This post will help you understand the benefits of using a Clinic Management System.
A Clinic Management System is a software system that allows efficient functioning of a clinic through the use of software. While selecting a clinic software is an important decision, you still need to understand first what a clinic management system does.
Patient Registration
This is the most basic activity carried by a Clinic Management Software. In this, either the Doctor or their staff would register a patient for the first time the patient visits the clinic. In the subsequent visit, the patient would be searched based on name, Unique ID, phone number and so on. Some softwares also send a Welcome SMS to the patient’s mobile number upon initial registration thereby forming a smart impression about the clinic.
Appointment Booking
Doctors who have appointment based practice would require this feature. Some softwares offer appointment booking directly by the patients, others offer appointment booking via the staff or the Doctors themselves.
Patient Record Management / Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Clinic Management System cannot be complete without this important feature. This feature helps Doctors to store patient’s record in software and retrieve it later for future use. Intelligent softwares make great use of stored data by helping Doctors take better decisions with the stored data. Examples include, copying a previous prescription to repeat in case of chronic patients. Here, Doctors won’t have to retype the prescription again. Doctors don’t need to remember conditions of patients, their past visit dates, frequency if data is stored in software. Doctors can simply look at the data presented and enter a new treatment plan based on available details. This frees the Doctors from remembering pesky case details over a long period of time and instead use technology to their advantage.
Printed Prescriptions
Printing prescriptions is another important feature of a clinic management system. Many clinic management systems offer prescriptions to be printed on Doctors letter heads, plain paper using logos of clinic and in the language the patient can understand. Here are some sample printed prescriptions printed using MyOPD Clinic Management System. These prescriptions offer clear advantages over written prescriptions because
- They are easier to read
- No matter the Doctor is tired or busy, the quality of the prescription print will always remain the same
- Important vitals printed on the prescription as charts offer great feedback to the patient to understand the importance of treatment.
- You can decide what to print and what to leave out
- Doctors can print the Rx in language they don’t know as the software does the translation. This results in patient delight!
- They can be shared over WhatsApp or be emailed to the patient.
Print Certificates
As a part of consultation, Doctors have to issue Medical Certificates, Fitness Certificates, Referral Letters, Hospital Admit Letters and so on. A clinic Management System allows Doctors to print them with ease and give the clinic a professional outlook.
Clinic Billing
Modern clinics have complete transparency in the way they function. This includes giving receipts of payment to the patient. A good clinic management system will also have billing module as a part of its functionality. With the help of billing module, adminstrators can keep a record of charges for various services like Consultation, Nebulization, ECG, X-Ray, Vaccinations and so on. The patient would get and itemized receipt of payment for the charges incurred. Modern clinics would also allow patients to pay via various methods like Debit Cards / Credit Cards / QR codes and so on. Clinic Management systems could integrate these payment methods so that the payment is tracked once the patient pays.
Automated SMS Reminders
Most of the clinic managment systems have built in automated SMS reminder system. These systems do the daily job of sending SMS to the patient’s mobile number based on the date of appointment, date of follow-up and so on. This greatly reduces the burden of reminder calls on the clinic’s staff as well as increases the patient follow-up rate. Patient’s also do not miss important check-up dates based on reminders set by the Doctor.
Analytical Reports
Doctors need to know how the clinic is functioning. Analytical reports do that job. Here is an example: Let’s say a patient visits the clinic and turns out to be Covid +ve later. It is important to know which other patients visited aroud the same time as this patient, as a part of contact tracing. Reports like these help you function better. Doing this without a clinic management system would be really hard work.
Hope we have explained the important points of a Clinic Management System.
If you have hesitation about whether you start using one, read the article Should I start using a Clinic Management System?