When compared to other industries, the healthcare sector is improving, with the help of advanced technologies like the Hospital Management System (HMS). The current medical care computerization is being hampered due to a lack of a perfect interface between computers and medical care providers.

The two main issues that are commonly faced during implementation of an HMS are as follows

1. HMS implementation begins but the users start facing issues by the end

This is generally due to the inflexibility of the HMS software, a weak administrative will, and an inexperienced team for implementation.

2. HMS implementation gets completed, but only a single part of the functionality gets implemented

This is due to non-user-friendly software or unplanned and unconfigured executions.

Pre-Implementation Assessment:

All hospital administrators who implement the HMS software in their hospitals will be apprehensive that the process may end in a partial or complete failure and measures should be taken early in order to prevent such an event from happening. The software should be well assessed before being purchased by the hospital.

Software Assessment:

Choosing the right kind of software is one of the crucial and primary steps for getting the best results.

Earlier, all HMS Software had a single development cycle starting with a single hospital being computerized by a local developer for a single hospital. However, this type of HMS development is outdated. In such cases, there is a risk of the vendor providing software that was customized for a different hospital. Implementing them may cause various issues, and it may cost more in the long run. It's better to purchase the software from a firm, that specializes in hospital management software than getting any software company to design software for your hospital.

It's better to choose software that is easy to upgrade, scalable, and not hardware intensive. Cloud-based online software is better than offline software in these aspects. The providers could also easily fix any errors or bugs in the case of online software.

Another aspect to be considered is to check if the customization of the software is done primarily through programming code or by using master tables during implementation. Hospitals may require some form of alteration to the purchased software, so as to better suit their needs, and in the case of master tables, such changes may easily be made by the hospital itself. In the case of online software, this may not matter much, as maintenance and support are provided by the software provider.

Vendor Assessment:

Only a few vendors of international or national repute can be trusted easily. A drawback with a large vendor is that they don’t always accommodate the requirements of small hospitals. In the case of small vendors, the hospital administrators may have to do thorough research to see if they are trustworthy.

An important aspect to be known is whether the current implementation team will be available during the entire implementation cycle. Checking the attrition rate of the software company, and discussions with other hospital administrators may give you an idea about this.

Visits to Hospitals with Hospital Management Systems:

A well-planned visit to hospitals where the software has been implemented will give you insights on the performance of the software, the support provided by the vendor, and if the vendor has achieved all the goals that were initially planned. To get a good picture, it's better to visit hospitals like your own, in terms of capacity, number of specialties, and number of departments, as well as hospitals that have implemented the software that you are considering. This will give you an idea, not only about the trustworthiness of the vendor but also about how well the software will be suited to your hospital.

Discussions with hospital administrators who have previously implemented the software in their hospitals will also give you good insights on the possible difficulties you may face during the implementation process, and on how to overcome them.

Getting your Hospital ready:

Problems may arise in HMS implementation, due to issues within the hospital. The lack of a systematic and uniform workflow within all the departments in the hospital may make the implementation process difficult. Information regarding the various equipment used, tests performed, schedules of doctors in different departments, etc must be readily available so that it can easily be imported into the system.

An important aspect is the cooperation of the various end-users, that is, the hospital employees. They have to provide enough awareness of the usefulness and importance of implementing the HMS software. The implementation may put additional stress on the employees until they get used to the system, and this may hamper the efforts of the hospital administration.

HMS implementation begins with a pre-implementation phase, in which software is chosen and the hospital prepares for the change, followed by the implementation phase and the post-implementation phase, in which the final kinks are ironed out. The whole process could be made smooth with a thorough pre-implementation phase.

Choosing software that is well suited to your hospital, having clearly defined workflows, and complete information about the working of the hospital will help you to easily implement the HMS in your hospital. Having a good team, and ensuring the cooperation of the hospital employees would help the hospital achieve its goals with the HMS.

Inspiring patients to reach your hospital is not easy. It is significant to raise your patient base if you think you have to bring justice to all the pennies you have invested in your hospital. Effectively marketing your hospital can help you to bring much profit. You need to make sure that the marketing you do for your hospital should not be controlled by sales support or brand building. The important thing is that you need to make a positive connection with the terms of your patients.

Hospital Marketing has seen a tremendous change over the past few years, and some medical facilities are making use of hotel-like comforts to pamper and attract potential patients. In this blog, we will deal with the useful tips you can follow for marketing your hospital. 

Create a responsive website: 

The most important thing every patient does while choosing a hospital is that they go entirely through the website unless and until your hospital is located nearby to their location. Significantly, you make a responsive website with useful health information rather than build a website that displays information about your team or hospital. It would be good if you listed healthcare information so that patients themselves can take care of their families and themselves during an urgency. 

Make use of SEO: 

9 out of 10 people look for affordable or best hospitals online and know about the hospital, the doctor's availability, and other related information before merely visiting it. If you need to get listed while you search for the best healthcare clinic or practices, you need to make sure to use the power of SEO. The content editor and web developer focus on the effective keywords for your hospital to be listed at the top of the search engine results. You can hire an experienced SEO consultant and make the process more productive, more comfortable, and affordable. 

Ensure your patients say Wow on your healthcare:

Branding is not just what you say about yourself to your customers. It's something that the patient or people say about you and your healthcare. Improve patient care, and make sure they keep your healthcare and treatment in mind for a long time. Ensure to provide them with attention and care so that they will speak for you and recommend you to their friends and family members too. Word of Mouth is the crucial thing you need to focus on. 

Showcase your positives:

Show up your excellent work through videos, patient stories, testimonials, etc. on LCDs in your hospital waiting for areas so that people and patients visiting your website or hospital will come to know about you. Also, don't forget to post on social media, and talk about breakthrough treatments in conferences, public forums, and interviews. 

Use Social Media effectively:

Social Media is one of the essential ways through which you can make everything possible. Social media websites like Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, Linkedin, and Pinterest, can effectively improve the number of patients visiting your hospital as well as those is the best place where you can create brand awareness by choosing the targeted audiences and attracting them to visit your clinic. 

Utilize Internal Marketing too:

Every employee in your hospital is the spokesperson. Grab your HR head to make use of it, create the experience of the employees at your clinics, and make them say positive things about the hospital. 

Shoot Emails:

Emails are an efficient and powerful thing when it comes to marketing. Make sure your company's IT team maintains the email list of subscribers and shares relevant and positive information emails regarding the illness of the patient. It indicates that you have proper care for your patients even after they leave your hospital. Maintaining a good and effective relationship and communication with high-value, helpful, and useful information is key to developing a powerful hospital brand. 

Bottom Line: 

Show your society and patients in general that you have excellent care about their well-being and health. Also, show them you do not need them to go to a stage where they don't want to go to the hospital next time.

For More details Visit MocDoc Hospital Information System.

When searching for software, almost everyone looks for free ones. If you simply type in the name of any random software, you’ll probably see a google autocomplete suggestion “free download”. In some cases, it does make a lot of sense in using free software. Why pay for something when you can get it for free? 

Searches for downloading free EMR software have increased with government legislation mandating their use in hospitals. Let us look into why this is a bad idea.

If you’re not paying for it, you’re the product

As a general rule, nobody ever gives you something for free. As economists would say, “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product”. In the case of most free software, this is the case. Recently it was found that most of the free antivirus apps in the Google Play store actually did nothing. Their purpose? Probably to collect data from your device. This may not affect an average person very much, but if you’re concerned about privacy, you should probably stay away from these software. And when you’re dealing with a hospital management software, this is a key aspect. Data security is a very important aspect especially when you handle patient data. A data leak, however small has the potential to damage the reputation of your hospital. 

Lack of accountability

A hospital management system has to have certain qualifications that assure you that a particular software can fit your needs. When you purchase a software, it is possible for you to verify if these software fit the criteria. But when you download a software for free, there is no way for you to be sure if these software fit the criteria. And since there is no monetary transaction between you and the software provider, it will be difficult to hold them accountable. 

The lack of accountability will be an issue if the software faces any glitches. If the software crashes, customer support is not provided for the system, and you will be on your own. A software glitch in a free android app may be annoying, and will not cause any huge problems even if is not resolved. In case of a hospital, the software handles sensitive patient information and a software glitch can compromise this data, and with no tech support from the providers, it can cause a lot of problems. 

Upgrades? Nope

As government regulations change, and as the technology improves, you may face the need for a better software. If you’re relying on a free software for very important tasks, such as managing your hospital, you may find yourself stuck with an old software. Free software rarely provide any upgrades for long durations. And when you want an upgrade, you may find yourself searching for a new software, and you’ll have to import the existing data into the new software which will require additional resources. 

The story of the open source software

A commonly trusted free software are the open source software. Ubuntu is an example of an open source software. They are usually made by developers across the world, and their source code is available for free, and you’re free to change or modify the code as you wish. Since the source code is available for everyone, it is unlikely that the software can have malicious intents. And as long as the developers continue to improve the software, it will remain up to date with the required features. Open source software appears to offer a very good deal, and they do, in the case of most of the software. But in the case of a hospital management system, it is never a good idea to use an open source software. This is because of a combination of reasons discussed above. First of all, there are no hospital management software with the kind of community that a software like Ubuntu has. If you face any issues, you’re on your own. In the case of popular softwares, there may be forums in which users can discuss issues, and they may get resolved. But for a hospital management software, there are no such forums, and when you’re managing a hospital, you cannot afford to wait for a solution that may never come. And as we discussed, updates will be available for open source software only as long as the developers are working on the project.

What about the free trials?

If you have been looking for free HMS downloads, you may have come across many SaaS healthcare software companies offering lite or trial versions of their software for free, or maybe the complete version of their software, but for a limited time period. These software are generally secure and will be much more robust than software from other software providers. They may even offer regular updates. But remember that these trial versions are just for that. They will be severely limited in their capabilities, and you will definitely have to upgrade at some point. And the providers may not provide tech support if you’re using the free version. But they do provide an easy way to evaluate a software and if available, they serve as a demo for the complete version. 

Lack of customization

Generally across hospitals, or even across departments, there is no uniform workflow. Each department head has their own workflows, and this is the reason why hospital management systems are highly customized. However such customization is not at all possible in a hospital management system, and if implemented, could affect the functioning of the hospital and may prove to be counterproductive. 

To know more about hospital management software, visit MocDoc Hospital Information System.

 

• Awareness of HMS's advantages & importance.
• In general, Experience and knowledge of using computer applications.
• Impressions and Beliefs regarding HMS and making use of them efficiently.

• There is a shortage of professional healthcare faculty with in-depth knowledge of HMS and other similar technologies.
• Poor acceptance of HMS Software.
• Lack of health informatics professionals capable of establishing and implementing the techniques.

• Healthcare specialists nature,
• the lack of time allowed for training and learning on making use of the HMS,
• the lack of healthcare professional support, motivation, and more.

• Networks and computers have different maintenance problems.
• Lack of standards for Data entry and retrieval.
• Difficulties in training users technically to use HMS.