McKesson 2013 Annual Report Download - page 14

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McKESSON CORPORATION
Enterprise Information Solutions: We provide comprehensive clinical and financial information systems for hospitals
and health systems of all sizes. These systems are designed to improve the safety and quality of patient care and improve
clinical, financial and operational performance. Clinical functionality includes a data repository, care planning, physician
order entry and documentation, nursing documentation with bar-coded medication administration, pharmacy, surgical
management, emergency department and ambulatory EHR systems, and a Web-based physician portal. Revenue management
solutions are designed to improve financial performance by reducing days in accounts receivable, preventing insurance claim
denials, reducing costs and improving productivity. Solutions include online patient billing, contract management, electronic
claims processing and coding compliance checking. These solutions streamline patient access and help organizations to
forecast financial responsibility for constituents before and during care, allowing providers to collect their reimbursements
more quickly and at a lower cost. We also provide professional services to help customers achieve business results from their
software or automation investment. A wide array of service options is available, including consulting for business and/or
clinical process improvement and re-design as well as implementation, project management, technical and education services
relating to all products in the Technology Solutions segment as well as providing the technical infrastructure designed to
maximize application accessibility, availability, security and performance.
In April 2013, we committed to sell the following Technology Solutions businesses:
Hospital Automation: Automation solutions include technologies that help hospitals re-engineer and improve their
medication use processes. Examples include centralized pharmacy automation for dispensing unit-dose medications, unit-
based cabinet technologies for secure medication storage and rapid retrieval and an anesthesia cart for dispensing of
medications in the operating room. Based on a foundation of bar-code scanning technology, these integrated solutions are
designed to reduce errors and bring new levels of safety to patients.
International Technology: We provide comprehensive patient administration systems and clinical products to health and
social care systems of all sizes in the United Kingdom and other European countries. Patient administration systems are
designed to improve financial performance, ensure continuity of business operations, enabling seamless reporting and billing
and drive improvements in quality and continuity of care. We also provide workforce management solutions for the National
Health Service in the United Kingdom. The workforce management tools provide a cost effective, efficient method for
evidence based strategic workforce planning.
Business Combinations and Discontinued Operations
We have undertaken strategic initiatives in recent years designed to further focus on our core healthcare businesses and
enhance our competitive position. We expect to continue to undertake such strategic initiatives in the future. These initiatives
are detailed in Financial Notes 2, 8 and 27, “Business Combinations,” “Discontinued Operation” and "Subsequent Event," to
the consolidated financial statements appearing in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Competition
In every area of healthcare distribution operations, our Distribution Solutions segment faces strong competition, both in
price and service, from national, regional and local full-line, short-line and specialty wholesalers, service merchandisers, self-
warehousing chains, manufacturers engaged in direct distribution, third-party logistics companies and large payer
organizations. In addition, this segment faces competition from various other service providers and from pharmaceutical and
other healthcare manufacturers as well as other potential customers of the segment, which may from time-to-time decide to
develop, for their own internal needs, supply management capabilities that would otherwise be provided by the segment.
Price, quality of service, innovation and, in some cases, convenience to the customer are generally the principal competitive
elements in this segment.
Our Technology Solutions segment experiences substantial competition from many firms, including other software
services firms, consulting firms, shared service vendors, certain hospitals and hospital groups, payers, care management
organizations, hardware vendors and internet-based companies with technology applicable to the healthcare industry.
Competition varies in size from small to large companies, in geographical coverage and in scope and breadth of products and
services offered.