An Efficient and Future-proof Hospital Information System (HIS)
Indian Healthcare is experiencing a new opportunity tide and is one of the fastest growing sectors in terms of both revenue and employment. The complete Indian healthcare market is worth approximately US$ 100 billion and is expected to grow to US$ 280 billion by 2020, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22.9 per cent. Out of this, the Healthcare Information Technology (IT) market alone is valued at US$ 1 billion currently and is expected to grow 1.5 times.
Healthcare components includes hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centres, medical equipments, clinical trials, outsourcing, telemedicine, medical tourism, health insurance and related areas. The increased growth in this sector may be attributed to its wide spectrum of coverage, expanding services portfolio and increasing expenditure by public as well private players. To cater to this challenging requirement, healthcare consulting services are needed.
Healthcare Consulting Service (HCS) can be defined as delivery of (administrative and management) services to the healthcare sector in areas such as finance, accounting, marketing, insurance, billing, coding, regulations and compliance and healthcare standards. HCS providers are continuously revamping existing delivery models to bring it closer to its most important stakeholder -'The Patient'.
Each day thousands of patients enter healthcare facilities challenging the smooth flow of the administration .HCS has to manage and integrate clinical, financial and operational information that grows with the practice. Previously, data was organized manually making retrieval time- consuming and less efficient. Today, most professionally run hospitals and clinics now rely on Hospital Information Systems (HIS) that help them manage information.
HIS is essentially a computer system that enables seamless flow of information for effective integration of all clinical, financial, operational, regulatory and administrative applications in hospitals. This is done by collating informational needs of various departments.
Modules
- Hospital Patient Management System(HPMS) for taking care of both inpatients and out patients including systems for registration, admission, medical history, diagnosis, treatment, progress and
- Ward and Bed Management
- Physician Management
- Treatment Management
- Nursing Management
- Medical Services Management including operation theatres, pharmacy and laboratory, radiology and cardiology information systems
- Material Management for both medical and non-medical items
- Pathology Management including appointment scheduling, diagnostic tests and report generation
- Billing Management
With the focus on healthcare strategy changing from fee-for-volume to fee-for-value, it is crucial to have an efficient and future- proof HIS.
Features
- Quick access to reliable digital information including patients related data(demographics, gender, age, disease, diagnosis, treatment etc. ) ,finance systems, medication distribution for monitoring drug usage, patient diet charts by maintaining Electronic Health Records
- User friendly multilingual interfaces
- Facility for training vendors
- Flexible to technology changes
- Affordable and scalable with hospital's growing needs
- Patient-centric and medical-staff centric
- Robust structure incorporating a sustainable reimbursement model for cost coverage
Benefits
- Delivers 'accountable and high quality ' patient care leading to customer delight and enhanced customer experience
- Ensures retention of existing clientele for repeat customers with pre-existing ailments
- Encourages expansion of the customer base for prospective patients using proactive Preventive Health Maintenance approach
- Gives better financial management by portraying transparency ,reducing inventory leakages, minimising costs and increasing operational efficiencies
- Enhances information integrity through web sharing
- Minimises transcription errors
- Reduces duplication of relevant information
- Optimises report turnaround time
- Increases the hospital's brand image and reputation
Challenges
- Scalability from pilot implementations to full-fledged systems
- Interoperability and cooperation between all major stake holders
- Safety of the patient's personal data and other sensitive information
In conclusion, an efficient and future-proof Hospital Information System(HIS) should cater to latest technological advancements, have adequate infrastructure and capability to transition from conventional practices and have a low-cost, fool-proof implementation to provide the ‘best of its kind’ patient centric healthcare!