PATIENT CARE MANAGEMENT

Preamble

Globally, the healthcare institutions – hospitals, clinics, etc – face a huge challenge in managing their patients for better care.  With added stress on the clinical system due to the pandemic – treatment, post care, vaccine management etc – health institutions need to innovate to sustain their operations for the future.

In that context, giving a quality patient care is very important – when the healthcare industry becomes a commercial establishment and the patients are consumers. Patients today in a country like India demand better amenities, precise information and faster turnaround like any other industry. The people servicing from the other side of the table always face the wrath of the management who aims to provide quality patient care. However, if the people who is supposed to deliver fails to understand in a Hospital environment – most of the times due to their inherent human nature, then achieving this goal post will be challenge. Human element, which is prone to fatigue, but technologies can complete the people who work on the floor to ensure sustained patient care.

Many clinics and hospitals are considering automating their manual systems in order to treat a large number of patients in a short period of time. By automation, most of the times, patients and their relatives are relieved the trouble of following up with clinical and administrative staff of the Hospitals/Clinics – if the options are given to them. For deploying the automation, a good Hospital Information Management System (HIMS) comes into play.

One of the primary goals of the HIMS is to improve patient care; however, HIMS has only helped the hospitals and clinics, not patients – as it helps the institutions to improve the process, systems, have better control on operations, digitize the health records etc. But the final outcome of all these should result in improving the patient care which also needs equal attention from the Management.

Let us look at some of the perennial problems faced by patients today:

• Delay in registration, making payments
• Appointment selection and confirmation
• Patients need options to choose the doctors of their choice
• Guidance for patients to search for services in the hospital – like directions, etc
• Choice of room selection, getting a bill estimate, etc
• Delay in getting the reports, discharge papers, etc

Let us understand some of the tools for automation that could improve patient engagement and care

Integrating HIMS with Hospital websites

Hospitals’ own websites can feature appointment booking functionality for patients. Patients can schedule consultations for the doctors of their choice, online and pay consultation fees through a secured payment gateway on the hospital’s website with ease. This access can be integrated to HIMS or provisioned in the Patient Portal of the Hospital.

Integrating with KIOSKS

Kiosk is a great tool for constant patient engagement and an excellent platform self service. The hospitals will be able to save lots of time of the key staff and thus the costs by providing self-servicing experience to the patients with little to no human intervention if HIMS and kiosks are integrated.

For example, paper check-ins at the front desk are a hassle for everyone – be it patients, staff who are already crowded with mundane tasks and other admin personnel for following up. It takes a while for patients as well, who like to consult doctors of their choice in a routine manner without any hassles. Check-in kiosks speed up and streamline the procedure, resulting in lower wait times and a better patient experience.

Patient check-in kiosks make it easier to retrieve/access important patient data, as already mentioned. You can download your reports your mobile/email a copy of the same through a secured access and authentication

Besides, kioks can be deployed at vantage points in a large hospital to guide the patients/relatives to locate the services, places, rooms etc with ease. This again can be through a secure authenticated platform. For example, patients mobile numbers can be used to validate the request and process.  This will ease up the crowding in front office/enquiry thus saving time.

Finally patients/dependants can make the payments through Kiosks or get an estimate of the bill. This will ease the billing department to a larger extent and also ensure zero compliance when delivering a service/discharge etc.

Patient Portal

Rather than waiting in long lines to be registered and paid, patients can simply login to the patient portal, get registered, and use the payment gateway to make the payments from the comfort of their home.

They can not only register and pay, but they can also get appointments without having to walk into hospitals or call hospital executives, check the availability of their desired doctors without having to visit the hospital, order the services that they require, and finally, view the results of lab tests that have undergone.

Thanks to features like grouping, which brings the entire family’s health records under one credential, patients can access the health records of each of their family members without having to sign out every time.

Above all, patient portals notify them of their review dates and bill dates if they have chosen to pay bills in instalments.

Hospitals are recommended to have their own Patient Portal Mobile App to cater to the above services.

Whats App/ SMS integration

Hospitals can integrate WhatsApp and SMS service providers to push automatic notifications from its hospital management system to patients’ mobile devices to keep them informed of various services like:-

Patient side

• Appointment confirmation/reminders
• Results readiness notification
• Pushing the results through short URL service for download
• Payment notifications with payment link

Doctor side

• Reminders/Alerts for appointments
• Alerts on clinical data on regular intervals

For Management & Staff

• This alert /notification can be set up for any service/request which would improve patient care/engagement
• Duty alerts
• Reminders on Purchases/service messages etc
• SOS alerts
• SMART WRSITBANDS WITH IOT

As patients enter hospitals through the main entrance, they may be handed IOT-enabled smart bracelets. Wearable bracelets, for instance, can monitor a patient’s breathing, temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and other vital signs so that doctors can check on them from a distance.

This also helps the Hospitals to find out the whereabouts of the Patients inside the hospital so that they can be reached out quickly and serviced.  

Conclusion:

It is obvious that the aforementioned aspects will have a big impact on hospital management activities like preventing hospital infections, creating a thorough plan for patient education, handling emergencies, and logistical systems.

We appreciate you taking the time and patience to read this document. If you require more information, feel free to contact our sales team using the details provided below.

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