Even the smallest hospitals are massive operations that service hundreds, if not thousands of patients in both inpatient and outpatient services. Each of these patients has a chart, paperwork and billing information. All this information can be difficult for hospital administrators to manage, particularly as it involves bringing together and collecting data from healthcare departments (such as doctors, nurses, and pharmacists) and administrative departments (such as billing). In the past, this data was reported using paper (either printouts or even handwritten charts) and organized manually. As you can imagine, this took a lot of time and effort not to mention a lot of administrative employees.
Luckily, the advent of technology has allowed hospitals to organize their data electronically using Hospital Management System. Hospital Management System is a computer system dedicated to managing all your hospital’s information from billing information to medical procedures. This can help you organize your hospital in many ways, including:
Assist You in Determining Staffing Needs
It makes sense to take into account what procedures your hospital performs most often and staff those departments appropriately so that your patients have quick and easy access to them.
For example, if your hospital lives in an area with a lot of traumatic injuries, you may want to consider turning your hospital into a Level II Trauma Center or I; this would necessitate hiring a dedicated trauma surgeon. Conversely, if your hospital serves a large number of pregnant women (or those in active labor) you should consider hiring more gynecologists or nurses specially trained to assist in birth and child emergencies. You can also analyze the times during the day when your hospital has the most patients (and in which departments). This ensures that your emergency department doesn’t become overwhelmed or that your critical patients don’t have to wait for things such as CT scans, X-Rays and MRI’s.
Assist You in Determining Demographics
Just like knowing the procedures you perform most often can help you determine where to staff, knowing your patient’s demographics can help you expand and plan your hospital. Demographics can be broken down by age, sex or even race. From a purely physical expansion perspective, knowing the demographics of your patients can help you choose which buildings to expand. Also, if you are building an office extension to your hospital, knowing the most likely services your patients will need can help you court which physicians to rent your space to (and affiliate your hospital’s services with). Just as they can keep track of your standard procedures, Hospital Management System can keep track of your hospitals demographic information.
Provide Researchers With Valuable Data
Everyone wants to make hospitals better, and one of the best ways to do that is giving researchers and medical boards access to your hospital’s treatment data. In essence, this allows these individuals to determine which drugs and treatments are more or less effective with a particular medical condition. This gives “hard evidence” of what is going on in the field rather than simply in testing labs and facilities; over time, this “hard evidence” can lead to procedural changes or different treatment options more likely to give the patient a better outcome. A hospital administration system can monitor patient results and send data directly to researchers, eliminating the need for someone to go through the patient charts looking for results (which is also an HIPPA violation).
Reduces Duplication Errors
Traditional records kept with folders and paper are difficult to keep track of-papers have a tendency of getting lost or left in patient rooms. This can lead to everything from annoyance to doctors not knowing what tests or medications have been administrated. Worse, when a new doctor or nurse comes on shift, they may not have an accurate picture of what has been done-and if the chart isn’t right in front of them, may issue a new order based upon incomplete information. A hospital information system eliminates this by allowing doctors and nurses instant access to patient records directly from a computer. This includes access to previous orders and medication administration records, meaning that there won’t be any duplication errors.
Eliminates Handwriting Errors
Everyone makes jokes about doctor’s handwriting, but the truth of the matter is that poor writing, doctor’s or not, can harm patients. Since many conditions and medications are spelled similarly, poor handwriting on a doctor’s part can cause the wrong treatment or medication (or medication dosage) to be administered. This can cause major health problems and complications that can not only harm the patient but can also leave your doctors and hospital liable. Since Hospital Management System are computer based, when a doctor enters a medication or treatment order, they do so via keyboard-eliminating potentially harmful mistakes due to handwriting errors.
Lost Hospital Stock
Whether it’s medication or bed sheets, your hospital can’t afford to run out at the wrong time. A health information system can keep track of all your hospital’s stores and quickly alert your procurement manager when they reach a low level (which you decide based on the needs of your hospital). Your purchasing manager can then order new supplies before your stores are depleted.
eHospital Systems by Adroit is an NABH compliant, comprehensive, integrated hospital management system software designed to manage all the aspects of a hospital operation, such as medical, administrative, financial, and legal and the corresponding service processing.
Adroit Infosystems Pvt. Ltd. is one of the best Healthcare Product Development and IT consulting company providing full-spectrum software product development services to enterprises worldwide. They’ve been in business since 1998.
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