Hospital Management System: Features, Modules, Functions, Advantages

Well-tuned hospital management workflow involves lots of important decisions that should be made in the most efficient and quick way. Nowadays it is hard to implement it without the distinct hospital management system. In this article, we’ll explore what is HMS software, what functions it performs and how it helps the healthcare industry be more effective and patient-centric.

The hospital management system (HMS) is an integrated software that handles different directions of clinic workflows. It manages the smooth healthcare performance along with administrative, medical, legal and financial control. That is a cornerstone for the successful operation of the healthcare facility.

List of the contents:

• What is a hospital management system
• Clinic management system advantages
• Workflow automation
• Hospital management system features
• HMS components
• In conclusion

WHAT IS A HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

As long as each stage implementation needs to be accurate and explicit, the clinic management system provides certain automation of many vital daily processes. The hospital system software covers the services that unify and simplify the work of healthcare professionals as well as their interactions with patients.

There is always the wide choice of features that can be included in the system. Moreover, the most important thing they are created to streamline various procedures that meet the needs of all the users. The hospital management system feature list is concentrated on providing the smooth experience of patients, staff and hospital authorities. It might seem that their expectations differ, they still are covered by components of the hospital information system. Quality and security still remain the main criteria of the medical industry. It is also known for the constant and rapid changes to improve the efficiency of medical services and satisfaction of the patients.

Hospital management has greatly changed over the last decades. Business expertise, modern technologies, connected devices, mobile apps, and knowledge of healthcare are key elements for the implementation of hospital management system project. The number of healthcare providers has increased and the patients have a wide choice of medical specialists. The interactions between the hospital and the patient can be simplified for the convenience of both sides. Each institution has the opportunity to create the efficient, clear and fast delivering healthcare model.

Depending on the hospital management system software features, it can deal with a lot of tasks. It helps to outline and implement policies, guarantee communication and coordination between employees, automate routine tasks, design the patient-oriented workflows, advertise services, manage human and financial resources and provide the uninterrupted supply chain. The components of a hospital information system can be chosen and combined in the general system that meets the needs and norms of the healthcare industry as well as quality standards. One of the main requirements of the clinic management system is security. All medical records have to be protected and only accessible for the allowed users. The convenient and informative interfaces should correspond to their roles and responsibilities in order to protect the confidential data.

Since the purpose of the hospital information system is the arrangement of necessary, precise and appropriate data, the hospitals should ensure the system work and can be accessed at any time. The online hospital management system and desktop (on-premise) solutions are possible options of the healthcare providers. This could be a unique system for the certain institution, chain of clinics, state hospitals or even the international medical organizations. It is usually started with the basic version that can be scaled up.

HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ADVANTAGES

The implementation of hospital management system project provides the institution with different advantages that improve the service quality and efficiency. As mentioned above it is created for three groups of users: patients, hospital staff and management, and third-parties like drug suppliers and insurance companies. The interaction between them conveys the general performance. The benefits received by a certain group of users also positively influence the work of the others. Cooperation and communication are the fundamental requirements here.

In order to create the hospital management system feature list, you need to identify your priorities by choosing the benefits that are prior for your case.

Improved processes

Automation is one of the main benefits here. It helps to optimize the user experience. Medical specialists, patients, and hospital authorities can interact online, make the appointments and exchange information.

Digital medical records  

The hospital database includes all the necessary patient data. The disease history, test results, prescribed treatment can be accessed by doctors without much delay in order to make an accurate diagnosis and monitor the patient’s health. It enables lower risks of mistakes.

Staff interaction

It is vital to engage all of your employees for improved coordination and teamwork. They do not need to make special requests and wait for a long time for an answer. Each specialist will be in charge of certain process stage and can share outcomes with colleagues just in one click.

Facility management

Hospitals authorities are able to manage their available resources, analyze staff work, reduce the equipment downtime, optimize the supply chain, etc. Another fact to mention is that hospital staff deal with the digital data instead of endless paperwork.

Financial control and tax planning

The management has the ability to monitor different financial operations including expenses, profits, and losses, paying bills and taxes, in and outpatient billing. The financial awareness helps to analyze business prospects quite clear and move in the right direction.

Market strategy

Due to the high market competitive nature, the medical industry is also open to all the different innovations that enable communication between patients, doctors, suppliers, and marketing services providers.

Insurance claims processing

Integration with health insurance services improves the experience of the patients and brings benefits to the institution. It allows you to be innovative and helps both the patient and hospital to handle many aspects of the insurance process successfully.

Less time consuming

As the services and interactions are improved in all possible ways, everything is being planned with greater precision. It saves the time of all the system users and provides them with up-to-date information.

Patient self-service

Patients have their own system accounts where the list of various actions can be performed. They are able to make online requests or reservation, receive the test results, receive the consultation of the medical specialists and many more.

Better customer experience

Since the clinic management system is patient-oriented, the treatment process can be less stressful. Doctors have more time for the examination and interaction with patients. In addition, all the requested information can be received online.

CLINIC MANAGEMENT AUTOMATION

The hospital management system automates the clinic’s work and optimizes the utilization of resources instead of only the storage and presentation of the information. It balances the occupancy rates and calculates the number of required employees. Automation helps to manage the general process, deals with the different healthcare services and equipment providers on its own, analyzes and sends notifications to the user. The purpose of the hospital information system is managing the employee and patient activities remotely with immediate access for the authorized users. The patient-centric and well-managed company will also ensure a better work environment for their employees.

When the patient wants to have an appointment, he might choose among a few options. Firstly, you can find the data about visiting hours on the medical specialists’ profiles and book a convenient time. Secondly, you simply dial the receptionist who will check the doctors’ schedule for you and set your appointment. In both cases, the doctor gets the information about the next visit whereas the patient will get a reminder via SMS, email or even receive the automated calls.

As for the medical specialists, the healthcare record management system that contains the patient information in one place enables more efficient work of the staff. Automation speeds up the process of patient registration and filling out all the necessary records. The doctors have the ability to check the disease history, test results, as well as add new data to the patient file. The job of the doctor that previously involved too much paperwork can be completely computerized. Doctors spend more time on patients’ treatment rather than documentation. If something is requested in a written form, they are able to print it.

Finally, the clinic authorities receive the automated control of all the interactions in their facility. The hospital system software can generate the analysis of staff work, financial expenses, revenue, set the general priorities of the institution, outline future directions.

HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FUNCTIONS

The hospital management system organizes the stable functioning of daily tasks and interactions. This is a special tool to support the smooth operating of the software components that are vital for the clinic administration. The hospital records management software keeps a track of all the operations, stores the users’ data, performs its analysis and generates the reports. The medical institution is given the opportunity to collect its information in one place. It includes the patient and doctors’ records as well as the data concerning financial affairs, supply management, etc. Furthermore, it is only processed, classified and accessible for authorized users. The hospital database management system provides users with data security due to all regulations. Implementation of different functions empowers smooth and clear functionality.

The hospital records management software tracks the number of available doctors and their working hours. This allows to have the accurate schedule of each employee, manage your facility abilities and the supply chain in order to meet all the needs of the patients. It helps to arrange the appointments for both the staff and patients’ convenience.

Any clinic should store medical histories, test results, prescribed treatments, etc. The good hospital database management system will do it for you. All the details are securely stored for the access of the doctor and can be provided to the patients by their requests. They can receive the test results or medical reports by email or the user account. When the written form is required, printing will take only a few minutes for the clinic staff.

Another function is connected with managing finances. The hospital accounting software estimates the patients’ payments. It might remind the bank account where you can check performed operations and the billing status of each customer.

Moreover, the hospital record management system is capable of generating regular reports of the tracked data including healthcare, staff efficiency, finances, inventory, and facility utilization, etc. This greatly helps the clinic authorities in making reasonable policy decisions. Therefore, any of these functions are designed to make the clinic management system easy to use, comprehensive, powerful and reliable.

COMPONENTS OF HOSPITAL INFORMATION SYSTEM

When the hospital considers applying this approach, it is necessary to learn how to develop a hospital management system. Planning and setting priorities is one of the important stages. It outlines the functions and benefits that the medical institution expects to get at the final point. The qualified developers usually suggest the list of the recommended hospital management system project modules. They will ensure the efficient administration of your medical institution.

Their number might differ depending on the clinic needs, however, it usually includes some basic hospital information system modules.

Patient management

It is used to control patient flow. It can be used to register them, get the data of the patients’ health condition, view the treatment and check the medical history and reports.

Appointment module in hospital management

Appointment module in hospital management arranges the schedule of doctors due to the patients’ application. It helps to organize the availability of medical specialists at any convenient time. Some hospital can even offer remote visits when you need immediate assistance.

Facility management

The facility management module is responsible for tracking and maintaining the room availability, the occupancy status as well as various kinds of administrative documentation.

Inventory management

Inventory management module controls the amount of clinic inventory. The entire supply chain is automated for the convenience of the staff that can concentrate on the patients’ need firstly.

Staff management

Staff management module provides the human resources administration. It updates the job description of employees, updates the hospital structure, tracks the recruiting records.

Accounting

Accounting module organizes the financial affairs of both customers and the medical institution. It stores and presents all the patient payment details, hospital financial records on expenses and overall profit.

Insurance services integration  

Insurance module can record patients’ insurance details. It includes the policy number, the insurance company, information about their policies.

Medicine management

Medicine management module contains the list of drugs that usually used for the specific treatment. It keeps records of every patient’ drugs used during their treatment.

Laboratory and tests management

Lab management module shows the test results of the particular patient. The lab data can be viewed by the staff and generated for the patients’ reports. It is usually integrated with other hospital information system modules for the better overall functionality of the system.

Reporting

Report management part stores the already processed detailed information. This module helps management collect, analyze and view the performance data in a comprehensive format. The business intelligence subsystem helps define problematic aspects and successfully eliminate them to keep the business profitability as well the high customer satisfaction level.  

Helpdesk & support

Helpdesk support module specializes in handling different issues, problems, and requests. It ensures that the operations are maintained properly, the data is valid and reported in accordance.

All mentioned hospital information system modules perform, control and support the general working process. Also, you should not forget about the hospital management system design and functionality. The software developers can usually suggest what modules you should choose for efficient work and meeting all the expectations.

IN CONCLUSION

Taking into account all the mentioned details, we can make the conclusion that the hospital management system is the inevitable part of the lifecycle of the modern medical institution. It automates numerous daily operations and enables smooth interactions of the users. Developing the hospital system software is a great opportunity to create the distinct, efficient and fast delivering healthcare model. Implementation of hospital management system project helps to store all the kinds of records, provide coordination and user communication, implement policies, improve day-to-day operations, arrange the supply chain, manage financial and human resources, and market hospital services. This beneficial decision covers the needs of the patients, staff and hospital authorities and simplifies their interactions. It has become the usual approach to manage the hospital. Many clinics have already experienced its advantages and continue developing new hospital management system project modules.

Need to improve management in your hospital or plan to innovate healthcare with new software product? The hospital system software is a great solution for any medical institution.  If you have some ideas and need the assistance, you are welcome to contact Existek. We are an outsourcing company with great expertise in software development and always ready to find out the best approaches for your company. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us via the contact form or start the discussion in the website chat widget. Existek will be glad to provide professional consultation and find the solution for you.