Every health-care administrator knows that hospital management software is crucial to the efficient running of their hospital. A good hospital management software seamlessly integrates clinical, financial, analytical and administrative aspects of the institution, boosting productivity by providing crucial information at the touch of a button. As manual systems become obsolete, and hospitals embrace web-enabled management software, it becomes essential to define the must-have modules that any hospital software ought to contain.
These include:
Simple Registration & Appointment Module
The registration & appointment module is a prerequisite for any interaction that potential patients will have with the hospital, and so is of vital importance in capturing important data like personal, medical and demographic details of the patient, and in issuing a unique ID that will be used to maintain the patient’s entire medical history and diagnoses. A simple registration & appointment module makes a good impression on a first-time user, promoting further usage.
A hassle-free, simple registration & appointment module that enables users to quickly browse through a list of doctors, and schedule appointments (either offline or through video consultations) can prove to be a gamechanger in the hospital’s ability to serve its patients. Doctors can also view their calendars, change appointments, if necessary, provide e-consultations and follow them up with online prescriptions.
Integrated OP, IP and OT Modules
The OP & IP Management module deals with a host of critical features that improve visibility and enhance the overall productivity of OP and IP departments.
The OP & IP Management module typically includes appointment creation, patient follow-up, reminders to patients on upcoming appointments (reducing unnecessary wait times), re-scheduling of appointments on request, and so on. In addition, the OP & IP Management module is also designed to manage the entire lifecycle of an in-patient case, right from admission, to bed availability/allocation, procedures provided, to patient discharge and the timely issuing of a discharge summary to the in-patient.
The OT module brings in the added advantage of seamlessly being able to track OT surgeries, blood bank coordination, updated lists of teams involved in each surgery, documentation, and OT billing. This integration goes a long way towards improving efficiency and reducing the overall administrative load on individual doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff.
Laboratory and Pharmacy Integration
A feature that greatly influences patient satisfaction is the integration of the laboratory & radiology module and the pharmacy module. The laboratory & radiology module allows lab technicians to easily coordinate sample collection, update test results, that can be broadcast to patients and doctors via email or through the doctor’s login. Pharmacy integration deals with stock management, which if integrated with the prescription and billing & insurance modules, can provide a massive reduction in the patient’s overall time spent in the hospital.
Billing and Insurance Module
Having billing & insurance modules integrated into the hospital software can mean that every aspect of financials gets tracked and managed seamlessly. These include the generation of invoices to patients for services such as registration, doctor appointments, laboratory and radiology tests, and more. The integration of billing & insurance enables hospitals to leverage features such as insurance claim processing, insurance discounts and better communication with insurance companies, thus speeding up the overall process.
Finance and Analytics
A hospital management software that enables finance & budgeting teams to manage cash inflow and outflow, track purchase orders and manage the overall budget of the hospital through the finance & budgeting module, will reap the benefits of faster turnaround times, improvement in the quality of healthcare and faster decision-making based on the analytics generated by the software.
Conclusion
The ability of hospital management software to integrate the various modules that are crucial to its functioning– such as registration & appointment module, finance & budgeting, laboratory & radiology module, billing & insurance and so on, and provide a seamless interface to its users, will make or break the hospital’s overall efficiency and determine the quality of service it provides to its patients. It is the responsibility of the administration to evaluate different hospital management systems and decide on the best fit, for their institution.
