The Impact of Automation and Digitalization in Hospital Medication Management: Economic Analysis in the European Countries.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: European healthcare systems are increasingly adopting automation technologies to improve efficiency. This study evaluates the economic viability of hospital automation and medication management digitalization.

METHODS

An economic evaluation was based on a standardized hospital model comprising 561 beds, representative of an average acute care hospital across EU27 + UK. For each technology, several cost items were estimated using country-specific parameters such as labor costs, medication error rates, healthcare expenditure, and money discount rate. The financial metrics (Return On Investment-ROI, Net Present Value-NPV, Payback Time-PBT) were first calculated at the hospital level. These results were then extrapolated to the national level by scaling the per-hospital estimates according to the total number of hospital beds reported in each country. Finally, national results were aggregated to derive the overall European impact.

RESULTS

The analysis estimated a total European investment of EUR 3.55 billion, with an average PBT of 4.46 years and annual savings of 1,96 billion. ROI averaged 167%, and the total NPV was 8.21 billion. A major saving driver was the reduction in Medication Administration Errors that has an impact of 37.2% on the total savings. Payback times ranged from 3 years in high-GDP countries, to 7 years in lower-GDP nations.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings demonstrate how providing structured data on hospital automation benefits could support decision-making processes, highlighting the organizational and economic feasibility of the investment across different European national contexts.