Categories of Healthcare Apps

• Emergency Care Apps: Recommend nearest and most effective care destination to patients in the event of emergencies. May also provide information about waiting times, routes, insurance possibilities, approximate treatment costs and travel times.
• Wayfinding/Guiding Apps: Aid patients in quickly finding concerned departments, physicians and other concerned medical staff in healthcare destinations.
• Pregnancy and Childbirth Apps: Help parents especially mothers to schedule and track their appointments. Also provides education on pre-natal, post-natal and newborn care.
• Hospital Apps: Apps used to aid hospital marketing, branding and advertising. It also gives details about services and facilities available, shows virtual tour demos and provides general hospital information.
• Outpatient Care Apps: Guide patients about their health status, helps to monitor it and increases adherence to prescribed treatment plans. These apps also have treatment trackers for managing diagnostic results and care procedures.
• Appointment and Referral Apps: Facilitates speedy appointment bookings and referral processes thereby boosting doctor-patient relationships.
• Wellness Apps: Educates and helps patients to monitor their well-being with health trackers, exercise schedules, nutrition/diet recommendations and health tips.
• Medication Tracking Apps: Encourages adherence to prescribed medications by tracking doses, intervals, meals and also provides reminders for immunization and re-stocking drugs.

Desirable App Features

1. Possessing relevant functionality  based on patient requirements and demands
2. Having a pleasant and user-friendly interface
3. Aiding  staff training for better application implementation and adoption
4. Promoting  its usage by leveraging marketing strategy and social media

Healthcare App Benefits

• Provide complete transparency to patients by informing waiting times and even allows them to select the nearest suitable healthcare facility with shortest waiting times in crisis situations.
• Gives access to right information in a time of need thereby answering patient concerns and eliminating ambiguity. Example:Online ’What to expect’ booklets for pregnant mothers.
• Bridges the emotional gap with patient empowerment by involving patient in decision making, goal setting and self-monitoring and bringing them closer to medical staff.
• Enables chronically ill patients to take control of their own health with easy usability and connects them with caregivers for any issues thereby promoting early medical intervention.
• Offers splendid digital experience with quick 24/7 access to healthcare information. It also intimates patients about special discounts, healthcare packages and offers, sends personalized messages and collects feedback which in turn fosters better patient relationship management.

1. NABH has imposed standards for hospitals from two perspectives - patient and organization that varies with the size of the hospital and health care provider
2. Patient centric standards include AAC (Access, Assess and Continuity of care), COP (Continuity of Care), MOM (Management of Medication), PRE (Patients Right to Education) and HIC (Hospital Infection Control).
3. Organization centric standards include CQI (Continuous Quality Improvement), ROM (Responsibility of Management), FMS (Facility Management and Safety), HRM (Human Resource Management), IMS (Information Management System).

• In-patients procedures
• Out-patients procedures
• Procurement of medicines,  medical equipment including surgical equipment and maintaining adequate inventory to meet  ad hoc requirements
• Treatment procedures for in patient and outpatients
• Core committee framework to monitor clinical and managerial processes
• Periodic review meetings - To ensure continuous process improvement through key performance indicators.
• Quality standards have been imposed even for the waiting time for outpatients with regards to consultation and admission formalities for  in-patients
• Medication and treatment procedures should be documented for all cases
• ICU procedures and surgical procedures done should be documented with pre surgery and post surgery details for all cases
• Periodic clinical audits should be conducted.
• Dedicated complaint and grievance cell should be designated to address the grievance and complaints from patients
• Committee to follow up grievance addressed and resolved should be set up.
• Safety guidelines for employees and patients should be ensured at times of accidents and emergencies by the dedicated patients’ safety committee.
• Clinical risk committee should function monitoring and correcting clinical errors. Usually administrators, doctors and nurses are the core participants.
• There are specific guidelines for even needle pricks and anaesthetic procedures. Non-compliance with medical guidelines should be strictly prohibited and penalized
• Records proving rectifications in cases of errors occurred or quality guidelines violation, should be maintained for audit
• Quality standards are incorporated for wards and rooms in terms of size, facilities, hygiene, nutritional diets, planned nursing procedures etc.,
• Proper clinical disposal procedures should be practiced to avoid infections to patients and neighbourhood promoting environmental safety as clinical waste are serious health hazards

• Leads to customer loyalty
• Enhanced patient retention i.e. satisfying a single customer can reach approximately reach up to four
• Can command higher price without losing their profit
• Constant profitability
  Improved staff morale with fewer staff proceeds which direct to increased productivity
• Decrease of malpractice risks
• Quickly tackle accreditation issues
• Enhance both personal and professional contentment

• Telephone Service – Smart and intelligent person to handle calls with a good practice of voice to help doctors with the additional calls during their professional work.

• Office Appearance – Design it aesthetically with the well-furnished item and as well make it properly spaced with good interiors.

• Waiting Time – Patients expect to see the doctor as early as possible. The waiting period should be as less as possible.

• Patient-Doctor Relations – Satisfaction of the patient can increase based on the inter-personal skills of the physician.

• Patient Edification – Clear their doubts with more tolerance and kindness. Be proactive while knowing concerns and be informative while advising.

• Crisis Handling – Hospital infrastructure and aspects should be easily accessible and patient friendly.