Data Management Software

Clinical Data Management Software

Many medical offices have now gone computerized with Clinical Data Management Software to simplify the complicated process of clinical practice and patient management. These particular applications serve in a wide variety of applications, ranging from the substitution of routine office paperwork to more sophisticated computerized charts.

Clinical data management software eases the handling of administrative tasks such as patient record keeping, inventory control for supplies, appointment scheduling, insurance processing and real-time reporting (billing) when the transaction actually takes place. There are Windows based clinical data management software programs that allow the clinical offices to do chair-side data entry and scheduling. Many web-based programs are also available that provide advanced solutions to improved clinical practices.

The progress in computer technology and improved methods of managing clinical data has aided in more precise treatment for patients. A significant feature of clinical data management software is the ability to retrieve a complete patient history. When software is used that includes the ability to access records via the internet physicians can retrieve lab orders, medications, nursing notes, consultation reports and admission and discharge summaries from any hospital visits.

Clinical data management software has provided access to wide-ranging historical patient data that can be viewed and placed into a current progress notes. This leads to better quality patient care as it gives the attending physician a more in-depth view of a patient's medical record.

Some clinical data management software comes with the ability to create advanced exam templates. Physical exam templates can then be categorized into logical groupings, enabling care givers to create templates for certain types of diseases such as pneumonia or for particular cardiac conditions.

In the past, quality assurance techniques for staff took hours, such as auditing huge stacks of charts in the medical records office, not to mention the time a doctor spends vocally recording and then transferring data manually to charts. Clinical data management software is becoming more and more popular with health care providers. Today, health care providers can access a patient's chart via a secure Web browser, rather than spending hours flipping through physical records. This streamlines the process so that providers can complete chart reviews, quality assurance work and emergency room follow-up studies much faster than before.

Clinical data management software has had a significant impact on health information data management workloads. It has helped in eliminating approximately 60 percent of requests for physical (paper) medical records, cut down on charting backlogs and resulted in improved staff morale.

Clinical data management software has also helped eliminate manual processes for hospitals also. Some types of this software can track the location and condition of a patient in the hospital at all times. It also can automatically print transcribed documents at the nursing unit serving the patient. Before clinical data management software these reports were printed in the medical records department and manually delivered to hospital units four times a day. This greatly improves patient care as no matter how fast the transcription turnaround was, getting information out to the floors depended on the manual delivery of this information. If a run was missed, it might be hours before a report reached the unit and this could compromise patient care. With the new clinical data management software these reports get to the patient unit immediately and can greatly improve the quality of patient care.