MAN6935: Business Case for Investing in Hospital Management Software

This report analyzes the business case for implementing Hospital Management Software (HMS) at St. Cuthbert's Healthcare, a private hospital in Australia. It begins by outlining the operational context of private healthcare in Australia, including funding, regulation, and the services offered by St. Cuthbert's. The report identifies challenges faced by the hospital, such as cost management, demographic changes, and ethical considerations, while also highlighting the roles of key stakeholders like pharmaceutical companies, insurance providers, and the government. It then focuses on the benefits of HMS, including cost reduction, service quality improvement, and easier access to patient data, along with outlining the features and vendor options, including Healthcare Software (HCS). The report addresses implementation risks, such as lack of training and financial exposure, and outlines the roles and responsibilities during implementation. The report is based on the provided case study, the assignment brief and external research. The report provides a comprehensive analysis to support the adoption of HMS to improve efficiency, compliance, and patient care at St. Cuthbert's Healthcare.

The Business Case for Investing in Hospital Management Software

Part 1
Understanding the operation of private hospital in Australia
The private healthcare system in Australia is managed and owned by pharmacies, allied
health, specialist medical and private hospitals. They provide affordable, quality and safe health-
related services to residents of Australia. These private hospitals are funded by different
organizations such as health organizations, non-governmental organizations, private funding, and
also by people who pay directly for their treatment. Private health cares are regulated by
Australian government.
Business analysis of St. Cuthbert
St. Cuthbert has provided a variety of services related to healthcare to people of Australia
with their highly qualified professionals such as physiotherapists, dentists, cardiologists,
dermatologists, and doctors. Various challenges that are faced by St. Cuthbert’s such as the
improving cost of technology, demographic changes, constraint relating to budget in improving
and maintaining the healthcare. According to Eldridge, Onur & Velamuri, (2017), there are also
other issues such as lack of funding arrangement, issues relating to medical research in private
hospitals. The public healthcare systems are highly funded by the territory and state government
and also from the governmental organization but the private health cares are not funded by any
government. As opined by Mundy et al. (2019) to achieve the strategic objective in medical
research St. Cuthbert has to face with scarcity of resources and funds. To provide better services
to their patients they need innovative technologies so that they would be able to cure deadliest
diseases.
The hospital needs to follow the ethical codes given by AMA and also compliance with
the guidelines given by APHRA. The experts and the doctors would be accountable and

answerable to patients and their relatives in case of any negligent activities. Some ethical
requirements have to be considered by St. Cuthbert’s such as they have to maintain patient
confidentiality, and they are also not allowed to make any personal relationship with them. As
per the AMA guidelines, the hospital cannot release any information of patients to any third
party. If any sexual relationship found between the doctors and patients then the license of the
professionals will be canceled due to violation of the AMA guidelines. If any patient is harmed
due to defective products or medical equipment then the professionals will be sued and will be
fined with penalty or punishment. This health care provides many services such as general
surgery, dental services, orthopedic surgery, nutritional counseling, physical therapy, hospice
care, drug treatment, mental care, and other basic services.
There are different other services apart from medical services that are rendered by this
healthcare such as
 Rehabilitation care
 Helping the patient with oral hygiene, continence, grooming, and dressing
 Assisting to recover from physical injury or cognitive impairment
 Companionship
Key stakeholders
Major stakeholders of St. Cuthbert’s are pharmaceuticals companies, insurance
companies, physicians, Australian government, patients, employers, and governmental
intermediaries. The pharmaceuticals firms make agreements with the hospital that the doctors
will prescribe to acquire or purchase the medicine or medical equipment to their patients from
their pharmaceutical companies only. The insurance companies will pay commission to the
hospital if they sell any of their insurance coverage to their patients; doctors will provide medical
treatment and medical care while patients are those who receive the services (Tham, 2018).

Australian government will provide subsidies to the hospital to treat the poor, disabled and the
elderly people of Australia. The employers of St. Cuthbert’s will offer insurance coverage to
their entire employee and will also pay salary to them.
IT Solution and Vendor
After detailed analysis of the private hospitals located in Australia, it has been found that
most of the hospital use hospital management software (HMS) to manage their administrational
requirements. This is the most useful and successful IT system and is also most popular in
Hospital sector. HMS is an integrated system that covers all the areas of private hospital
operation. It covers the areas of financial, compliance, medical, legal, and administrative (Alla,
Pazos & DelAguila, 2017).
Benefit of HMS
HMS assists the hospital in reducing the cost of operation, improving quality of services,
and also the data of patients can be accessed easily. HMS also helps in, outpatient management,
accounts management, inventory management, laboratory management, invoice billing, etc
(“eHospital – Hospital Management System |HER software”, 2020).
There is a vendor in Australia named Healthcare software (HCS) who is offering HMS to
St. Cuthbert’s so that the hospital can be able to run their hospital business successfully. HCS is
an Australian company and is specialized in developing innovative IT solution software for
health practitioners. HCS was established in the year 2005 by John Elkerton. The first IT
solution was created by the company to be used in the clinical pharmacy. They offer range of
software services to healthcare and the software’s are designed by IT professionals and experts.
They analyze the health domain and the need for innovative Software in hospitals. The
equipment that is needed in St. Cuthbert’s should be able to manage the inventory data,

laboratory data, and accounts of the hospitals. It should also assist in outpatient management,
MRD management, patient registration, medical, and administrative management.
The implementation risks related to HMS software are:
 Lack of proper training
 Failure in planning the implementation of healthcare software
 Software not designed properly
 Lack of qualified software developer
 Financial exposure
The price of the HMS solution quoted by HCS Company is AUD 1250. There is no free
version of the software and also no free trial is offered by the software (“Hospital Management
Software Reviews and Pricing – 2020”, 2020).
Roles and responsibilities while implementing HMS
While implementing the new software the stakeholders should be informed and the
professional should be trained so that they can handle the new software easily and without any
hesitation. Negotiation should be done by the hospital management at the time of purchasing the
software.
Audit trail
Date/ Time Content Source
14/04/2020
4.20 pm.
Business
analysis of
Private
Hospital
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11974958
14/04/2020
5.00 pm
Key
Stakeholders
https://sites.sju.edu/icb/health-care-reform-duties-and-
responsibilities-of-the-stakeholders/
14/04/2020
5.30 pm
Price of HMS https://www.capterra.com/p/142145/Hospital-
Management-Software/

14/04/2020
pm
Benefit of
Software
https://www.adroitinfosystems.com/products/ehospital-
systems
14/04/2020
6.00 pm
Vendor of
Software
http://www.healthcaresoftware.com.au/
References
Alla, S., Pazos, P., & DelAguila, R. (2017). The Impact of Requirements Management
Documentation on Software Project Outcomes in Health Care. In IIE Annual
Conference. Proceedings (pp. 1419-1423). Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers
(IISE).
eHospital- Hospital Management System | HER Software (2020). Retrieved 16 April 2020 from
https://www.adroitinfosystems.com/products/ehospital-systems
Eldridge, D. S., Onur, I., & Velamuri, M. (2017). The impact of private hospital insurance on the
utilization of hospital care in Australia. Applied Economics, 49(1), 78-95. [Available at
https://www.latrobe.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/269616/2013.03.pdf] [Accessed on 10th
April 2020]
Hospital Management Software Review and Pricing – 2020. (2020). Retrieved 15th April 2020,
from https://www.capterra.com/p/142145/Hospital-Management-Software/
Mundy, L., Howard, S., McQueen, L., Thomson, J., & Hewson, K. (2019). Fostering healthcare
innovation in public hospitals: the Queensland experience. Australian Health
Review, 43(6), 672-675. [Available at https://www.publish.csiro.au/AH/AH18055 ]
[Accessed on 11th April 2020]
Tham, A. (2018). Sand, surgery and stakeholders: A multi-stakeholder involvement model of
domestic medical tourism for Australia’s Sunshine Coast. Tourism management
perspectives, 25, 29-40. [Available at

sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2211973617301174] [Accessed on 10th April
2020]