What is Hospital Management System(HMS/EMR) ?
National Cancer Institute, USA defines EMR as an electronic (digital) collection of medical information about a person that is stored on a computer. An electronic medical record includes information about a patient’s health history, such as diagnoses, medicines, tests, allergies, immunizations, and treatment plans. Electronic medical records can be seen by all healthcare providers who are taking care of a patient and can be used by them to help make recommendations about the patient’s care. Also called EHR and electronic health record.
Hospital Management System is a more comprehensive and integrated system which integrates not just the EMR but also other components of a clinic/hospital like front office and back office management, finances and accounting, analytics etc.
Benefits of HMS/EMR for CLINICS
- Centralized source of health reports, prescriptions, lab reports, past history etc.
- Customizable and easy to store electronic records.
- Optimises workflow & increases the number of patients per day.
- Reduces administrative issues and operational costs.
- Save space by eliminating paper records to be generated, managed, stored and archived.
- Analyze patient data which enables better planning and execution at the marketing and operations level.
- Get alerts, notifications & reminders.
- Integrate easily with hospitals’ front office, back office, pharmacies & labs and optical shops.
- Improved documentation on patient history and treatment given.
- Enhanced research & monitoring for improvements in quality of patient care.
- Increased revenue by maintaining surgery schedules, appointments and patient-counsellor interactions.
- Get a competitive advantage over others by having a proper structure to your practice.
- Access information anytime and anywhere from cloud-based HMS/EMR.
- Lesser human errors on medical records and case sheets.
- Know about patients who are due for follow-up visits and notify them accordingly.
- Take better decisions while offering patient care.
Benefits of HMS/EMR for PATIENTS
- Centralized source of prescriptions, healthcare reports and informations.
- Faster assessment and care from medical staff and doctors.
- Improved diagnosis, treatment and quality of care at the hospital.
- Lesser human errors on medical records and prescriptions etc..
- Patient data and health are tracked over time at hospital.
- Access to patient’s health records, prescriptions, lab reports etc. No need to physically carry the records.
- Enhanced privacy & security of patient’s data as data is secure in the software and not accessable by outsiders.
- Easy medical claims with proper digital records.
- Follow-up information like self-care instructions, reminders for other follow-up care etc.
- SMS & app reminders of booked appointments, scheduled surgeries and followups etc.
- Reduction in errors and improved patient care.
Questions to ask yourself before choosing a HMS/EMR
1. What is the trustworthiness of the software vendor?
Confidentiality and safety of your data is extremely important. Do take out some time to find out the trustworthiness of the vendor/company providing the HMS/EMR.
2. How technically comfortable you and your staff are?
Offline software requires you to be comfortable in taking regular backups, protecting your data from viruses, upgrading software when needed, reinstalling the software when the operating system is re-installed/upgraded etc. Whereas Online or Cloud-based software saves you from these hassles.
3. How user-friendly and easy-to-understand the software is?
You must take a demo of the software to understand how friendly the software is to use and how much time will it take you to prepare prescriptions and other necessary health records inside the software. Remember the software must save your time, improve your quality of practice and must be easy to understand and use.
4. Do you wish to access software from outside the clinic/hospital (from home or elsewhere)?
Accessing information from multiple places or devices works with online software only. If you have multiple clinics or hospital branches, then this becomes even more important to have the ability to access the software from outside the clinic. Offline software are built on old technologies and cannot be accessed from elsewhere by you.
5. What is the physical proximity of software vendor to you?
Offline Softwares and their data both are stored on the same computer. Computer-specific factors like RAM, hard-disk drive, anti-virus, internet security etc become relevant in operating these offline softwares. Thus, when support or servicing is needed from the vendor/company, the vendor has to physically come to the hospital. This very often takes anywhere from one day to several days depending on how customer-focused and service focused the software vendor/company is.
Online Softwares on the other hand do not need a physical person to come to the clinic for fixing, updating or installing things(new features or modules). Thus the serviceability is a lot faster and reliable.
6. Does the software allow you to upload images, videos & various other patient reports and reports?
This feature helps you save all the patient records at one place in the software(on the cloud servers) and they are accessible at any point in time and from anywhere.
7. How good is the after-sales service of the vendor/company?
Always choose software companies over individual freelancers or local developers or vendors. Companies have proper resources to provide good after-sale services. Even if the software is being provided by a registered company, you must always enquire before-hand about the after-sale services being provided to you by the company and if it attracts any extra charge.