Information Technology Orientation For Starting Hospital Administrators

Information technology and computer science tools are definitely the most rapidly growing segment of the world ecosystem. The development in the sector permeates every human activity; social, economic, cultural, religious, political, professional, personal and healthcare. Information technology has radically altered the way many people work and think. Information Technology has made a significant difference to the Quality and Standards of Life. Learning some of the common IT application an individual can carry out any activity of your work life simpler and easier.

There is a rising awareness about the need for better healthcare in India. The demand for healthcare is growing with the increasing affordability of Indian middle class, a new breed of patients have emerged with enhanced expectations for better quality of healthcare, both patients and doctors exposed to international healthcare setting demand more, number of insurance players playing a key role, net savvy population, more number of independent hospitals have made the healthcare market more competent and complex.

Over the years, technology has touched a new zenith and now it is not constrained to developed countries. Developing countries such as India have kept pace with the world in modern technology. Healthcare professionals can no longer disregard the application of information technology to healthcare because they are key elements for competing in complex healthcare competition.

The major component that can give an edge in terms of patient care and effective decision making is IT support. Today's corporate hospitals compete on the basis of the technology with investment in it being the major benchmark.

Technology in healthcare has brought better therapeutic & diagnostics delivery of services,  integration to various components of large healthcare providing entity, very similar to that of any other sector like manufacturing and banking sectors. Healthcare IT has huge potential in India as the hospital are emerging, growing up and healthcare workers want to upgrade.

When a fresh post graduate with medical and non medical background entering in the market searching for a job in the healthcare administration side with little or no knowledge on IT, he has to be a part of  following job codes

Job code 1 He joins an ongoing cooperate hospitals that has an established IT infrastructure, enterprise wide software and a well integrated system. The hospitals have already invested heavily on IT applications and using them successfully, the expectations from a fresher to perform in the new setting are high. To deal with this situation the fresher should be oriented with basic operational domain knowledge as well as trained by application specialist.

Job code 2  When a fresh post graduate joins a hospital from the scratch (for a new hospital which is in the inception/ setting up stage). The fresh post graduate has to plan, coordinate, budget, execute, install, and train the employees, built an entire IT system for a new hospital for which he should have a sound knowledge of IT application in his post graduation as a core subject.

Job code 3 When a fresh post graduate joins a consultancy and suppose the consultancy is working on an IT project for an established hospital or a new hospital. The fresh post graduate has to work with IT vendors and make a decision regarding the IT infrastructure. He has to plan, budget, execute, install, and train the employees built an entire IT plan for a new hospital and act as a facilitator, catalyst as a change agent

Job code 4 When a fresh post graduate has mobilized enough funds to start his own hospital as the owner he has to make a  tough decision regarding  IT infrastructure .He  should know his budget, requirement and growth prospect .He can plan the entire schedule by himself or take the help of  IT consultant

Job code 5 This is the toughest of all the jobs codes, you are working with existing software and reported some modifications either want to add new features or replace it you have been assigned this duty to select , administer , execute, train, budget the entire program( he has to act as a change agent, motivate the staff and convince the management ). It is very risky. The individual may have little or no knowledge of new technology and application. The success of the project depends up on you which involves time, money and efforts.

What Are The Software Options?

As a fresh post graduate who is in the future going to be an administrator should understand few basic principals about IT software either to go for (Build software vs. Buy software) or (Make decision vs. Buy decision). This is the most important and curtail of all the decision of IT infrastructure.

If it is Make decision then it is development of software in house which follows SDLC (System Development Life Cycle)

If it is Buy decision then checking out your hospital requirements, listing out various vendors who supply readymade software product on contract bases, evaluate their features, select the best from the available, install the software, train the employees with application specialist, have a backend support with vendor.

Basic Check List Elements

Check list 1    The first responsibility that the administrator has is to ensure is that the software which is being used has an End-User-Licensing-Agreement. It should not be pirated one

Check list 2 The administrator should instruct the IT manager to have all the detailed about hardware, software, number of computers, date of manufacturing, their warranty period, when was the annual maintenance contract renewal (AMC), when is it to be renewed and so on. This all should be maintained as a hard and soft copy.

Check list 3 The administrator should instruct the IT manager to have total control over the network, support your system with a good firewall which scans each piece of data that goes out or comes in, a good antivirus with daily updates with Malware and spam mail options, a sound multi-level authorisation to ensure what data is viewed only by authorised personal. Site-blocker software should be installed which blocks illegal browsing sites.

Check list 4 A sound backup and recovery program is very important. (Offsite backup is preferred).

Check list 5 Check the various insurance options for IT which include (Insurance for the entire hardware and software installed in the system and even the user is supposed to be insured. (If you are not aware of the insurance policy then hire an insurance broker)

Check list 6 Plan the IT– infrastructure by seeing the existing workload, technology up gradation etc. A definite amount of budget should be allocated to the IT- Manager. A maintenance budget and an operational budget

Check list 7 Regular training programs should be conducted for the new employees, as well as for the existing ones. Eemployee feedback should be taken about IT and evaluated by the administrator and IT manager.

Check list 8 An easy to navigate, light, perfect, interactive website or portal should be maintained by hospital IT-Department. This can be browsed on any browser.  All the employees should possess an Email for any form of internal communication.

Note: The document has not covered the technical details of various elements like firewall, backup, recovery, browser, portal, insurance broker etc

This is a Guest Post by:
Syed Murtuza Hussain Bakshi

Associate Professor

Department Of Hospital Management

Owaisi Hospital and Research Center

murtuza_in21@yahoo.com, murtuzain21@gmail.com

Mobile: - 09948662135

Technoclinics- Upcoming scenario in India

Medical industry in India is proud to have adopted the latest medical equipments in every specialization and has achieved tremendous results in terms of rapid and effective treatment. The benefits that the Indian IT sector has made in the global village the past 15 years, are now being extended to the Indian Healthcare industry too! 

Taking advantage of these  some clinics are transforming into “technoclinics” by smartly using technology and software in their practice. Dr. Ankit Khanna (MDS) at Pune, who uses a Blackberry to track his online appointments says, “Advances in technology have definitely changed today’s scenario in the dental practice. Earlier for root canal treatments, X-rays taken were on a thin film which gave information only about pathology and cavity. But with the Digital X-ray, it is now possible to know the bone density, height, thickness along with the conventional pathological details and cavity of the teeth.”

Moreover, the paper-based records are now shaping into Electronic Medical Records storing all the patient details along with the medical history and previous visits. Searching a patient record barely takes seconds and all the information is available at fingertips. Dr. Khanna cites out the benefits of EMR, “With EMR, the medical records are a proof which reduces the conflicts between doctor and patient. If a patient visits two dentists for treatment, with the software now it is easy to show the patient which treatment he came for to avoid the confusion.” Dr. Khanna confides in software stating that he can now provide warranty with the treatment as he successfully manages and tracks the patient records strengthening the patient-doctor relationship.

Most of the clinics are still maintaining the paper based records which eventually lead to frustration and chaos. There are some clinics where the doctors prescribe medicines on a follow up visit memorising the patient history which proves dangerous for the patient as well as the doctor! Imagine how much better it would be if the doctor knew the patient history and accordingly prescribed the medicines? That’s where the software plays the role and reduces the risks of memory-based treatment.

The doctors of “technoclinics” are enjoying their practice because they only have to concentrate on proper diagnosis and treatment whereas the entire clinic administration is managed by the software. Within the coming years, its predicted that the majority of clinics will resort to software, thus improving their practice,  benefit in terms of hassle-free practice, improved profits, time and money savings and also building stronger patient relationships. This revolution is what awaits the healthcare sector in India.

by Pooja Raval and Nrip Nihalani

Do EMRs increase clinic or hospital profits?

What is the most common question asked by Doctors and Hospital Administrators when they meet me? Safe to say it is quote unquote: How does implementing an EMR solution increase my clinic/hospital profit?

Now first let’s go into the economics of the whole thing.

Profit = Revenue – Cost

So to increase profit an EMR needs to either increase revenue or decrease cost, and also factor in its own development, implementation and training costs.
So let us look at revenue first:
A good EMR system can drive revenue up in following ways:

1. Cause: Better customer service
SMS alerts, Quick Generation of reports, No confusion in terms of appointments, neat printed prescriptions, Doctors more attuned to patients with their complete history available, Emailing of reports
Effect: Patients keep coming back to you due to their pleasant experience, they develop a fan following and also recommend relatives and friends thereby driving up revenue.

2. Cause: Better Management of Time
Quicker access to Patient History, More Accurate Appointment schedules, Quicker Generation of Reports, Easy one Click Generation of Management Reports and Statistics
Effect: Man Hours saved by Doctors, Nurses and Attendants can be effectively used to see more patients’ thereby increasing revenue.

3. Cause: Minimizing Errors
Accurate prescriptions, Better Access to History, Improved note taking, Auditing of stored information
Effect: Less time spent on un-doing errors, less chances of revenue loss and time wastage on medico legal cases.

4. Cause: Portability and Access
Online Appointments, Online availability of EMR, Online Access to reports by Doctors, SMS and Email Communications
Effect: Access over the Internet to Patients and Doctors increases work time, provides more avenues for patients to interact with the hospital or clinic thereby potentially increasing revenues. E.g. Charging Patients to access their records online, or Doctors giving reports in quicker due to online access.

5. Cause: Offering More Services
Online EMR, Patient History Printouts, Fast Insurance Clearances, Multiple Doctor Schedules
Effect: New Services offered can be charged increasing the revenue streams

6. Cause: Better Decisions
Unpaid Bills Reports, Daily Registers, Medical and Administration Statistics
Effect: Where is your largest revenue coming from, which service, what kind of patients, which days, answers to all these questions which are now at your fingertips lets you plan better to increase and maximize revenues?

Increasing revenue is just one end of the bargain. The other is saving costs! How?

1. Decrease Staff Size: A good EMR system lets you maximize your efficiency especially on the administrative end. This lets you streamline your staff activities and in some cases even reduce staff.

2. Generating Important Reports: Report on Unpaid bills let you call the requisite clients to follow up and recover the money, a time consuming affair on paper. Or important statistics on schedules lets you find the bottle necks in Doctor Timings and improve the scheduling, decreasing losses to the setup.

3. Save Paper: Less work is done on Paper leading to long term benefits and gains.

4. Save Space: Less paper means less storage space required. Use the clinic and hospitals to provide new services or better service.

5. Manage it all: A good EMR allows you to manage your practice as well, integrating basic accounts and inventory to prevent losses, theft and effective reminders when stocks or balances run low.

Now for the down side, what costs are attached to the EMR?

a. Development: For a customized solution or a product you will spend on developing vis-à-vis buying a ready product, this is the direct sunk cost.

b. Hardware: Choosing a good EMR can greatly reduce this cost, but this too is a sunk cost.

c. Training: Time and effort required in training the staff and migrating to the new system takes time and since time is equal to money there is a cost attached to this.

d. Upgrade and AMC: Support costs are also involved with any software, so is upgrading it to newer versions. But this is vital to pay, because in the long run, PC problems do crop up and its best to be protected.

In the long run however, the ROI on a good EMR system can be tremendous.

Our product case studies for our Clinic Management Software Clinkare showed that a doctor using all the features of Clinkare in a multi-user setup can save upto Rs 15000 per month directly and in man-hour estimates.

But nothing will increase your Profit as much as using all the features of an EMR in a proper manner and fully utilizing its potential. The real value comes when you are ready to work with the EMR and not against it, when you can understand where all it can help you, increased profit is then certain.