Considering the fact that healthcare is one of the institutions that require the highest level of accuracy and security, it is only fair that hospitals and health clinics be the first in a row in the race towards digitization that has come in trend with the advent of technology.
The need for digitization has been further confirmed by the spread of Covid-19 and the resulting demand for telemedicine.
If you are a medical practitioner or hospital manager looking to upgrade to digital medical practice, here are a few things you can do.
- Mobile healthcare solutions
In a time where people hesitate to visit hospitals or health centers for the fear of contracting the virus, it is important to have a mobile app that delivers the services offered by your hospitals remotely.
This helps both patients and staff save time and expenses, and achieve a better work-life balance. Such an app also enables you to enhance the quality of doctor-patient interactions, thereby improving the overall patient experience.
If not for a mobile application that offers all services online, a digital portal where patients can book for their physical appointments instead of appearing in person just for the sake of booking, pay their medical bills through UPI and other gateways, access their medical records, check their status in a virtual queue, etc. can make a huge difference.
These steps would minimize human interaction and ensure social distancing and the following of Covid protocols.
- Electronic Health Records (EHR)
EHR technology can be used to systematically collect your patients’ health information and store it in an organized digital archive where it is accessible to the required medical staff. It reduces clinical errors, thereby enhancing the quality of patient care, facilitates integrated care, and reduces the time and money spent on purchasing and managing paper records.
It reduces the work of manual data entry, formats data for the purpose of analysis so that it is compatible with any information system within the hospital.
- Hospital Management Systems
Fully automating your clinic or hospital can take your institution a long way ahead. A hospital management system would have separate modules that deal with patient administration, clinical procedures, finance, pharmacy, inventory, and many others.
Hospital management systems are mission-critical and act as the backbone of a healthcare provider. They offer seamless integrations of applications, medical devices, and HIE, which in turn enhance the quality of work throughout your practice.
- Wearable gadgets
The most useful part of digitizing your medical practice is that you have access to real-time data on the health status of your patients. Wearable EEG and healthcare monitors are a few gadgets regularly used for achieving this. They send the data directly to the doctor or medical staff and also store it in the records, thereby eliminating the time wasted on manual entry of patient data.
Digitizing your medical practice can be a difficult task. It can disrupt the workflow of your hospital or clinic, if only for a limited amount of time, and require your staff to learn the skills required to operate the new gadgets. Here are two things to keep in mind as you begin the transition.
- Digitizing your practice does not eliminate the risk of security breaches in your data from third-party sources. Make sure you take measures to encrypt and anonymize patient data. If you are planning to take the help of third-party organizations or software, make sure they are compliant with government-imposed regulations.
- Make sure the software and gadgets you install integrate with the existent technology to ensure the smooth running of your hospital. If you are getting a customized product built from scratch, make sure your vendor is familiar with the technology that you presently use.
Insta offers an all-in-one cloud-based hospital management system that streamlines your operations and boosts your productivity. We support Medical Device and HIE Integrations (Malaffi, Nabidh, Riayati) using HL7 technology and have APIs that enable us to connect with other third-party applications in the ecosystem.
Want to know more? Book now for a free demo!
Arun Joseph Varghese on December 18, 2021