Hospital management system (HMS) or Hospital management information system (HMIS) is an element of medical informatics solutions that focuses mainly on the administration needs of hospitals. An HMS is a computer or web-based application that manages the functioning of an entire hospital. This customizable integrated system is designed to manage all the operations of the hospital, such as administration, patient details, medical history of the patient, appointment booking, inventory management, billing, bed management, drug management, revenue management, Electronic Medical record (EMR)and so on.
Hospital Management Systems of multiple branches of the same hospital have to be integrated so that if a patient consults a doctor in a different branch, their medical history can be retrieved easily. HMS should provide secure storage of data and a cloud-based solution to access it from anywhere at any time.
HMS is essential for all healthcare establishments, be it hospitals, nursing homes, health clinics, rehabilitation centres, dispensaries, or clinics. The main goal is to computerise all the details regarding the patient and the hospital. The installation of this healthcare software results in improvement in administrative functions and hence better patient care, which is the prime focus of any healthcare unit.
Benefits of implementing a hospital management system:
- Appointment booking
- Helps patients cut the long queue and saves their time
- Is equipped with features like automated email and text message reminders
- Role-Based Access Control
- Allows employees to access only the necessary information to effectively perform their job duties
- Increases data security and integrity
- Overall cost reduction
- Cuts down paper costs as all the data are computerised
- No separate costs for setting up physical servers
- Data accuracy
- Removes human errors
- Alerts when there’s a shortage of stock
- Data security
- Helps to keep patients records private
- Restricts access through role-based access control
- Revenue management
- Makes daily auditing simple
- Helps with statistics and other financial aspects