Category: Blog

Choosing the right Clinic Management Software is anything but easy. However, it is one of the best decisions you will ever make that will help you enhance patient care and maximize revenues.

Considering the enormity of the decision and the impact it will have on your clinic’s operational performance, there are critical factors that you may want to consider before the actual buy.

Read through this guide to know the 7 most important factors to consider while buying a Clinic Management Software:

1. How Much Automation Are You Looking At?

There are a lot of options available as far as automating your clinic is concerned. There are exclusive billing or patient records or OPD scheduling software’s available; there are also complete clinic automation software available which include all the modules like billing, patient records, OPD scheduling, stores, pharmacy and much more. Depending on your budget, the ability to embrace change by your staff and your confidence on automating your processes, choose the right combination for you.

2. How Much Customization Will Be Needed?

No software will come custom made for your clinic because you will have some of your unique processes, which will need customization in your Clinic Management Software. After deciding how much automation you need, next logical step is to decide how much customization would you need and how confident is your vendor of delivering those. Be sure to choose a software that can accommodate all your mandatory requirements.

3. How Integration Friendly Is The Software?

A critical point for consideration while buying a software is how easy will be the transition from your old system to your new system. It is important not to lose any data and choose a software that allows a hiccup free integration. Be sure to consider this factor and also ensure the time it will take to integrate, the downtime involved and the additional investment involved, both in terms of time and money.

4. How Much Time Will Implementation Take?

Timeline for automation goes well beyond buying the product or the hardware and software installation; it is the total implementation including training of the staff and getting them to use all the features of the software. Timelines with target dates for each level of implementation and the cross checking of each level needs to be considered and discussed with complete clarity before the purchase decision is made.

5. How Much Post-Sales Technical Support Will Be Available?

Bought. Installed. Trained. Implemented. What about an unforeseen hiccup after implementation? Each staff member would have understood the technicalities in a different way and there could be a hiccup owing to wrong use or there could be a situation that was not a market reality while implementing the software? It is crucial that technical and training support should be available at a cost, post-sales. Be sure to negotiate a profitable association for the clinic while considering technical support post-sales.

6. Get Clarity

Be clear on how and at what cost will the software and hardware upgrades be implemented, what will be the downtime while the upgrade/s are happening and what will be the training routine post the upgrade/s? These are some critical questions to ensure long-term effective performance of the software and the answer needs to be clear before the buy decision is made.

7. Check Credentials and Certifications

Once you are satisfied with these performance points of the software, do a background check of the company you are finalizing to buy the software from. Check how long they have been in the business, check their clients list and see if they have serviced a clinic of your capacity in terms of specialties and turnover, do they have an experienced team to support you in your automation journey etc. This is to ensure that you have all the information to make the right decision for you.

Given that there are hundreds of points that can be considered while buying a Clinic Management Software, these are the most critical 7 points that cannot be ignored. Ensure these are on your checklist when you initiate your clinic’s automation journey.

Cracking the code to access and save the heart of medical care

Medical records are undoubtedly the lifelines of medical care today. You don’t just need them to treat the patient correctly and follow-up well but also to ensure that you have documented it and have a record.

These are not just some paperwork requirement of the process; they are also legal documents and have come a long way,from being mere bundles of files to an important requirement in the medico-legal environment.

The change in the stature of patient records in the entire system has led to many strategies being developed to ascertain tracking and maintaining of patient records of both new and old patients effectively.

Here we list for you some foolproof and effective ways of doing the same at your clinic.

1. Unique Clinic Identity Document (UCID)

UCID is a unique alpha numeric or numeric code generated by the Clinic Management software for each new patient at the clinic. The software can be customized to generate such an ID ensuring every record of the patient going forwardis stored under this ID. Being a unique code this will not be assigned to any other patient ever and this code becomes equivalent to a personal locker of the patient in the software. To access the records of any patient at any time irrespective of how old or new the patient is, all you need is the UCID and login rights to access it, and lo and behold, all relevant information will be displayed on your screen.

2. Integrate Accurately and Completely

While the Clinic Management software can be customized to generate a UCID for every new patient, old patient records need to be integrated into the system while implementing the software. This is precisely the reason why integration is an important factor to be considered while buying Clinic Management software because you cannot, in any way, afford to lose the medical records of your old patients. They need to be manually or otherwise digitized and saved on the server, to be accessed in exactly the same manner as the new ones.

3. Record Only Through EMR

Discontinue the option of physical recording of patient records at your clinic. Recording in the software puts into use the EMR module of the software and with only one format of patient records available, tracking and maintaining patient records is easy. If both manual medical record keeping and EMR are running parallel to each other at your clinic, patient records can never be maintained effectively and the tracking or access will never be easy or complete.

4. Patient Records On Cloud Is Better

In the battle between in-house servers vs. cloud-based server as far as patient records and their access is concerned, cloud-based server will win hands down. The in-house server may be down for maintenance or due to some technical glitch and in that down-time no patient records can be accessed or recorded; while on cloud-based servers, continuity in tracking and maintaining the patient records is a key feature. Using cloud-based server is a better option to effectively track and maintain patient records.

While there are many more ways to effectively maintain and track the patient records of both old and new patients at your clinic, these 4 strategies address the most pertinent issues – maintenance and access to patient records easily.

A big part of being successful is to stay successful and improve various business metrics. If you manage a string of clinics spread across geographies, the big challenge is how to manage all of them effectively offering a consistent quality of experience and care for your patients. For entrepreneurs losing sleep over tracking multiple centers, the answer can be as simple as effective automation for better control.

Here are 5 simple tips to effectively manage your multi-center clinics:

1. Automate and Put It On the Cloud

Automate all your centers with a single Clinic Management System. It is important that the processes at your different centers’ are able to communicate with each other and therefore you should use one solution to integrate it. Data access is of paramount importance to reach decisions, analyze trends and compare performances. Using a cloud-based server at all your centers will allow you the flexibility to track all your data anywhere, anytime to have better control on the operations.

2. Institute Central Teams

Departments like HR, Accounts, Business Development or Materials form a very small chunk of the entire manpower but are in effect a critical part of the system for the simple fact that they involve money. To manage multiple centers it is better to have a central team of these departments from the head office to manage these functions at different centers. The centers can have a smaller team that will only implement the instructions from the central team. Central hiring or central purchase will help you stay  cost effective and offer you better control.

3. Common Reporting Format

For effective management and overview of the performance of various centers. it is important that you receive regular reports from all the centers. Use reporting templates from the software to get all the data you need to measure and do course correction. Or just use a Business Intelligence Solution layer on your existing software to get real time data that indicates center level performance on various metrics – Revenue, expense, inventory or anyother metric that matters to you.

4. Specialty Exchange Programs

Promote knowledge sharing actively. Some of your centers will have talented people with skills that other centers desperately need. Running a Specialty Exchange Program between centers will allow exchange and enhancement of knowledge. This knowledge exchange will also avoid monotony from setting in and will help build a good work culture, which will go a long way in effective business management.

5. Encourage Interaction On a Common Digital Platform

Employees of all the centers should feel like they are a part of the organization irrespective of their location to promote great work culture. A common digital platform like a module on the clinic management system or an app can be very effective in increasing communication between employees and building a great work place. The platform can be used as a space to talk about performances of different units, market trends, medical or customer care practices that your chain of clinics can adopt and interaction with the top management.

While there are hundreds of tips to manage your chain of clinics effectively, these 5 are not just effective but simple and long term. It will involve some effort from you but rest assured that it will be worth your time and energy.

Automating your clinic by implementing an efficient Practice Management System is undoubtedly the first step towards building a successful clinic but is it a comprehensive one?

Unarguably, you and the other clinicians at the clinic are the most important reason why the clinic will be successful but you will agree that medical care is not just about clinicians and procedures; medication is an integral part of the equation. Traditionally, the clinician would diagnose and prescribe the medicines, which are bought by the patient at her favorite pharmacy.

With software’s that allow integration of pharmacy with the operations of the clinic, medication can be made an integral part of treating the patient.

Here we take a look at the 5 most important reasons why integrating your pharmacy with your Practice Management System is a good idea:

1. Reduced Risks While Prescribing

Integrating your pharmacy with the Practice Management System at your clinic means you can choose and alter the prescription right at the point of care, which means lowered risks and effective medical care. It is a seamless process, wherein you have the entire inventory of your pharmacy at your disposal on your screen. When in doubt about prescribing a certain drug, after confirming the sensitivity and allergies with the patient, with few clicks you can easily see if it is a high-risk drug or if it can have any counter reaction with any of the medicines that the patient is currently on.

2. Easy Access To Patient Medication Information

Because you are a clinic and not a hospital, most of the medication history will not be available in your software, as they are not administered within your premises. Integrating your pharmacy with your Practice Management System will provide the clinicians with the medication history of the patient with all the past prescriptions, allergies, drug reactions, medication related complaints etc., thereby facilitating better medical decisions.

3. Facilitates Online Prescriptions

Integration between your pharmacy and your Practice Management System means better communication between the clinician and the pharmacy. The clinician can simply select the drugs,she wants the patient to take, from the pharmacy module and it will in effect become an online prescription. As soon as the clinician submits the prescription, the pharmacy will receive the order setting in motion their work even before the patient reaches the pharmacy counter. The communication is clear and immediate, with no handwriting confusion.

4. Easy On The Patient

When the patient gets out of the consultation room to the pharmacy counter, the pharmacy is already aware of her order and has most probably kept it ready. All she needs to do is pay for the medicines, compare them with the prescription and pick up the packet to walk out of the clinic. There is no question of finding a pharmacy nearby or finding a pharmacy where all the prescribed medicines will be available. This will go a long way in higher rankings on the patient satisfaction index.

5. Increased Revenue

In a traditional setup, after the clinician prescribes the medicines it is the patient’s discretion – whether to buy, how much to buy and where to buy from? Integrated pharmacy and practice management system would mean that it is one complete system and revenue leaks owing to the patient’s medicine buying behavior will come to a halt. Higher patient satisfaction owing to this hassle free system will also mean better revenues.

While the process of integrating the pharmacy module to the practice management software does not require high investment or technical hassle, the benefits it brings along is worth the little effort it takes. Looking at these benefits it is definitely an addition you will be happy to make as a doctor who wants to offer the best care for her patients.

7 features that are unique to HIS and essential to the hospital’s performance.

Hospital Information System (HIS) brings along many features, some of them unique to the automated hospital processes. We bring you some of the key features HIS users have experienced and swear by.

1. Need for Speed

As most of the processes in HIS implemented hospitals are automated and since software and servers are hardly ever known to slow down, speed is one constant feature of HIS. The communication between various interlinked departments, the reporting of various tests, the emergency as well as non-emergency communications etc. are speeded up because of HIS and the over all operational efficiency goes up by many notches.

2. Easy Access

Quick and easy access to all data that a particular login allows is a winning feature of HIS. Hospitals generate a lot of data and lots of them are required to be stored, mandatorily as part of legal requirements. This data, which is at times required within seconds, is also crucial in making important treatment decisions. Quick and easy access to this data makes the decisions timely and increases the quality of patient care in the hospital.

3. Plug Revenue Leakage

Automated processes on HIS do not face the fatigue or stress of a human. Once coded and implemented HIS will be practically on autopilotthus further impacting process efficiency positively. With HIS implemented a test or service or drug rate will never be billed wrongly or missed in the hurry of billing quickly for patient discharge. Just selecting the name of the service, test or drug will automatically also select the rate and bill it to the selected patient ID ensuring you don’t leave money on the table

4. Error Free

Another feature that comes along with HIS is minimum human intervention, as most of the processes are automated. After the initial implementation, the processes will run on their own with just the minimum mandatory inputs from employees. This also ensures that there are minimum errors owing to employee faults. Also the manpower can be spared the mundane repetitive tasks and can be utilized in roles that require human intervention mandatorily. Like in a drug chart in IPD module, only entering the name of the drug once (when it is prescribed) is enough. It need not be entered everyday in the records. Just ticking the administration of the drug everyday is enough. The same will be reflected in the drug administration sheet, the sub store etc.

5. Reduced Supervision

Lowermanual activity also means less need for supervision. As most of the processes are automated, the software is coded to perform each task in a certain manner based on the inputs the employee punches in. For example, when a report on bed ratio is needed; the software is coded to generate many reports based on the data that it holds on its server with a few clicks. The software will throw up the requested reports to help you track the metrics that matter to you most.

6. Accountability

HIS comes with logins. Every employee who needs to work on HIS is given an individual login with access controls. Every task happens through logins, only. HIS gives the kind of accountability that manual processes never manage to give.

7. Cost Effective

HIS implementation means less storage space required, less stationary used, manpower can be utilized for other important activities. All these make HIS cost effective and with the improved operational efficiency and resultant quality patient care, it contributes directly toimproved revenues.

To know how other organizations benefited from HIS automation, click here.