow automation spans replenishment triggers, cycle count scheduling, expiry monitoring and exception routing

Cross-functional alignment

Foundational: Departmental decision-making
Advancing: Periodic collaboration across pharmacy, supply chain and finance
Leading: Shared governance, shared KPIs and coordinated enterprise decisions

Executive insight

Most health systems will not land neatly in one column. Many operate in a mixed maturity state, with advanced capabilities in some areas and foundational gaps in others. The useful question is where the largest risk or performance drag sits today.

The highest-performing organizations build toward a connected, real-time operating model. They use maturity assessment to prioritize the gaps that have the greatest effect on medication availability, financial stewardship and operational resilience.

Five priorities of high-performing pharmacy organizations

The priorities below translate maturity assessment into action. Each one helps pharmacy leaders move from isolated improvement efforts toward a more connected enterprise operating model.

1. Standardize operations across the enterprise

Executive focus:
Variation in item data, replenishment rules, storage practices and inventory workflows makes performance harder to compare and improvement harder to scale.

Actions to consider:
Define common policies for inventory ownership, min/max levels, substitutions, cycle counts and expiry management. Normalize data and reporting across facilities so leaders can identify variation and replicate what works.

2. Create end-to-end inventory visibility

Executive focus:
Pharmacy leaders need timely access to inventory data across acute, ambulatory, specialty and procedural settings. Without that visibility, decisions depend on calls, spreadsheets and delayed reconciliation.

Actions to consider:
Connect inventory data across locations, make high-risk exceptions visible and give executive teams a consistent view of stockouts, high-cost inventory, controlled substances and critical medications.

3. Strengthen shortage preparedness

Executive focus:
Drug shortages affect clinical workflows, labor planning, substitution decisions and financial performance. A reactive model leaves too much exposure until disruption is already affecting operations.

Actions to consider:
Create clear shortage governance, monitor priority medications, maintain approved alternatives and tie allocation decisions to demand, inventory and patient care requirements.

4. Reduce manual work through workflow automation

Executive focus:
Manual counts, replenishment, reconciliation and exception tracking consume workforce capacity and create inconsistent data. Automation should reduce avoidable work while keeping pharmacists and pharmacy teams in control of judgment-based decisions.

Actions to consider:
Automate replenishment triggers, cycle count workflows, expiry monitoring and inventory alerts. Start where manual work is highest, risk is greatest or data quality is limiting executive visibility.

5. Align pharmacy, supply chain and finance

Executive focus:
Pharmacy performance now intersects with operating margin, working capital, patient access and enterprise risk. Shared visibility is stronger when leaders also share metrics, governance and accountability.

Actions to consider:
Establish a regular review cadence across pharmacy, supply chain and finance. Track the operational, financial and regulatory impact of shortages, expirations, stockouts, inventory turns and labor hours spent on manual inventory management.

Customer: Roche Diagnostics
Industry: In vitro diagnostics / life sciences
Location: Global; example site in Denmark
Scope: Roche Diagnostics is rolling out its Roche navify Inventory solution across its core laboratory network in more than 50 countries, with a goal of reaching 1,000 installations over five years. The current version of the solution leverages Tecsys Elite for inventory management. At Regionshospitalet Horsens in Denmark, the biochemical department performs approximately 6,500 diagnostic tests daily, involving about 200 products handled by roughly 70 laboratory professionals.
Tecsys solutions: Tecsys Elite
Integrated with: Roche SAP backend; Navify Inventory

Turning manual counts into controlled workflows

At Regionshospitalet Horsens, the solution reduced manual work and simplified daily inventory activity within the first six months after deployment.

More than 98% of Roche product orders were placed through the system. Ordering was standardized, manual checks were eliminated and physical counts dropped from about 60 minutes to 10 minutes. The department also reported smaller delivery batch sizes, lower packaging waste, improved control over Roche and non-Roche supplies and better expiry management.

Operational impact:

Physical counts reduced from 60 minutes to 10 minutes

An 84% reduction in time spent counting inventory.

More than 98% of Roche product orders placed through the system

A standardized ordering process replaced manual supply checks.

Improved control over consumables

The department gained stronger control over supplies from Roche and other vendors.

Reduced manual work

Automation simplified routine inventory activity and improved workflow efficiency.

Warehouse Worker checking information on computer

Built for laboratory inventory at global scale

Tecsys Elite gives Roche a scalable inventory platform for complex laboratory environments. By connecting real-time visibility, SAP-integrated replenishment and automated workflows, Tecsys powers reliable inventory execution across a global diagnostics network.

For laboratory teams, that means less manual work and stronger control over the products that keep diagnostic workflows moving. For Roche, it means a secure, cloud-based inventory foundation built to scale across countries, sites and laboratory partners.

Four areas for action

1. Assess

Establish a baseline across inventory visibility, shortage preparedness, workflow automation, analytics and crossfunctional alignment. Identify the highest-risk gaps and the workflows most dependent on manual effort.

2. Align

Define executive ownership and make pharmacy performance visible across supply chain and finance priorities. Clarify who owns metrics, escalation and decision-making when disruption occurs.

3. Execute

Prioritize two or three high-impact initiatives that improve visibility, reduce manual work or strengthen shortage resilience. Avoid trying to advance every capability at the same pace.

4. Measure

Track progress through a consistent executive dashboard. Review both operational signals and financial impact so pharmacy improvement can be connected to enterprise performance.

The new standard for pharmacy leadership

Pharmacy performance is no longer defined by facility. It is defined by how effectively health systems connect medication availability, cost control and operational resilience across the enterprise. High-performing organizations are building pharmacy models that give leaders clearer visibility, stronger governance and better control over disruption. For health systems under pressure to protect margin, reduce waste and support uninterrupted patient care, that operating model is becoming a meaningful advantage.

Take control of your pharmacy operations

Tecsys helps health systems connect pharmacy inventory, supply chain execution and operational data, so leaders can reduce manual work, manage inventory risk and make decisions with confidence across complex networks.

Built for regulated, highstakes healthcare environments, Tecsys gives pharmacy teams the visibility and control they need to improve performance without adding complexity.