Modernizing municipal pharmacy operations with OnBase

In southeastern Brazil, a Municipal Health Department is responsible for managing the Unified Health System (SUS) at the state level, with support from the State Health Council (CES) and the Bipartite Interagency Commission (CIB). In addition to overseeing SUS operations, the department formulates public health policies, allocates resources, and coordinates the delivery of healthcare services, including hospitals, psychosocial care centers, and specialized outpatient units.

In 2014, the state operated nine public pharmacies responsible for dispensing essential medications to the population. In municipalities without pharmacies, services were provided through Municipal Scheduling Agencies (AMAs). At the time, the system made 318 standardized medications available, along with 21 nutritional formulas, ensuring broad access to essential treatments for the population.

The medication distribution system faced numerous challenges, ranging from bureaucratic inefficiencies to a lack of standardization and operational control. Medication requests were reviewed by committees, resulting in a slow and costly approval process. End‑to‑end control—from request submission to medication delivery—was entirely paper‑based, which severely limited traceability and made the system vulnerable to errors and document loss.

Each pharmacy operated differently, further complicating management. Two to three staff members were required exclusively to locate physical files, transport processes to service counters, separate requests, and complete deliveries. Delivery receipts had to be printed in duplicate and physically signed, increasing administrative burden. Requests were transported between departments and pharmacies via courier pouches, causing significant delays. In addition, the shortage of specialists outside the state capital extended review times, resulting in waits of up to 30 days between request and dispensation, with some cases reaching 45 days.

Recognizing that these delays directly affected patient access to medication, the department identified the need for a modern digital solution focused on accelerating specialist review and improving overall efficiency.

The Municipal Health Department partnered with Hyland to implement a solution based on automation, digitization, and process optimization, supported by the creation of an online medication request portal. A centralized management system was built on OnBase, where each type of request follows a predefined workflow. To request medication, patients or representatives access the department’s website and log into the Online Medication Request Portal, where they can submit new requests, resolve pending issues, and track request status in real time.

Based on the type of request, specific documentation is required. Once uploaded, these documents are automatically attached to the patient’s electronic record, securely stored within OnBase. Specialists can review requests from anywhere, generate reports automatically, and apply electronic signatures, making all authorizations and decisions fully digital. Applicants receive automatic notifications about request status via email or mobile application.

The solution also provides full patient history tracking, records of all transactions, consolidated patient information, and real‑time visibility into the location and status of each process. To avoid operational disruption during implementation, all dossiers for the next three months were digitized using OCR, along with all scheduled appointments. As a result, by the second month of operation, all processes were natively digital.

The implementation of the Hyland solution delivered measurable operational and service improvements. The department achieved an 81% reduction in activities, decreasing process steps from 26 to just five.

Data‑driven management enabled the identification of service gaps, leading to the opening of five new public pharmacies, a 56% increase from nine to 14 locations. Patient wait times were reduced by 77%, dropping from 30–75 days to just 7–10 days, while more than 249,000 citizen services were delivered through the system.

Physical courier services and paper‑based process transfers were completely eliminated, significantly reducing the risk of lost documentation. The average medication dispensing time decreased by 47%, from 15 minutes to eight minutes. In the capital city pharmacy, approximately 500 square meters of physical space were freed and repurposed to expand inventory and increase the number of service counters.

Additionally, more than 103 million pages no longer required physical storage, greatly improving information reliability, record accuracy, and data governance.