What is a clinic management system? 

Clinics have been popular with patients with minor ailments and also for certain specialties. They provide easy access to healthcare without having to go to hospitals. For a visit with a dentist or an ophthalmologist, most people visit a doctor at their clinics rather than spend time waiting at a hospital. 

Other than specialized clinics, general health clinics in remote locations play a huge role in providing healthcare services where access to hospitals may not be easy. Primary healthcare centers across the country conduct vaccination camps and regular health check-ups in regions that may otherwise suffer from a lack of healthcare. 

Even though the number of doctors in a clinic may be low, there is a steady stream of patients and it may not be easy to handle them. It may not be easy to maintain the records of the patients in a small-scale clinic for long durations. A clinic management software or practice management software provides a suite of functionalities that makes it easy to manage a clinic.

A medical practice management system is used to manage the patients, the appointments, the doctors’ schedules, prescriptions, manage inventory, etc. It makes the otherwise difficult task of managing a clinic. These days, practice management systems come with Android and iOS apps with which the doctors can check their schedule, and patients can book appointments, manage prescriptions, etc, and may provide SMS or email notifications regarding appointments. They are more or less a lighter version of a hospital management system, with more focus on the clinic’s specialization. 

Electronic health records

An electronic health record is one of the main features of these clinic management systems. They are used to store patient data in a digital format. Unlike paper records, digital records don’t get damaged over time. One of the most common problems associated with a patient record is that the data is not legible. During a doctor’s busy schedule, there isn’t much time to make accurate and legible records of every procedure performed. This leads to errors and difficulties in the future. Electronic health records provide an easy solution for this. In some software systems, there are templates for these health records with which doctors can make quick records without compromising on accuracy. These templates are often customized for a specialty making it much easier to create records, and this can be especially useful for clinics focused on a particular specialty. While some clinics use standalone EMR software, most practice management systems come with an integrated EMR system.

Appointment management system

Booking and managing appointments are two of the most common problems faced by clinics. A medical practice management system makes it easy for a clinic to easily manage its appointments. Most clinics follow a token-based system for queue management, and this can become difficult when there are patients who have made appointments before. Also, it's not easy to provide clear timings for walk-in patients due to the appointments made. In a clinic management system, this can be solved with the help of integrated queue management, as a patient registers for an appointment at the clinic, the patient’s name is added to the day’s schedule without conflicts with patients who have made appointments earlier. 

Dedicated app

An Android or an iOS app that goes with the software can aid the clinic by making appointment bookings online. This will help the patients to make appointments easily at any time, even on public holidays when the clinic staff is not there to note down the appointments. With this app, doctors can also easily check their appointment schedules. The system is aimed at making a clinic more user-friendly. 

Billing and accounting software

Most clinics use software just for the purpose of billing, and this increases the workload, requiring manual re-entry of the different procedures performed for billing purposes. With integrated billing, a clinic management system tracks the complete treatment of a patient and can be used to create financial records much easier than with stand-alone billing software. With this, the complete financial record of the clinic, such as expenditures, and returns, can be tracked easily. 

Manage multiple locations

If you’re managing clinics at multiple locations, with the help of a single online clinic management software, all of them can be easily managed with a clinic management software. Data from the individual clinics can be viewed from a single system, often just by using a smartphone app. MIS or master information sheets of individual clinics can give you accurate information about the workings of your clinics.