Hospital Policy Management Software: Types, Benefits & Features

Introduction

Due to patients’ safety, health and privacy, there is no chance of any mistakes. Hence, this is where the policies come into the picture of the healthcare industry. Policy and procedure documents are essential to mention proper behavior and best practices. Hence, all of these procedure management policies should be rightly followed by hospitals. These important documents are not negotiable.

These policies and procedures protect hospital authorities against any costs and liabilities and meet all requirements. Moreover, it could help prevent human errors or poor communication for medical decisions. Therefore, policies and procedures are crucial for saving lives.

It is rightly said that policies and procedures documents are only effective when individuals understand regulatory compliance. And this compliance can only happen with the aid of technology. Well, this is where Hospital Management Software comes into the scenario. It can make a huge difference in effective hospital risk management software.

From streamlining the policy and management creation to the acknowledgement process, it does everything. Let’s explore what all healthcare policy management software offers.

What is policy management software in healthcare?

Healthcare policy management software is an assistance that can help its users organize, keep track of and manage all policies. This type of software also helps in procedure management processes.

Hence, it also collaborates with legal and other teams to develop, edit, and maintain policy and procedure documents. Moreover, it also ensures that employees have read and understood all the policies.

Before choosing software, understanding what services do hospitals provide is of prime importance.

Hospital policy management software also offers various security tools with features like access controls and administration privileges to the organization to avoid any unauthorized access to current policies. Hence, it will prevent unnecessary users from reviewing, editing or approving any policy.

As policy management systems are not only used in the healthcare sector, their types are subject to business sizes. Here are the types of this software:

• Businesses in heavily regulated industries: Sectors such as healthcare are more heavily regulated than any other industry. Hence, healthcare policy management software for these organizations can help with procedure management and organize policies to meet industry standards.
• Large businesses: The larger the scale and scope of operations, the more detailed the policies and procedures are. In such cases, document storage and distribution centrality can be vital to streamline processes and avoid non-compliance.

What are the types of policies in hospitals?

Patient Care Policies

Patient care policies aim to ensure that patients receive treatments efficiently and safely. Hence, it might include policies like family presence, resuscitation, education on patient rights and responsibilities, and abuse and neglect.

Health Privacy Policies

Patient privacy is guarded by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Hence, due to compliance to these privacy policies, patients and families could prevent their sensitive information from being exposed. And it also protects hospitals from lawsuits, fines, and other penalties.

Medicine Handling Policies

Medicine handling policies ensure that medications that professionals provide to a patient are in the correct dosage. Hence, it aims to prevent any severe interactions. It could encompass healthcare policies like drug storage, drug handling training program, and opioid dispensing.

Health And Safety Policies

Medical professionals are always at risk of facing personal injuries as they deal with hazardous materials daily. They work with patients who might have contagious diseases, volatile situations and problematic situations at times. Hence, health education and safety policies are a necessity. Hospitals continuously seek ways to improve patient safety and align with established healthcare standards. Utilizing tools like the AHRQ Survey on Patient Safety Culture can help hospitals identify potential weaknesses in their safety processes, providing insight into potential improvements for policy management systems within healthcare facilities.

Must have features in healthcare policy management software

Here is a list of common features that a hospital policy management software should include:

Policy Templates

One of the most necessary features of cloud based healthcare policy management software is policy templates. It could help every party save a great amount of time as the writers need to create policies in a unique format only sometimes.

Hence, once you have a ready template, you can use it for many years. Also, these templates will ensure the standardization process. Once you finalize the best format for your policy and procedure documents, you can keep replicating it.

It could benefit your workers, too. As each policy follows a template, it gets easier for newcomers and customers to read as they are known to the format.

Automated Workflows

Workflow automation is one of the most essential features that you have to look for when choosing hospital policy management software. It is because of the efficiency that you desire. Hospitals tend to run at a very fast pace, which means policies play a crucial role.

Hence, it is necessary to create, authorize and distribute these policies should be created, authorized and distributed as fast as possible. Also, the policy management system you choose must let different stakeholders work and access the same document. It should send automatic notifications upon approvals, reject changes and streamline the management of policies.

Policy Repository

How would your employees follow health care policies when they don’t have access to it? No matter if your system has data regarding all the policies, they are not worth without well organization not well organized, accessibility and updating. It will consume a large amount of employees’ time, which could create a barrier.

Therefore, having hospital policy management software with a cloud-based repository makes it easier. It will ensure that policies stored in an accessible manner and available for people that work.

Acknowledgement Tracking

You must seek acknowledgement from employees and everyone involved to ensure that everyone has reviewed your policy. Hence, it could put your organizations in a bad spot. If any employee does not acknowledge the policy and violates it, no actions can be taken without a signed copy.

The authorities would end up being responsible in this case. Hence, it could harm patients and staff, landing you in trouble. Therefore, collecting acknowledgements can be a prevention method, and it could be done correctly with the help of technology.

The right hospital policy management software will help you seek an audit trail and let you know who has signed off on the policy. It can also send reminders to those who still need to do so.

Version Control

Controlling version is also a feature that is a must when you try to get a hospital policy management program. It is a single and true source for your employees. It makes it clear to the employees which is the draft and which is the final version.

Hence, an employee can easily find the up to date version of policy preventing duplication. It also creates an audit trail of the entire process, from creation to policy changes and development.

Benefits of Hospital Policy Management Software

Lessen risk across the organization and enhance compliance

Improves accountability

The feature of audit trails and the ability to seek different versions will help you keep a check on who has updated, rejected or approved a policy. Hence, cloud based healthcare policy management software will help you ensure employees acknowledge and understand the policies. It will make them accountable if they don’t comply with it.

Automates policy management workflow and saves time

The hospital management system will help you automatically make policy library, send notifications on mobile devices to all the stakeholders and avoid any time wasted in duplication of policy. Hence, it can also eliminate the need to print physical copies of these policies for approval.

How can Bigscal assist in Hospital Policy Management Software Development?

Bigscal excels in several hospital management software development services by offering tailored solutions that streamline healthcare policies and procedures.

Our team of experienced developers understands the procedure management needs of hospitals and healthcare facilities. We create user-friendly interfaces that enable efficient policy development, updating, and dissemination.

Our hospital policy management software ensures compliance with industry regulations and enhances communication and collaboration between staff, leading to additional cost and improved patient care and safety.

Through advanced features like version control and automated notifications, Bigscal’s solutions simplify policy management.

We prioritize data security and confidentiality, ensuring that sensitive information remains protected. With our expertise, hospitals can optimize policy management, reduce administrative burden, and focus their resources on delivering high-quality healthcare services.