The hospital industry has completely transformed thanks to the advancement of technology. And, with the increase in the demand for better and safer healthcare, the need for dedicated software that can help hospitals function to the best of their ability has been soaring. Today, running a hospital involves several aspects, and it is not manually possible to stay on top of all the processes, systems, and departments. This is why it is highly recommended that hospitals invest in robust hospital management software to keep their hospitals running smoothly and seamlessly. In this blog, find out what is hospital management software and which are the top 8 free and open-source hospital management software to use in 2023.
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What is Hospital Management Software?
Hospital management includes a wide range of functions and processes, such as appointment booking, scheduling treatment, inventory management, database management, staff management, in-patient and out-patient management, and more. Doing this manually involves several risks, including risks to the patients. Hospital management software helps hospitals and other healthcare centres to manage all the work, run their operations smoothly, maintain electronic patient records, integrate all the databases, and more – all from one single tool.
By using hospital management software, hospitals can automate and digitize the majority of their processes, thus ensuring high-quality services with less room for errors and risks.
Top 8 Free and Open-Source Hospital Management Software
Since there are several hospital management software available in the market today, it can be quite difficult for you to choose the best among them. We recommend that you give the below listed open-source software a try first and then go ahead with the paid version of the software that best matches your requirements.
Open Hospital
With Open Hospital, hospitals, and healthcare centers can digitize all their hospital information, such as patient records, lab data, treatment history, and more. This free and open-source software is ideal for use by small and medium-sized hospitals. A key USP of this software is that it requires very little to zero maintenance.
Key Features
- Supports multi-languages
- Patient registration with patient photographs
- Real-time SMS reminders
- PDF and Excel format for report generation
- Pharmacy management
- Vaccination records
- Easy billing modules
- DICOM viewer
Open Clinic GA
Open Clinic GA offers a systematic approach toward integrated information management facilities. This free and open software is a great tool for efficiently managing all your administrative, financial, clinical, and other data. It is a customizable system that offers advanced modules that enable hospitals to better handle their administrative and management functions.
Key Features
- Biometric/Fingerprint identification
- Statistical report generation
- Barcode recognition
- Integrates multilingual drug detection
- Pharmacy stock management
- Support for multimedia platforms like pictures, video, and audio
- Clinical thesaurus available
- Modules for human resource management, lab, and pathology management, patient appointment and scheduling system, etc.
HospitalRun
HospitalRun is a great software for hospitals and healthcare units which have limited resources. This software can be used to enhance the user experience for patients, doctors, and administrators. Using this software, hospitals can streamline their operations and save a lot of time, thus, focusing their time and efforts on other critical tasks. This is especially useful for healthcare centers set up in rural areas as the software can also run without internet connectivity.
Key Features
- Inventory management
- Patient management
- Automatic and ad hoc reporting
- Offline availability
- Expense management
- Patient registration and appointment management
- Customized billing system
- Integration with radiology and imaging information
OpenEMR
Today, OpenEMR is one of the most popular free and open-source hospital management software available in the market. Suitable for use by hospitals and healthcare of all sizes, this software is ONC certified and comes equipped with a wide range of tools and features. It offers features related to all aspects of hospital management, from administration to daily operations to billing to reporting and more.
Key Features
- Role-based and custom menus
- Encryption of patient records
- Automated tracking
- Customizable electronic patient records
- Patient portal with secured chat option
- Advanced scheduling and appointments
- Medical claim management
- Lab integration
One Touch EMR
Next on our list of top 8 free and open-source hospital management software is One Touch EMR – one of the best cloud-based hospital management software that requires no hardware or server installation. It offers several features that enable hospitals to run their operations smoothly and seamlessly. This is an easy-to-use software that can be easily customized as well to suit your hospital management needs.
Key Features
- Intuitive dashboard
- Patient demographic screens in easy-to-read formats
- Highly customizable system
- High level of security with military-level encryption
- Easy documentation
- Real-time notifications for confirmation, cancellation, or rescheduling of appointments
- Compatible with various devices
- Integrated billing system
Bahmni
Bahmni is another great free and open-source hospital management software especially suited for rural healthcare centers. The software was built to assist hospitals set up in low-resource environments and offer them better insights. This software is an ideal option for hospitals and healthcare centers looking to boost their patient care and manage all the clinical and diagnostic functionalities in an efficient manner.
Key Features
- Provides 360-degree patient information – appointments, demographics, billing, discharge, etc.
- Customized report generation
- Flexible workflows and forms
- Ability to generate disease-specific forms
- Drug stock management
- Intuitive dashboard
- Integrates with lab and pathology information
- Accurate billing
OpenMRS
OpenMRS is a simple, flexible, and easy-to-use open-source hospital management software. This software is a great help in enabling hospitals and healthcare centers to improve their healthcare management and boost the quality of patient care. It comes equipped with a unique feature called Capture Visit which enables you to make changes to a patient’s record without opening their profile.
Key Features
- Role-based customizable dashboards
- Extensive framework for managing patient information
- Automatic identifier card and code generation
- Patient repository
- Easily accessible data
- Multiple language support
- Flexible reporting
- Customizable report generation module
Medkey
Medkey is an effective free and open-source hospital management software that enables hospitals and healthcare centers to function in a seamless manner. Suitable for hospitals and healthcare centers of all sizes, this software offers a robust set of features that will enable you to automate various operational processes, thus saving time and effort. You can either install the system on-premise or deploy it as a SaaS solution.
Key Features
- Easy-to-use and intuitive interface
- Seamless integration with third-party solutions
- User-friendly dashboards
- Compatible with all devices and operating systems
- Drug inventory management module
- Customizable modules
Conclusion
Using hospital management software offers several benefits for healthcare professionals, patients, healthcare staff, as well as hospital owners. This multi-functional software can help you completely transform the way you run your hospitals or healthcare centers. The right software will ensure that your operational activities are running smoothly, you are becoming more cost-effective, and you are seeing an increase in your growth revenue.
You can check out some more hospital management software on SaaSworthy!
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