693 vendors have adopted the e-invoicing system and increasing usage from 5% to 86%, thereby reducing hospital costs and achieving benefits of paper and carbon reduction.
The Chi-Mei Medical Center and its branches (collectively referred to as CMMC) received approximately 170,000 paper invoices from its vendors annually. The huge amount of paper invoices leaded to high costs for verification of accounting records, paper storing, drug and medical material checking, communication and confirmation in addition to paper consumption and carbon emissions. Consequently, CMMC aimed to accelerate cloud invoice promotion to practice the corporate social responsibility in line with the global trend.
In order to achieve this goal, e-invoicing has been implemented by CMMC. Since September 2020, its digital transformation team has integrated e-invoicing for the entire supply chain by the following measures. Conducting material receipt proof screening and accounting payment batch screening for e-invoices, expanding the implementation scope, and connecting the hospital information program with the online e-invoicing platform.
CMMC has actively responded to the government's paperless policy and effectively promoted cloud invoices. It has achieved the highest ratio of receiving cloud invoices among the national medical centers and awarded by Jen-hsiu Lu, the Director-General of National Taxation Bureau of the Southern Area.
(1) Hardware construction:
The hospital has established an electronic invoice third-party intermediary host as an electronic voucher value-added service center to interface orders and invoice data with the hospital's internal administrative management system. At the same time, the inter-bank financial information system and the payment will be transferred to each bank for payment.
(2) Software construction:
The software architecture includes external electronic voucher third-party value-added services, the Ministry of Finance's electronic invoice integration service platform, software architecture.
The CHIMEI Hospital scheduling host is launched regularly every day and uploads the latest basic information of the hospital and suppliers to the third party every day. Regularly receive the issued e-invoices every day, and if the e-invoices are confirmed, the reply will be successful. Data interface architecture.
Through the introduction of electronic invoices, the administrative efficiency of the material system and accounting system and the correctness of invoice information are improved, and manual operations are reduced and paper reduction is achieved.
Chimei Medical Center Leads Taiwan's Medical Centers in Cloud E-Invoicing, Honored by Ministry of Finance for ESG Success
Every year, Chimei Medical Center receives more than 170,000 paper invoices from its vendors. Managing this mountain of paperwork used to mean tedious manual reconciliation, skyrocketing storage costs, complex verification processes for medical supplies, and constant communication overhead—not to mention a heavy environmental toll in paper waste and carbon emissions. Motivated to make a change, Chimei accelerated its transition to cloud e-invoicing to fulfill its CSR commitments and advance ESG sustainability.
Through this digital transformation, the hospital has fully digitized its supply chain. Key achievements include automating material receipt verification, implementing batch payment processing for accounting, expanding electronic invoicing categories, and seamlessly connecting hospital systems to the online e-invoicing platform. Today, 693 partner vendors have gone paperless, with cloud e-invoices now making up 86% of the hospital's total invoice volume. This successful shift has dramatically cut operational costs while significantly reducing the institution's carbon footprint. With the highest cloud invoice adoption rate among all medical centers in Taiwan, Chimei Medical Center was proudly recognized and awarded by the Southern National Tax Administration under the Ministry of Finance in June 2022.
Chimei Medical Center: Cloud-Based Electronic Invoicing Implementation Results
Core Achievements
100% System Implementation Rate: The cloud-based electronic invoicing system has been fully developed, deployed, and brought online in strict accordance with the project timeline.
High Vendor Engagement: Successfully onboarded over 693 partner vendors to issue cloud-based e-invoices.
Breakthrough in Document Digitalization: Cloud e-invoices now account for 86% of the total invoices received by the hospital, significantly advancing the institution's digitalization efforts.
Contributions to Green Healthcare and ESG
Environmental (E)
Paperless Operations: Achieving an 86% e-invoice ratio saves tens of thousands of paper invoices and physical signing processes annually, directly reducing the institution's carbon footprint.
Green Supply Chain: Leading over 693 vendors toward digital transformation, amplifying the hospital's positive environmental impact across the supply chain. Governance (G)
Operational Efficiency: Automated invoice matching and digital document archiving reduce manual data entry and auditing time while minimizing human error. 2.Transparency & Compliance: The 100% execution rate demonstrates robust project governance, ensuring real-time financial data availability, transparency, and tax compliance.
Suppliers can securely issue e-invoices, eliminating the risk of invoices being lost or incorrectly registered, and the transmission and receipt of e-invoices by CHIMEI Hospital, the e-invoicing platform (Guanmao.com, the Ministry of Finance), and the supplier can ensure the security and correctness of transaction vouchers and reduce the risk of repetitive waste and data errors caused by manual work.
The transmission and receipt of order data and invoice data between CHIMEI Hospital and the Guanmao.com platform are transmitted and exchanged through an encrypted network channel to ensure the online privacy of both parties and protect information from hackers, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other third parties. To avoid the theft and destruction of data, it is also a mechanism to ensure data confidentiality and protection.
A digital survey conducted among Chimei Hospital’s suppliers achieved an outstanding 94.8% valid response rate, with the following key insights:
Transaction Optimization: 84.7% of suppliers are willing to adopt cloud e-invoicing to enhance future transaction quality. Supplier Alignment:
Supplier approval and support for the cloud e-invoice initiative reached 84.6% and 83.5%, respectively.
Key Drivers: The hospital's proactive promotion (82.6%) and the convenience of the cloud platform (82.6%) were identified as highly critical factors influencing suppliers' decision to go paperless.
Chimei Medical System: Cloud E-Invoicing Leader
Market Leadership: Chimei’s cloud e-invoice ratio has surpassed 86%, cutting costs, paper, and carbon emissions. Chimei ranks No. 1 among all medical centers and NPOs in Taiwan, and was officially awarded by the Ministry of Finance in June 2022.
Industry Influence: This financial digital transformation has attracted attention across industry, government, and academia, leading to numerous invitations for Chimei to share its expertise.
National Platform Upgrades: Chimei successfully proposed two nationwide enhancements to the Ministry of Finance's E-Invoicing Platform:
."Modification Time" Field: Enhances error detection, reconciliation efficiency, and payment accuracy for institutions nationwide.
."General Remarks" Field Standardization: Links invoices directly to hospital purchase orders, automatically importing pharmaceutical batch numbers and expiration dates to optimize inventory workflows.
Adoption & Penetration Since January 2021, Chimei Medical System has automated material verification, batch auditing, and platform integration, driving over 693 vendors to adopt cloud e-invoicing. By auto-downloading Ministry of Finance data and cross-referencing it with internal records, the system eliminates human error. Today, cloud e-invoices account for over 86% of Chimei’s procurement volume, ranking No. 1 among all medical centers in Taiwan.
Economic Benefits Integrating the TradeVan platform transitioned Chimei from manual, line-by-line paper reviews to automated batch e-invoice auditing. This digital shift drastically reduced staff workloads and boosted efficiency. Moving both invoices and purchase orders to a paperless workflow has also cleared vast warehouse storage spaces and advanced the hospital's ESG goals.
ROI & Environmental Impact The cloud e-invoicing initiative delivers substantial annual returns, saving over NT$4,000,000 in paper and labor costs while cutting 1.9 tons of carbon emissions each year.
