Best Hospital Management Software

Today’s techno-savvy medical establishments strive to provide excellent patient care. In this regard, the implementation of healthcare IT at an unprecedented pace is a promising premise for modern hospitals.  Technology proves to be a driving force for further developments in the healthcare field. Incorporation of IT in healthcare provides immense relief not only to patients, doctors, healthcare providers, and hospital management but also to healthcare technology developers. Regulators, auditors, insurance companies, and even investors prefer electronic systems and automated real-time data as foremost requirements for high-quality hospitals. 

In order to simplify the management of the rising volume, complexity, and velocity, evolving from the manual process, automation is critical.

Hospital management systems empower patients, improve the work efficiency of doctors, and enhance care by real-time analytics. This buyer's guide intends to provide a detailed analysis of all factors to consider before investing in a hospital information management system.

Hospital management software, also known as the hospital information management system or hospital management system is a set of applications and modules that assist hospitals in managing their workflow efficiently. It empowers hospitals and healthcare organizations to function in an organized manner and to build capacities that boost patient engagement and satisfaction. The hospital software can manage all core areas of hospital management along with other functions such as insurance claim management, pharmacy, blood bank, labs, back office, reception, recruitment, etc. 

Desktop-based/On-Premise

These types of hospital management software are licensed, and hospitals can install them within their IT infrastructure. On-Premise hospital management systems are highly customizable in nature. Hospitals seeking to keep their data on their own servers can opt for on-premise hospital information management systems.

Web-based

Third-party hospital management solution providers offer online hospital management software. Web-based online hospital solutions can be accessed from anywhere with internet availability. Hospital admins, doctors, nurses, patients, staff, and management members can access the portal with their secure login id and password. Admins can grant and control access for which part of portal users can access. 

Cloud-based

The cloud-based hospital management software is popular with large hospitals that require high-speed interface, extreme flexibility, and massive data storage capabilities. Hosted through third-party cloud service providers, it is SaaS (Software as a Service) based solution. 

Open Source

The open source hospital management software allows users to customize programming codes, modify default settings, and integrate external plugins to enhance the core working functionalities, and utility of the system. Hospitals requiring customized solutions can opt for open source hospital management software. 

Running a hospital in the current business environment amidst scarce resources, overburdened medical staff,  expensive utilities, a cash strapped finance department, and ever-changing regulations and technology is not an easy task. Hospitals around the world are witnessing a massive shortage of staff, medical supplies, medicines, personal protective equipment, etc. during the Covid-19 pandemic. Below are the critical challenges faced by hospitals:

• Maintaining health records of thousands of patients and also keeping them accessible
• The safety of their patient's medical records is another point of concern.
• The sudden shortage of medical supplies and maintaining supply chain
• Data security and fighting cyber attacks
• Remote and secure access to telemedicine without disruption
• Ensuring regulatory compliance such as HIPAA, CDC
• Rising operational and maintenance costs
• Providing timely medicare reimbursement by coordinating with insurance companies
• Ensuring patient engagement and satisfaction
• Keeping staff turnover in control
• Managing time, making and implementing the schedule
• Reducing errors in administering medication, lab reports, and diagnostic test
• Managing emergency situations

For hassle-free hospital workflow, lots of important clinical and administrative decisions are required.  HMS software can handle different sections and multiple tasks of core healthcare services, along with its administrative, regulatory, and financial aspects. 

Automating vital processes, unifying everyday operations, and simplifying patient interaction points are key benefits of implementing a robust hospital information system. Hospital management software is designed to meet the expectations and needs of both hospital authorities and patients. 

Internet-enabled connected medical devices and a clear healthcare model accompanied by a fast delivering hospital management software can scale up your healthcare business. 

For instance, hospital management software comes with pre-set templates for appointment booking, diagnostic reports for various tests, and nurse-doctor reporting, etc. It is easy to fill all these reports online, and all data will get stored in the HMS software's database securely. It helps hospitals to get rid of bloated and disorganized processes. 

With everything streamlined and organized properly, hospitals have high chances to get good rankings/credits by insurance companies, regulators, rating agencies, investors, etc. Hospitals can deploy HMS to gain better reviews from patients and other quality hospitals for referral purposes. 

Easy registration process

Patients are saved from filling long registration forms, admission forms as HMS software ensure a smooth and hassle-free intuitive registration process. 

No delay in accessing medical records  

The hospital management software stores tests results, prescriptions, and the patients' medical history in a secure database that can be accessed by doctors immediately without delay. This can save a life in critical emergency conditions.

Improved team coordination

With streamlined communication between doctors, nurses, staff members, and others, hospitals can ensure an engaging work environment and enhanced teamwork. 

Full control of processes 

Hospital administration can monitor and control daily operations, control billing and payments, oversee medical staff’s work, manage existing resources, marketing activities, suppliers, etc. from a single dashboard.  

Saves time 

With precise services, patient's self-service portals, and an improved information system, hospitals can plan, organize, and conduct activities in less time.   

Save costs

With automated systems, hospitals can work with a reduced workforce. It also helps in cutting down documentation, accounting, reporting, and storage costs. 

Better customer experience

Today's hospitals are patient-oriented.  Striving for complete patient satisfaction is a foremost priority for hospitals. HMS software can assist hospitals in this goal by offering patients a great experience and ease of everything. 

No space for errors

Wrong billing, clashes in schedule and appointment, allotment of same rooms or beds to two patients, stock shortage due to forgotten purchase order email, mixing of lab reports, nurses forgetting medication time, etc. are errors that frequently happen in busy hospitals.  Minimum manual intervention with automated processes and constant reminder notifications reduce the possibility of errors.

Makes healthcare accessible and efficient

The collaboration of hospital management systems with technologies such as RPM, precision medicine, AI, Telemedicine, and virtual assistants makes healthcare accessible and efficient.

Patient information sharing in real-time for informed decisions

Doctors and nurses can share patient information in real-time to make informed decisions. The data can be shared with senior doctors not present in the hospital for consultation and medical advice.

Other benefits of deploying a hospital management system

• Effective internal communication
• Full implementation of hospital policies
• Uninterrupted supplies secure financial transactions
• Frictionless staff-patient interaction
• Efficient and accurate hospital administration
• Better clinical decision-making
• Better revenue
• Excellent reviews and  ratings
• Paperless work environment 

The next wave of healthcare is about patient's convenience and personalized care. Hospital information management systems have made healthcare a participatory entity, where patients collaborate in many aspects of the healthcare ecosystem. The integration of HMS software with wearables, IoT, and health monitoring devices have enabled patients to participate in the journey of their own treatment. 

Data sharing between patients and doctors has enabled patients to engage with their physicians right from the point when symptoms are developed until the finalization of future health strategy. 

Imagine a patient is getting all updates about his current health status on his/her mobile device along with instructions to follow and the convenience of informing the doctor in real-time in case of emergency. Right from the frictionless appointment booking to hassle-free discharge process, the game-changing hospital management solutions enhance customer satisfaction manifold by digital engagement. Patients feel safe in the hands of hospitals that deliver exceptional services by building capacities that patients find useful. Such hospitals are surely going to gain more traction from the customers.

Even during pandemic situations, opportunistic cyber attackers continue their activities rigorously to steal insurance data of patients, steal hospital's account information along with patients' credit and debit card data. When hospitals race against time to fight the epidemic and pandemic situations, they can get dual blows due to data theft losses and fraudulent transactions. While a patient's health is a top priority for hospitals, securing all IoT devices, patient's sensitive information, donation records, doctor's account information is also more crucial than ever before. 

Even terrorist organizations can mess up the lab data and change blood bank records to create a ruckus to malign a country's healthcare image. In such cases, unprepared hospitals can become an easy target. 

Therefore, safeguarding all patient-generated data, lab data, financial data by deploying a robust hospital management software is the best decision hospitals can ever make in such pressing times. Hospital software prevents crucial data from getting inaccessible to hospitals due to cyber attacks. 

The emergency notification system of hospital management software can prevent the spread of unnerving rumors, misinformation, and misleading facts in panic situations. HMS software can also implement telemedicine modules for greater reach, provide access to pandemic resources, timely manage inventory needs to address equipment shortage issues, etc. 

In the industry 4.0 revolution, healthcare has shifted from treatment to prevention. Recent research by Gartner states that one of the five top emerging healthcare trends is the focus on preventive care. Hospitals can suggest the preventive measures and guidelines to patients only when their own doctors and nurses are safe. In the present times, a lot of hospitals have reported cases of their medical staff getting infectious diseases while treating patients.

A hospital management system has features such as telehealth, integration with robotics, online consultation, self-assessment by patients through wearable devices, and doctors getting the data even before meeting the patients in person that ensure minimum physical contact between patients and doctors. With such features, doctors can treat patients with high contagion risk without frequent physical contact. 

Telemedicine

Many people are unable to make it to hospitals in time due to poor health conditions, unavailability of transport (during strikes, lockdowns, riots, etc.), and distance issues. Telemedicine is a potential solution to mitigate all the above problems by providing at-home virtual medical consultation.  It can also assist a local doctor in getting medical assistance from an expert doctor sitting thousands of miles away. 

Remote Patient Monitoring

Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) enables doctors to use audio-visual devices connected with the internet to provide vital treatment to patients who are located far from the doctors. The remote monitoring system can capture details such as heart rate, pulse rate, temperature, oxygen flow, etc. and send it to doctors' devices.  RPM technology is very beneficial when the doctor who is treating the patient is not available in the hospital for varied reasons. In such cases, the doctors can still monitor and treat the patient or atleast convey an informed clinical decision to other doctors about the next treatment based on the data received via RPM.

Wearables

Wearables such as fitness trackers, smartwatches, hearables, smart apparels, smart glasses have revolutionized the healthcare industry by providing easy monitoring systems, especially for those with chronic illness. Low costs of developments and inexpensive sensors have led to massive growth in wearable technology. 

AI and machine learning

Artificial intelligence unearths relevant insights from the bulk of healthcare data. Today medical institutions are monetizing the insights in the form of patents, publications, and research reports. The focus has shifted from storing data to extracting insights that can be monetized. Artificial intelligence is proving significant in clinical decision making. 

Precision Medicine

Precision medicine is a type of personalized treatment approach. It considers factors such as the patient's genetics and environment before initiating treatment for particular diseases. For instance, heart patients are not regarded as similar in types. Based on individual genes and the environment, each patient can respond differently to the same treatment. Therefore, doctors refrain from adopting one-size-fits-all medications in diseases related to heart, cancer, arthritis, tumor, etc. Precision medicine demands the doctor to meticulously study genetics and environmental conditions of the patients to come up with a personalized treatment plan for them. 

Blockchain in Medicare

Lab tests processing, blood testing, and transfusion, blood distribution to blood banks and hospitals are highly regulated and complex processes that work with 0% error margin. Blockchain can trace and monitor the whole chain from donors to patients. Hospitals that need blood immediately can track the supply chain network of blood to come up with an accurate time when the blood will be available? Blockchain's secure network provides real-time visibility of the transmitted blood and can build trust with the government regulators about the fair use of the donated blood. 

Robotics

Robotics has taken a giant leap in healthcare. From disinfecting rooms, friendly chats, assisting in the supply chain, to drawing blood and checking vital body signs, robots are helping in every aspect of the hospitals' operational activities. Robots can monitor a patient's condition for long hours without the need to take rest. They can take care of the patient's hygiene condition if needed. Robots can sense an emergency and call doctors immediately. Nanorobotics, which is in a development phase, is a high-end technology that allows doctors to remove foreign objects without the need for surgery, by sending an ingestible robot into the patient's body. Nanorobots can be swallowed by patients, and they are controlled by doctors with electro-magnetic remote. 

Voice Assistants (Alexa)

When Amazon launched Alexa, the HIPAA compliant voice assistant for doctors, it revolutionized the entire healthcare system. Voice assistants such as Alexa can monitor whether patients have taken medicines or not? Patients who are alone in the hospital ward can ask Alexa to call a nurse in case of need.  It can also provide medical assistance and advice to ambulance personnel. Doctors can ask Alexa to take down medical notes. 

IoT 

Internet-enabled medical devices can collect, analyze, and store invaluable data about patient's symptoms, health conditions, and vital signs. IoT has enabled doctors to continuously monitor their patients without frequent meetings. Internet-enabled glucometers, BP monitors, Calorie counters, etc. can send real-time data to doctors anytime the doctor wishes to see. These devices can send alerts to doctors in case reading is abnormal. 

• Administration, back office, and front desk management 
• Appointment and Scheduling
• OPD, IPD, Operation theatre, and ICU management
• Accounting, Financial and Payroll management
• Pharmacy,  Medicine and other medical stock management
• Laboratory and blood bank management
• Patient Billing and receipts
• EHR/EMR management
• Security Control
• Patient-Doctor portal management
• Telemedicine management

Patient Module

The patient module of the online hospital management system registers every patient, provides him or her a unique registration number,  records the patient's personal information, demographic information, previous medical history, and contact information.

In-patient Management

It records the number of in-patients and the number of in-patient requests in a queue. It allows in-patient registration and admission only if sufficient numbers of beds are available. 

Out-patient Management

This feature takes care of the out-patient registration requests, appointment fixing, and billing for them. It allows out-patient requests only if sufficient numbers of doctors are available in the out-patient ward.   

Operation Theatre management 

This feature records and manages operation theatre functions. It records operation theatre bookings and, based on the type of operation, automatically makes a list of surgical consumables, protective gear, and medical instruments required. It integrates with the inventory management module of the hospital management system and automatically sends a notification about the items required for operation. 

Billing

This section generates a detailed bill for patients with complete details of all charges for all services utilized. It automatically adds all services such as consultation fees, nursing charges, lab reports charges, X-ray, other medical procedures, medicines, room charges if applicable, etc.  

Doctor’s portal 

This feature creates a separate profile of all doctors working with your hospital. In this section, the data of doctors who have worked in the past is also available. Complete personal and professional information of doctors, their specialization, number of patients attended and treated, critical incidents, nature of work, etc. are recorded in this section. Doctors have access to certain portions of this segment where they can change or update their details with time. 

Pharmacy management 

This feature lets the admins or pharmacists authorized by the hospital to manage the medicines and necessary drugs. This module is integrated with the prescription module. As soon as the doctor enters the prescription, it automatically shows in the pharmacy segment. Hospitals can track the most prescribed drugs, the current status of drug availability, categories of medicines, etc. 

Appointment Management

Patients have access to this section of the HMS software. Patients can see availability slots of doctors and schedule appointments on their own. This section is integrated with the billing section so that patients can pay any minimum charge required to book an appointment.  

Facility management

This section tracks the availability and management of various facilities for hospital operations such as rooms for patient's relatives, ambulance, wheelchairs, cafeteria, etc. This software prevents any equipment downtime, monitors surgical equipment to ensure uninterrupted workflow.

Inventory management

It caters to stock replenishment, purchasing of new stocks, and management of existing stocks. Real-time records of the stock quantities available, pending orders, supplier information, delivery dates, and purchase requests, etc. can be availed from this module. 

Human Resource Management

Manage the entire staff, job profiles, employee data, recruitment releases, recruitment process, appointment letters, staff grievance redressal, sexual harassment complaints, etc. from one place. 

Account management

Records, stores, and manages all the details of payments, bills, receipts, and financial records for auditing purposes. 

Insurance services integration

This feature lets the hospital keep accurate records and documents related to the health insurance of patients for claim approvals. It also notes down the mediclaim policy numbers, the amount sanctioned, and diseases covered.

Lab test management

Management and recording of Lab test reports and patient's lab data come under this module. It also generates barcodes for every lab report so that two test samples can be segregated. It keeps a record of all tests conducted till now.  

Electronic Medical Records 

Electronic health records could save $500 billion in 15 years in the US alone. Doctors can report and update patients' health records online, and all reports related to patients can be accessed from this module. 

Helpdesk Management

Information regarding doctors' current status, patient's room number, timings of doctors, other staff, etc. can be queried from this section. 

Nursing Care

This module helps the nurses in performing their functions efficiently. It sends alerts about the patients’ medication timings to nurses. This also helps the nurses by recording patient data such as temperature, pulse rate, etc. in the HMS application. The information can be retrieved in one click when needed. It ensures better patient care.

Ward Management

This feature provides the hospital management the details about the number of general and special wards available, occupancy percentage, and available space in the wards.  

Administrative controls

Over 80% of errors in the healthcare system are administrative in nature. The administrative module provides the management and admin control of the overall HMS software. Admins can provide access to others, control access, change settings, enable or disable sections, see all real-time updates on the dashboard. This is the single point of view of the entire hospital activities. If the hospital has multiple branches, then all can be controlled from the head office.

Telehealthcare management

Hospitals providing telemedicine services can manage their telehealth services through this module of the online hospital management system. 

Media management

This module takes care of the social media management section, press releases, media reporting, etc. 

Other features

Hospitals should also see if the HMS software has extra amenities and premium features such as an emergency notification system, incident management module, separate blood bank management module, and the research and development module.

The costs of hospital management software depend on a large number of factors such as:

• Number of admins it allows
• Features it offers
• Type of installation: Cloud-based, Web-based, cloud-based or on-premise software, open-source
• Privacy and data integrity it provides
• Devices it can work on
• Separate mobile application
• Quality of service offered 
• Number of patients, doctors, and other stakeholders that it needs to manage
• User interface and experience

These variations can significantly alter the costs and estimations of the software. The average cost for buying hospital software with full-fledged functionalities and all benefits is higher than with limited features and basic versions. Apart from this, some vendors charge for support, installation, and training. 

If you need a free and open source hospital management system, you can opt for Medkey. The enterprise version of Sanela HMS will cost you around $2000 a year. For other online hospital management software or free hospital management software such as HMS365 Cloud, MocDoc HMS, Simplex Himes, eHospital Systems, MyNapier, and MedStar HIS, and many more others, you need to contact the vendor for detailed pricing. You can get the list and all information from the GoodFirms hospital management software page.

Hospital management software will see a major transformation with wide-reaching disruptions in the healthcare tech. Hospital management apps will have to respond more effectively to:

• greater need for transparency in operations, 
• stricter regulations owing to the recent pandemics
• growing consumer demands
• multi-faceted spectrums arising from AI, VR, blockchain, etc.
• customized patient-care
• digital convergence in healthcare

The hospital management solutions are witnessing a brave new world where even patients are investing in technologies that can equip them with tools to diagnose health issues at home proactively. When even Smart apparels can guide the consumer to change lifestyle by monitoring body health indicators, when fitness apps advised by health-insurance companies can not only promote health but also bring discounts in policy premium for those who adhere to the guidelines, it becomes crucial for hospitals to plan exceptional services to keep their healthcare business competitive amidst today's era of convenient care options.

Everything points out to the need for aligned software solutions that can connect all departments of hospitals. HMS software that links hospitals' core business with its supply chain, finance department, recruitment cell, back-office, etc. with powerful cloud computing solutions is the future of the hospital software industry. No wonder, the Healthcare Cloud Computing Market is poised to hit $55 billion by 2025. 

Buyers should carefully consider and get the following information about the hospital management software they are planning to deploy before making an actual purchase: 

• Can the hospital management software integrate with other channels, software solutions, and web-based services related to healthcare or not?
• Whether the software provides a secure environment for all transactions and patient billing?
• Is the software scalable to accommodate features when your customer base grows?
• Is it accessible on all devices such as desktops, laptops, tablets, mobile phones? (A mobile-friendly light version is essential)
• Is the software user-friendly, intuitive, and easy to navigate?
• Does the software vendor provide reliable, 24/7 customer support?
• Does the software ensure regulatory compliance (HIPAA/ CDC? USFDA, etc.)? 
• Does it provide all features, modules, and settings for your needs? 
• Can you request for customization to add more functions over time?
• Does the software deploy robust security features and a high-end encryption system for all transactions and communications? 
• Can it work smoothly with low bandwidth internet connectivity?
• Does the vendor provide a free trial/free demo of its services?
• Does it support multiple languages and currencies?

Goodfirms is a frontline IT market research company renowned in the IT field for its behemoth lists of thousands of IT services and products. GoodFirms has a rich heritage of providing buying assistance to B2B IT service seekers. GoodFirms' astounding understanding of the IT products and services can assist service seekers in buying the best suitable software products and services for their business.  Currently, GoodFirms has a noteworthy listing of more than 9000 vetted products and services with around 15000 unbiased and genuine reviews that provide a requisite understanding and extraordinary glance into the functions, modules, pricing, type of deployment, and many more aspects of the software services. The readers of this buyer's guide for hospital management system software are advised to navigate the list of thoroughly researched software to find the best suitable ones for themselves.