Dynamics 365 Business Central for healthcare
Financial flexibility is often limited in healthcare. The industry businesses often rely on siloed systems and must stick to strict compliance rules. What is more, supply chains become unpredictable while costs climb. Instead of a full overview of the system, finance, inventory, and procurement are often scattered across different apps and have to be reconciled manually. But businesses can manage this operational load when their ERPs are set up right.
Dynamics 365 Business Central deals with that. It becomes a reliable pillar for financial, procurement, inventory, and reporting operations. Clinical care, in its turn, stays where it belongs – in medical and EHR (electronic health record)/EMR (electronic medical record) systems.
To help businesses deal with industry challenges, we use a transparent approach to ERP. We begin with out-of-the-box functionality to max out the standard features of Business Central. We only add optional custom development when business processes are truly unique (prosthetics fabrication, for instance). When it comes to integration, we put security and data protection as our top priorities: how consent is handled, how data is encrypted in storage and while moving between systems, and audit logs for every patient-related record.
Healthcare apps evolve. That’s why we plan for upgrades to ensure that integrations keep working as each system progresses, be it EHR/EMR changes, interface maintenance, or Business Central updates.
Business Central: out-of-the-box capabilities for healthcare
Business Central standard features, properly set up for healthcare-specific operations – chart of accounts, dimensions, item structures – can support real-life use cases without additional custom development.
Finance and accounting
Capability:
- budgeting, finance across multiple entities, tracking sources of funds
Who can use it:
- a private hospital group or pharma-funded clinic
How to use it:
- track separate legal entities, cost centers, and funding sources (public, private, insurance, pharma programs) in one Business Central environment, with unified financial statements and a clear view of how much each facility spends compared to its budget
Procurement and vendor management
Capability:
- integrated purchasing and vendor management
Who can use it:
- a clinic network that works with many suppliers
How to use it:
- manage suppliers for pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, and device components; automate purchase orders based on stock and demand; track vendor performance (price, lead time); and keep critical items always in stock
Inventory and warehouse management
Capability:
- inventory and warehouse control (locations, expiry dates, stock levels)
Who can use it:
- a hospital or central fabrication facility
How to use it:
- monitor inventory for drugs, sterile consumables, and spare parts across multiple warehouses, with bin/location management, expiry-date tracking, and reorder points that prevent stockouts in operating rooms or workshops
HR, resource management, approvals, and workflows
Capability:
- basic HR and resource/process workflows
Who can use it:
- a clinic spread across several departments
How to use it:
- manage staff records tied to payroll and cost allocation, plus approval workflows for purchase requests, expense claims, and capital equipment – all while keeping financial control over spend across departments and locations
Benefits of using Business Central for healthcare
Connected view, no duplicated patient records
Operational and financial data related to patients – orders, billing, cost, inventory – are processed on the Business Central side. Clinical patient records stay in EHR/EMR or other specific systems. The same integration patterns apply across clinics, device makers, and labs. What basically differs is data and workflows.
Operational reporting and analytics
Standard ERP reporting is available out of the box: financial statements plus inventory, vendor, and purchasing KPIs. But healthcare operations can get even more specific views by extending Power BI dashboards: cost per department, occupancy, supply usage, and margin by service line. No separate system needed. These are built on Business Central's standard data model with a few vertical fields on top.
Connected engagement and external touchpoints
Business Central integrates with CRM systems, portals, and other front-office solutions to enable bookings, self-service for patients and customers, and portals for insurance and billing. Such an approach gives a connected engagement that turns the ERP into the operational hub behind every external touchpoint, from a referral portal for clinicians to self-service requests to make appointments.
Integration of Business Central for healthcare with existing systems
Typically, healthcare systems include EHR and/or EMR, LIS (laboratory information systems), PACS (picture archiving and communication system), specialized lab platforms, CAD (computer-aided design) and CAM (computer-aided manufacturing), insurance portals, and more. Business Central connects to each vertical's stack:
Clinics and hospitals: EHR / EMR, billing and insurance, inventory systems
Device makers, prosthetics, and more: EHR, CAD and CAM, central fabrication, service and repair systems
Labs and diagnostics: LIS, scheduling, billing, and more
Integration usually happens through Microsoft Power Platform connectors, APIs, middleware and/or iPaaS, and file-based imports. This way, data flows both ways:
clinical → operational: orders, prescriptions, device specs, service requests
operational → clinical: availability, delivery dates, cost, invoicing status
This way, the patient-related data is still unified in one system, but Business Central does not have to pretend to be a clinical system.
Deployment, configuration, and compliance
We always consider customers’ structure and compliance context to configure Business Central. We only build what is truly specific, like fabrication flows or specific reporting. Business Central supports multiple entities across multiple countries. That, together with standard audit and approval controls, means Business Central can be configured to fit healthcare groups of very different shapes and sizes.
Most standard functionality that comes with Business Central is available in both cloud and on-premises deployment, so the core feature set is nearly identical either way. Cloud versions also offer AI/Copilot, automatic updates, and newer services, which is why we’d gladly migrate you with our Stairway to Cloud service and keep the environment healthy through ongoing cloud maintenance.
BC integrates naturally with the MS tech stack and third-party apps for even better productivity. Integrated with our Jira Connector, Business Central helps synchronize development tasks and BC records, keeping the project transparent from backlog to go-live. The combo proves effective when a project needs custom development, since our partners' delivery teams often track work in Jira.
Business Central for healthcare: solutions and dependencies
Here is a quick overview of what possible solutions could be and what each one depends on:
Solution
Standard Business Central for healthcare operations
Hospital/clinic operations on BC
Device manufacturing/prosthetics on BC (vertical extension)
Analytics and dashboards
Dependencies
Azure AD, BC licenses, configuration oriented to healthcare, standard modules, basic Power BI.
Custom development: usually not required.
Standard BC; EHR/EMR interfaces, item tracking, scheduling tools.
Custom development: specific workflows.
Production/assembly configuration, device-spec fields, CAD/CAM via APIs or connectors, clinical integration.
Custom development: lifecycle tracking, central fabrication, or device-specific workflows.
BC as data source; Power BI; KPI definitions, optional clinical data.
Custom development: custom data models or advanced vertical KPIs.
Why choose Global Mediator for Business Central in healthcare?
We help with Business Central solutions for healthcare businesses and the customers of our Microsoft partners.
We configure the standard Dynamics 365 Business Central platform first and add customizations only where a specific workflow truly needs it.
We cover configuration, integration, and support. When you are ready for AI and automated updates, we move you to the cloud.
One partner, one system, one accountable team for your entire Business Central engagement.