As we all know, managing a hospital requires strong management in place. Hospitals are having a difficult time enhancing their patient care while improving their operational efficiency at the same time.

The key solution here is to use hospital management software.

Doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff are dependent on the modern hospital management system open source to meet their and the patient’s requirements. This is quite obvious as these open source hospital management software are designed to manage almost every aspect of a hospital- inpatients, outpatients, electronic medical records, physicians’ availability, expenses, etc.

A hospital management solution can help streamline and automate various aspects of healthcare administration — right from patient registration, database management to consultant management, lab reporting, electronic health records, and more.

However, we should also not forget the fact that this hospital management software has the rap of being inordinately expensive to implement and difficult to customize.

So if you are either tight on budget or in desperate need of a turnkey free hospital management software solution that will help you centralize your patient data then my friend, you have landed at the right place.

Without further ado, let’s understand more about an open source hospital management system, its importance, and its benefits. We’ll also discuss the best free and open source hospital management software that can serve your purpose.

What is an Open Source Hospital Management System?

An open source hospital management system is a web-based or computer system that streamlines the information syst of the healthcare industry. An open source and free hospital management software integrates information regarding healthcare providers, medical records, report generation, patients, staff, and hospital administration under one umbrella. 

An open source clinic management system digitizes and optimizes all the processes within the hospital. It helps in streamlining search of medical records, reducing process codes, improving bills, managing customer service etc. 

With hospital management software, manual management of data reduces to a great extent as automation takes over. And, every information is easily available to the stakeholders with the best open source hospital management system.

How to Identify the Right Free Hospital Management Software? 

The rising demand for open source software in the global market has led to its mushroom growth. If your healthcare system wants to identify the right hospital management software free, the following modules and components are very essential:

Appointment Scheduler

1. An appointment scheduler creates a monthly calendar of all the bookings that patients make.
2. Appointment scheduler also takes care of assigning resources to patients after an appointment is made.

Patient Registration

1. With patient registration, recording patient’s details becomes easier.
2. It also creates a database of patients for easy and quick reference.

Reporting 

1. The reporting module manages reports from the system like billing reports and medical reports.
2. It also creates reports and disseminates information to the stakeholders.

Indoor Management

1. The module creates an overview of multiple indoor assets like patient beds, round notes, ward occupations and OTs.
2. The modules can easily identify the status of patients in relation to their treatment.

Clinical Modules

1. The clinical modules assist outpatient activities like vaccine charts and generating prescriptions.
2. With clinical modules, testing and investigation can also be handled.

Accounting

1. Accounting modules analyze everything related to billing, estimations, expenses, invoices etc.
2. Almost every account related task can be executed with the clinic management system open source.

Why is an Open Source Hospital Management System Important?

An open source hospital management system is important because it enables healthcare centers and hospitals to manage information efficiently and function systematically. 

With a patient management system open source, the day-to-day activities in the hospital can be easily streamlined. Managing the infrastructure and staff, planning financial structures and budgets can also be easily done by the best open source hospital management system.

Implementing the best free hospital management software will facilitate the operation and business processes of hospitals. A free hospital management software boosts work efficiency on all levels. 

What are the Benefits of Using an Open Source Hospital Management System?

We’ll divide the benefits of using free hospital management system open source across doctors, patients, hospital staff, and owners.

Hospital Management Software for Healthcare Professionals

1. Offer medical aid anytime and anywhere
2. Enables quick information access
3. Effective patient management
4. Seamless collaboration and communication
5. Paperless report creation
6. Real-time alerts and notifications

Hospital Management Software for Patients

1. Real-time alerts and notifications
2. Simple appointment booking and scheduling
3. Access to healthcare facilities online
4. Improved interaction between hospital staff and doctors
5. Higher transparency

Healthcare Management System for Healthcare Staff

1. Improved database management
2. Improved coordination across several departments 
3. Accurate creation of reports
4. Simplified and streamlined workflow
5. Better task delegation

HMS for Hospitals Owners

1. Improved image management
2. Guarantees total transparency
3. Accurate management of data
4. Better managing of finances
5. Provides total control over operational expenses
6. Enables  use of data to guide decisions

Top Free & Open Source Hospital Management Software

1. OpenEMR

   OpenEMR is an open-source and free hospital management software. It is an ONC certified solution that runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and a lot of other platforms.

   The best part is that it can fulfill the needs of health centers of any size. This free electronic medical record can support up to 30 languages and allows customization as per one’s requirements.

   You can easily generate lab orders using the system and automatically integrate them with the patient’s profile. Thus, it results in fast decision-making on how to diagnose a patient.

   Besides, it is HIPAA-friendly with admin-based control to ensure tight security. Organizations like Peace Corps, Siaya District Hospital, and more are using Open EMR.

   Key Features

   • Tracks patient demographic information such as their name, sex, date of birth, marital status, contact number, HIPAA information, language known, nationality, insurance coverage, etc.
   • Advanced scheduling using patient flow board, tracking and reporting
   • Create and send E- prescriptions using print fax and email
   • In-house pharmacy and dispensary support
   • Supports 5010 standards, institutional Billing standards, and paper claims
   • Medical Claim management interface
   • Physician as well as patient reminders
   • A patient portal with a modern user interface secured chat and messaging and an option for online payments
   • Multilingual Support
   • Encryption of patient documents with fine-grained user access controls and active directory support

   Pros

   • Has an active community
   • CMS reporting

   Cons

   • N/A

2. Open Clinic GA

   It offers a robust reporting capability that allows you to measure your hospital performance level. A complete clinic management software free manages OPD, scheduling and IT management ADT. You can get a clear picture of the mortality stats and costs of care. Moreover, this free hospital management solution can be accessed by an unlimited number of users.

   What’s more, the system runs on all major platforms — Mac OS, Unix-like, and Windows.

   It is an open-source and free hospital management system that will efficiently manage your administrative, financial, clinical, mean distribution, and other data.

   

   Key Features

   • Multilingual Support available in English, French, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese
   • Offers human resource management module
   • ADT and pharmacy stock management
   • A highly customizable open-source hospital management software that uses Java class extensions.
   • X-ray and pathology results management.
   • Support for multimedia platforms such as pictures, video, and audio.
   • Fingerprint identification
   • Efficient database connection pooling.
   • Mobile web interface along with barcode recognition on Android devices.

   Pros

   • Easy-to-use and interactive interface
   • Full scheduling system integrated

   Cons

   • Good support is missing

3. OpenMRS

   OpenMRS is one of the best hospital management software for eye hospitals. It was created to serve the needs of healthcare centers in developing countries. Organizations can easily adapt and modify the system, thus avoiding the need to create a system from scratch.

   When you create a patient’s profile, it automatically generates a unique ID number. This physician scheduling software can be quite useful when you have more than one patient with the same name. You can add details like pulse rate, blood pressure, BMI, respiratory rate, patient’s height and weight, and more.

   What’s more, its Capture Visit features enable you to directly add or edit the patient’s health record without opening their profile.

   

   Key Features

   • Patients dashboard which will provide you with basic information about the patients, number of clinical visits, demographic information, graphs, medical forms, etc.
   • Allows you to create a new patient in the free hospital management software.
   • It is built around an extensible framework which means that all patient reading, facts, and observation are stored in a database and can be edited by the implementer.
   • It has a MyProfile tab that allows you to change your user information.

   Pros

   • Has a large community
   • MyProfile tab is quite intuitive

   Cons

   • Users found it difficult to install

4. One Touch EMR

   One Touch EMR is a cloud-based free hospital management software that will get you everything you need in a few clicks. It can be used with any operating system- Ipad, Android, Windows, and MAC.

   Furthermore, it integrates with the laboratory to increase the efficiency of workflow, thereby improving patient care. And the good part is that it is quite easy to install. It gets you running in no time without having to worry about complex hardware and servers to host the EMR.

   One Touch EMR comes with an intuitive interface. You can choose to touch, type, or dictate to enter data into the system.

   

   Key Features

   • An intuitive dashboard which will quickly give you an overview of the daily appointments, check on messages and quickly add new patients and appointments
   • Easy documentation using familiar workflows
   • Scheduling to view appointments by day, week, month and year
   • A notification that will inform you whether the appointment has been confirmed, canceled, rescheduled, etc.
   • Patient demographic screens in an easy to read format
   • Connect with the labs electronically to reduce workloads, improve efficiencies and increase revenue
   • The system is highly customizable
   • Secure with military-level encryption

   Pros

   • Quite flexible
   • Simple and instinctive

   Cons

   • Customer support is not active

5. Hospital Run

   Hospital Run is a free and open-source hospital management software that is open for partnership with people in NGOs, government, and technology sectors to provide advanced healthcare services.

   It aims to provide a great user experience for clinicians, admins, and even contributors.

   The software streamlines and optimizes the operational processes to save your staff time. This enables them to focus on more critical tasks at hand.

   It is best suited for clinics located in the most rural areas of the planet as it can operate even without connectivity. Besides, it is compatible with Windows and Mac.

   

   Key Features

   • Available offline which means it can be accessed from anywhere regardless of variable connectivity
   • Inventory Management which includes audit tracking and cost accounting
   • Patient Management
   • Image queuing
   • Automatic and ad-hoc reporting
   • Bed management and patient workflows
   • Diagnostic Management
   • Claim management
   • Lab Information System
   • Pharmacy Information system
   • Expense Management

   Pros

   • Automated integration testing
   • Offline-first electronic health record system

   Cons

   • N/A

6. Medkey

   One of the best free and open source hospital management software, Medkey is an effective system designed to help you run a hospital smoothly. What sets it apart is that you can either choose to install the system on-premise as a self-hosted solution or deploy it as a Saas cloud solution.

   Furthermore, it comes with a robust set of features, which includes inventory management, quality control, electronic health record, and many more. The manufacturer claims it to be the fastest web application you will ever come across.

   Key Features

   • International and International Standards compliant software
   • Allows you to easily upgrade your system without interrupting your working business process
   • Has a cool, easy-to-use, and intuitive interface
   • Enables seamless integration with third-party solutions
   • Can customize as per your requirement — add or edit modules
   • Works on any device and OS — Linux, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows XP, Ubuntu или MacOS

   Pros

   • Easy-to-use dashboard
   • Client-service quality control instruments

   Cons

   • N/A

7. Bahmni

   Bahmni is an effective hospital management software, which is ideal for healthcare set-ups in rural areas. It was developed as a concept to assist hospitals in low resource environments with better insights. The idea was to improve patient care and efficiently manage clinical and diagnostic functionalities.

   These smart insights help the institute to make smart decisions and reduce the day-to-day operational errors that hospitals generally face. Besides, you need minimal training to start using the system. It is that simple!

   

   Key Features

   • Support a variety of devices, which includes tablets and desktops
   • Offers complete management of patient information across appointment scheduling, investigations, registration, billing, and discharge
   • Has an intuitive interface
   • Highly flexible and seamlessly integrates with existing systems
   • Support multiple languages

8. Open Hospital

   Open Hospital is a free and open-source hospital management software, designed for health care in developing countries. It allows the digitalization of patient care information, including records of treatment, medicines, laboratories, and other data for better management of daily activities.

   It was first developed to help St. Luke ‘s Hospital in Uganda. Since then, it has managed to serve 23 operating institutions spread over 13+ countries. It is ideal for small and mid-sized hospitals. Besides, the software doesn’t require much maintenance and offers a good support system to its users.

   Key Features

   • Supports multi-languages, including English, Spanish, Arabic, German, French, Italian, and Swahili
   • Easily monitor entry, exit, and material and drug costs
   • Manages dates and execution of vaccinations and accurate management of births
   • Generates reports and statistics in PDF and Excel formats
   • Allows registration of patient by just using photos

   Pros

   • Installation is quite easy
   • Has the vaccine database

   Cons

   • N/A

9. Chikitsa

   Chikitsa is one of the best hospital management solutions that allows you to improve your patient care. It is best suited for solo practitioners or small clinics.

   This open-source patient management solution offers a robust set of features, including billing and invoicing, maintaining appointment status, and more.

   Besides, the system is quite easy to use. It offers an intuitive interface that is highly responsive. It allows you to create a detailed patient profile and store it.

   

   Key Features

   • Keeps records of every patient who visited
   • Helps with diagnosis and treatment based on patient’s history
   • Stores and organizes patient contact detail
   • Schedules appointments for doctors
   • Enables you to quickly generate bills and print receipt

   Pros

   • Quite easy to set up
   • Active support team

   Cons

   • Less flexibility with appointment scheduler

10. GaiaEHR

    GaiaEHR is an open source, web-based hospital management solution that runs on some major operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and more.

    The system is quite easy to install and use. After installing, you just need to login by entering the correct username and passwords. Once you have logged in, you can create multiple user accounts with different passwords.

    What’s more, this free hospital management software allows you to add multiple patients.

    

    Key Features

    • Lets you create a QR code for every patient for future reference.
    • Can add billing and payment information to the patient’s profile
    • Records and keeps track of your past practices with all your patients
    • Intuitive and user-friendly interface
    • Runs on PHP based application

    Pros

    • Simple UI/UX design
    • Floor plan editor

    Cons

    • Some users found it unreliable

11. Datotahost

    Datotahost is another popular open-source hospital management software that is best suited for clinic laboratories. From producing to maintaining the pathological and clinical records, it can do it all. This clinical lab software supports all types of testing and can easily generate reports on the same.

    Some of its other functionalities include chemical lab management, personal medical record management, and more.

    Besides, it is quite easy to install. Once installed, log in using the default details, i.e., username – 1 and password – 1.

    

    Key Features

    • Offers support via Skype and WhatsApp
    • Provides accounting functionalities for the maintenance of the lab
    • Supports referral program
    • Easy-to-use interface

    Pros

    • Active support team
    • Robust dashboard

    Cons

    • N/A

12. Elixir Aid

    Elixir Aid offers world-class hospital management software that aims to make the entire hospital management paperless.

    It enables you to handle the entire hospital resources from a single unified platform to avoid any confusion. This allows easy access to information and helps in making timely treatment decisions.

    Furthermore, it is developed by Gescis Technologies, a leading IT company in India. They offer a comprehensive set of HR management solutions, including pharmacy management, managing staff profiles, and maintaining patients records.

    

    Key Features

    • Responsive layout to improve users’ experience
    • A highly flexible solution that lets you customize as per your needs
    • Aids with resource optimization to maximize profits
    • Offers self-service portals for admins, doctors, and employees
    • Allows secure payment method to increase administrative efficiency

    Pros

    • User-friendly interface
    • Instant information retrieval

    Cons

    • N/A

Wrapping up

Implementing a hospital management solution can streamline your entire hospital operational activities, not to mention the cost savings and growth in revenue that you will see.

The list of hospital management software mentioned above can help you optimize your resource usage if you are running a clinic or a health care center. Also, it helps you to increase online patient reviews.

Some of these open source solutions are even designed to serve the health centers in rural areas. Install it for free and make the best use of it.

If you think we can add more names to this list, feel free to tell us in the comment below.