Detailed Introduction of Hospital Management System (HMS)
Hospital Management System is a system enabling hospitals to manage information and data related to all aspects of healthcare – processes, providers, patients, and more, which in turn ensures that processes are completed swiftly and effectively. When one thinks of the various aspects and departments of a hospital, it becomes apparent that an HMS is critical. The hospital database management system was introduced in 1960, and has greatly evolved since then – with the ability to integrate with the existing facilities, technologies, software, and systems of a hospital. Today, patients can begin the process of healthcare in the palm of their hand – the mobile devices and apps – make this possible. This process then moves to the healthcare providers and hospitals.
Applications of Hospital Management System
With the large amounts of data, people involved and innumerable processes, a hospital is definitely an ideal candidate for data management software. If hospitals are to run efficiently, provide top line care, ensure patient and other data confidentiality, and work seamlessly – they cannot hope to do so without an effective Hospital Management System Software. Reduced human intervention for paperwork, less paperwork, reduced staff headcount for jobs that can be easily managed within the HMS, speedier processes, reduction of errors, and data privacy and safety – are just some of the benefits of a Hospital Management System.
For the hospitals, HMS translates to being able to track patient history, provide better care, keep track of appointments, save patient insurance and payment data, enable doctors and clinicians to check patient history, maintain patient care continuity, and save time and effort on unnecessary tedious manual tasks. This Electronic Medical Record (EMR) or Electronic Health Record (EHR) is the journey of a patient with the hospital – keeping track of the date of every visit, doctor consulted, medicines and advice prescribed, and other information for the patient. This ensures that even if a patient visits after a long break, the patient and hospital will not require going through the registration process again.
Hospital records are easily audited and kept compliant with policies and laws. In addition, the Hospital Management System is cost effective – it reduces the need for staff to manage manual entries, manage paperwork, and ensure accurate filing. This in turn significantly reduces the possibility of human error, which can prove costly on many counts. Another significant benefit/factor of the HMS is it is customizable to the needs and requirements of a particular hospital/healthcare facility.
Key features of a Hospital Management System
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Operation Theatre Management
Surgeries are long and tedious and a hospital must know the schedule of surgeries, to avoid overbooking and ensure availability of the required surgeons, other doctors and operation theatre staff. A hospital would be able to send operation schedules, test results, and other details to patients/next of kin, while also sending reminders to the presiding surgeon and other staff required for a procedure.
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Lab Management
Maintain accurate accounts of tests, payments received, report generation dates, patient information, customized reports, timely notifications to patients and laboratory staff, and detailed MIS reports – all through one Hospital Management System.
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Patient Management
With faster, secure, and easy data retrieval, a hospital/healthcare facility would be able to provide better and efficient care to the patients. With every department interconnected and integrated into the HMS, the quality of patient care can be enhanced, leading to greater customer satisfaction and lowered turnovers. Today there is severe competition even in the realm of healthcare, and patients and their kin prefer to visit a facility that is efficient, cost-effective, and secure.
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Supply Management
With efficient hospital management systems (HMS), hospital management can track and manage supplies more efficiently and set up better purchasing contracts with suppliers. The system provides you with full transparency of inventory from the time it was ordered to when it was brought in to when it was used on patients. This, you can better capture demand, purchase, and consumption activity, allowing you to make continuous improvements to your healthcare supply chain.
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Billing Management
Given the large numbers (in all respects) that any hospital needs to manage, a great feature of Hospital Management System is to help keep track of billing aligned with treatments, tests, and doctor fee. The system is able to send out messages for bill payment, display discounts, automatically capture patient data, provide several payment options to patients/kin, and keep a track of patient visits and payments.
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Facility Management
A comprehensive Hospital Management System will enable the addition of several branches across locations of the hospital. This ensures that patients can visit any branch for treatment and the doctors would be able to access their records from anywhere.
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Appointment Management
Appointment scheduling is one of the most tedious processes in a hospital. With the help of a Hospital Management System, an appointment widget is easily added to the hospital’s website. Patients can easily log in to the website, book an appointment with a doctor they choose with a time that works for them, receive reminders from the hospital, and also receive updates in the event of any changes.
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Staff Management
HMS helps in the management of employees across different locations of a particular hospital/healthcare facility. Every aspect related to an employee is captured here- date of joining, designation and department, insurance details, leave and absence status, salary and benefits details, authorization level, and other information. The administrator with access, can view and edit employee details, remove inactive/ex-employee details, make any employment-related changes, and more.
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Report Management
A well-made Hospital Management System allows authorized personnel to access the MIS data, as and when required.
Benefits of a Hospital Management System
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Improves interaction between the patient and the hospital
With faster, secure, and easy data retrieval, a hospital/healthcare facility would be able to provide better and efficient care to the patients. With every department interconnected and integrated into the HMS, the quality of patient care can be enhanced, leading to greater customer satisfaction and lowered turnovers. Today there is severe competition even in the realm of healthcare, and patients and their kin prefer to visit a facility that is efficient, cost-effective, and secure.
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Boosts productivity and establishes a routine
An effective HMS will be based on the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and best practices, leaving little or no room for error. The HMS enables your health facility to care for its patients better through faster processes, storing and analysis of patient history, preparation and access of real time reports, appointment scheduling and tracking, and many more such processes. Employees, too, find it easier to manage the huge numbers of patients, records, and other jobs critical to the smooth functioning of a healthcare facility.
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Makes patient’s data easily retrievable
An effective HMS will be based on the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and best practices, leaving little or no room for error. The HMS enables your health facility to care for its patients better through faster processes, storing and analysis of patient history, preparation and access of real time reports, appointment scheduling and tracking, and many more such processes. Employees, too, find it easier to manage the huge numbers of patients, records, and other jobs critical to the smooth functioning of a healthcare facility.
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Keep the hospital data secure
The cloud-based medical records software in a Hospital Management System, ensures that all data remains interlinked and with high security. This translates to ease of data storage and retrieval by authorized personnel only. Faster access to accurate data has a significant impact on the speed and efficiency of the overall operational and administrative processes of a hospital/healthcare facility.
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Cost-effective solution
The risk of improper billing, financial management, fraud, and other financial related issues are kept to the minimum with an effective HMS. Further costs are reduced since the requirement of a larger human workforce is lowered. Manual tasks such as record maintenance and storage can easily be managed by the system, thereby freeing humans to focus on higher level tasks. In addition to better utilization of human capital, healthcare facilities also cut costs with relation to storage and maintenance of a large number of records. Only mandatory physical records would need storing in order to remain compliant with regulation standards.
Conclusion
The Hospital Management System has today become an indispensable part of any hospital/clinic/healthcare facility. In order to create a differentiated, efficient, speedy, and thoughtful healthcare model, it would make sense to invest in a comprehensive HMS.
To know more about this and other factors that will enable your facility to be a frontrunner, connect with us and our experts will be happy to help.
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More FAQs
Transformation through digital transformation in healthcare may have added more pressure to healthcare professionals in the form of:
- Cybersecurity threat
- Lack of technical team support
- Complex interface
- Higher initial implementation cost
- Insecurity of job
But the negative aspects which are mentioned here can be overcomed with the right support and training if provided on time. Because that’s when end users are not only able to leverage HMS benefits but patients receive better care.
Types of Hospital Management Systems (HMS) are listed below:
IPD management
To manage the in-patient treatment journey while in the clinic or hospital.
OPD management
To deliver a patient a memorable experience in OPD. It gives quicker appointments and fewer delays in service.
Billing management
A one-stop solution to not only manage payments but streamline financial operations.
Operations management
Along with better housekeeping activities, it facilitates organized multiple facilities and the capability to manage indent requests, issues, etc.
Best practices thrive with HIMS. Whether you are working in a small clinic or a multispecialty hospital, HIMS helps you achieve expertise in using available resources to ensure no patient is disappointed with your service.
It is designed to simplify every work that you do everyday in the hospital to improve patient experience such as billing payments process; patients' appointments through tracking; management of patients' records, contact information and insurance details.