Skip to main content
010 447 2445Contact
Arke Technologies home
Request a hardware quoteTalk to us
Arke Technologies home
A pharmacist helps a customer choose a product in a community pharmacy.

Healthcare IT and pharmacy software for pharmacies, practices and clinics

Healthcare IT keeps pharmacy software, practice management systems and every patient record available and confidential. Arke Technologies, in Johannesburg, supports South African pharmacies, medical, dental and allied health practices, clinics and health NGOs under one SLA, with the security that health information demands under POPIA.

Request an IT assessmentSee how we support pharmacy software

Healthcare IT: what it covers today

Healthcare IT is the technology behind patient care and the business around it: practice management and dispensing systems, clinical records, claims to medical schemes, links to laboratories and imaging, the network and devices, and the security that keeps health information private. Healthcare IT management is the work of keeping all of that available, current and compliant, so clinicians spend their time on patients.

More healthcare IT today runs in the cloud, and medical scheme claims are submitted electronically. The healthcare IT trends that matter most to healthcare IT leaders are practical: cloud systems that stop when the internet link drops, ransomware aimed at clinics, and AI tools that draft clinical notes but must not leak patient data.

What is quality in healthcare, and why is it important? The WHO describes quality health services as effective, safe, people-centred, timely, equitable, integrated and efficient. IT touches each: a missing record is a safety risk, an outage a delay, and a repeated test waste, and each affects patient outcomes and cost.

A clinician reviews patient records across two screens.

The rules health information must meet

We design and run healthcare IT systems in South Africa to these rules:

  • POPIA. Health information is special personal information. Healthcare providers may process it for care, under a duty of confidentiality, and must report a breach to the Information Regulator and the patients affected.
  • National Health Act 61 of 2003. Patient information is confidential, and the person in charge of a health establishment must control access to records and protect them against unauthorised access, loss or destruction.
  • HPCSA guidelines on keeping patient records. Records are generally kept for at least six years after they become dormant, with longer periods for minors, so archives and backups must outlast the working system.
  • Pharmacy law. The Pharmacy Act 53 of 1974 and the South African Pharmacy Council's Good Pharmacy Practice rules govern how a pharmacy operates; the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965 governs prescription records, registers for scheduled medicines, and the single exit price plus a regulated dispensing fee.
  • Medical scheme claims. Claims carry ICD-10 diagnosis codes, and medicines carry NAPPI codes, so the system's code tables must stay current.
  • Governance. For hospital groups and larger healthcare companies, King IV Principle 12 asks boards to govern technology and information; public facilities add the PFMA, covered on our public sector page.
A doctor reads a patient chart held by a nurse in a clinic corridor.

Pharmacy software: what it must do

Pharmacy software, also called a pharmacy management system, runs the dispensary and the front shop. Good pharmacy software systems for retail cover:

  • Dispensing. Script (Rx) capture, labels, interaction and allergy checks, repeats and chronic medication.
  • Pricing and claims. Single exit price plus dispensing fee, NAPPI codes and real-time claims to medical schemes.
  • Scheduled medicines. The registers and records the law requires.
  • Stock and ordering. Minimum and maximum levels, expiry tracking, and pharmacy ordering software linked to your wholesalers.
  • Point of sale. Front-shop sales, loyalty and cash-up in the same pharmacy retail software.
  • Accounting. Pharmacy accounting software links that post daily sales, debtors and VAT to Sage, Xero or Pastel.
  • Delivery. Pharmacy delivery software for chronic medicine and courier orders, with patient consent recorded.
  • Reporting. Sales, margins and stock turns for the pharmacy manager and owners.

Hospital pharmacy software adds ward stock and inpatient dispensing, and every type needs pharmacy billing software that claims correctly.

How to choose pharmacy software in South Africa

We do not publish a pharmacy software list or rank pharmacy software names, and pharmacy software reviews written for other markets say little about South African claims and pricing. Choose in this order:

  1. Prove claims and pricing

    Run test claims against your main schemes, with single exit price and dispensing fee calculated correctly.

  2. Test the counter

    Time a dispensary workflow on real scripts at your busiest hour.

  3. Decide cloud or on-premises

    Cloud-based pharmacy software removes the back-office server but needs a reliable link and a fallback when it drops. On-premises pharmacy software systems need backups and patching.

  4. Match support to your trading week

    Weekend and public-holiday trading needs support hours to match.

  5. Confirm data ownership

    You must be able to export patient, stock and script history when the contract ends.

  6. Cost the full term

    Licences per terminal or per store, training, hardware, integration and support. Free trials and free tiers rarely include South African claims.

If you run other pharmacy software programs, we support everything around them: the servers or cloud link, backups, network, devices and security, working with the vendor when a fault spans both.

Medical practice management software

What is a practice management system in healthcare? It is the system of record for appointments, patient accounts and claims. Medical practice management software handles scheduling, patient registration, billing and often clinical notes; medical practice accounting software, or a link to it, takes the practice from claim to debtor to ledger.

Practice typeWhat to look for
General practice (practice management software for doctors)Fast scheduling, ICD-10 coding, real-time claims, recall of chronic patients
Dental practice management softwareCharting, treatment plans and quotes, recall, links to dental imaging
Allied health practice management software (physiotherapy, psychology, occupational therapy, optometry)Session-based billing, treatment notes, referral letters
Specialist rooms and clinicsSeveral practitioners, theatre bookings, hospital accounts
Healthcare practice management software for groupsMulti-site reporting, central billing, role-based access

Uses vary by discipline, so start from your own workflow, not a feature list, when you compare medical practice management software companies. Cloud-based systems suit most practices with a sound internet link and backup power. Free and open-source options exist, including free dental practice management software, but patient data needs vendor support, an audit trail and tested backups, which free tools seldom provide. For medical practice software in South Africa, local claims and coding matter most.

Healthcare IT solutions we deliver

Health NGOs and donor-funded clinics often buy IT from grants, with reporting duties attached; see IT for nonprofits and NGOs for grant accounting and funder reporting.

Governance, reporting and continuity

  • Service-level agreement. Scope, exclusions, on-site policy and term, fixed before work starts. Incidents are prioritised from P1 (critical outage, such as a dispensary that cannot trade) to P4 (low-impact request), with response and resolution targets matched to the impact of downtime and agreed in your SLA.
  • Hours. Our office hours are Monday to Friday 08:00–17:00 and Saturday 09:00–13:00 (SAST); cover beyond them, for a pharmacy's full trading week or a clinic's after-hours service, is available by agreement.
  • Monthly service review and report for the practice manager or owners: tickets, security posture, restore tests and open risks.
  • Confidentiality. Every remote session is approved and logged, and everyone with access to your systems is bound by confidentiality and our security controls. We hire technicians for experience, education and certifications, in step with the contracts we sign.
  • Continuity and exit. Delivery is remote-first on our own tooling, by a certified team under one contract, with your systems documented as we go. You own your data, credentials and documentation, including patient records, and when a contract ends we hand over in an orderly way.

What healthcare IT costs

Last reviewed: September 2026.

We price managed IT per user per month, set after an assessment, and quote projects, such as a practice-system migration or a new network, per project. Published South African managed IT rates run from about R180 to R400 per user per month (matnet.co.za, September 2026), with some providers listing R450 (MiBOT, September 2026).

Practice and pharmacy software is licensed by its vendor, usually per practitioner, terminal or store, outside our fee. The IT cost depends on users, sites and terminals, cloud or local hosting, the state of the network and backups, and integrations. When you compare healthcare IT companies and healthcare IT consulting firms, compare what each fee includes; our healthcare IT consulting covers system selection too.

A nurse and a doctor review a patient record on a tablet.

Buying from Arke

  • Level 1

    B-BBEE contributor

  • 135% procurement recognition

Arke Technologies (Pty) Ltd, a registered company since 2017, is a Level 1 B-BBEE contributor (sworn affidavit available on request), which gives your organisation 135% procurement recognition. Company documents and a bank confirmation letter are available on request, as are our Central Supplier Database number and SARS tax compliance status for public health bodies. You can buy through a proposal and signed SLA, a purchase order or a tender response, and we complete standard bidding documents (SBD forms) when a tender requires them. See company facts, or read how we serve financial services and retail among the industries we serve.

Frequently asked questions

What is healthcare IT? Show answer

Healthcare IT is the technology behind patient care and the business of a health provider: practice and dispensing systems, clinical records, medical scheme claims, networks, devices and security. Healthcare IT management keeps them available and compliant with POPIA and the National Health Act. IT in healthcare is judged by one test: does the clinician have what they need, when they need it?

What does pharmacy software do? Show answer

Pharmacy software runs the dispensary and the shop: script capture and labels, interaction checks, single exit price and dispensing-fee pricing, real-time medical scheme claims with NAPPI codes, scheduled-medicine registers, stock and ordering, point of sale and reporting, with links to accounting. In South Africa, correct claims and pricing matter most when you choose one.

What is a practice management system in healthcare? Show answer

A practice management system in healthcare is the software a practice uses to book appointments, register patients, bill medical schemes and patients, and track debtors, often with clinical notes included. It is the practice's system of record. For South African practices it must handle ICD-10 coding and electronic claims, and it should keep an audit trail of who viewed each record.

Is free medical practice management software safe to use? Show answer

Free medical practice management software can be used safely only if someone takes responsibility for hosting, backups, patching and access control, because it holds special personal information under POPIA. Most free and open-source tools also lack South African claims and coding. For most practices a supported, cloud-based system with tested backups is the lower-risk choice.

How does POPIA apply to patient records? Show answer

POPIA treats health information as special personal information, which healthcare providers may process for care under a duty of confidentiality. Records must be secured, access limited to the people who need it, and breaches reported to the Information Regulator and the patients affected. The National Health Act and HPCSA guidelines add confidentiality and retention duties on top.

How much do managed IT services for healthcare cost? Show answer

Managed IT services for healthcare are usually priced per user per month. Published South African rates run from about R180 to R400 per user per month (matnet.co.za, September 2026). The number of users, sites and terminals, the hosting of your practice or pharmacy system, backups and integration work drive the price. We quote after an assessment of your practice.

Does Arke sell pharmacy software? Show answer

In South Africa we support the pharmacy software you choose and everything around it, from backups and security to accounting integration, working with the vendor when a fault spans both.

Start with an assessment of your practice or pharmacy IT

We will review your practice or pharmacy system, network, security, backups and power, and give you a clear, costed plan. Talk to us or call 010 447 2445.

Request an IT assessment