Reasons Why Your Hospital Needs a Mobile Application

Mobile application – It is not something confined to retail and travel industries only; almost every sector is now turning towards advanced mobile technology, and the healthcare industry hasn’t left aloof from this growing trend. The advent of mobile apps in healthcare is a blessing for individuals searching for crisis treatment.  They are also an immense help for patients looking for specialists.

Hospital communication apps connect doctors with patients who need help, easing the burden on healthcare workers. These applications allow doctors to learn about their patient’s symptoms and provide a digital prescription (if required).

Other than that, healthcare apps have streamlined the operational processes of hospitals and healthcare centers, making it easier for patients to communicate with doctors and get on-time treatment. Also, the healthcare professionals can keep a constant check on their patients as they can now get access to the patient’s data. Thus, we can say that mobile apps have completely transformed the healthcare system. 

Here, in this blog, we will discuss the reasons why your hospital needs a mobile app, what are the must-have features of a hospital app, the top trends in the healthcare industry, top healthcare brands, and healthcare app monetization strategies. Keep reading!

The Current State of Healthcare Applications Market

According to a report, the global mHealth apps market size was valued at USD 40.05 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.7% from 2021 to 2028. Don’t you want to have a share of this revenue? If so, then think about hospital mobile app development.

Looking at the above chart, you will find that only 2% to 3% of the millions of applications available in the market belong to the medical sector. This number might be surprising but holds a great opportunity to make a difference in society.

Emerging technologies like Machine Learning, Big Data, and IoT are helping your applications become more helpful and dynamic. Health businesses are now re-evaluating their marketing strategy because of the increasing usage of smartphone devices. As per the IMS Institute of Healthcare, there are more than 1,65,000 healthcare apps available for iOS and Android devices. 

These healthcare mobile apps are now delivering supreme services that have now become an indispensable source for the entire healthcare industry. These applications are way more effective in data management, communication, and service delivery.

To give you more clarity, let’s look at some reasons why your hospital and clinic should consider developing a medical application.

Reasons to Consider Hospital App Development

A mobile app is an effective tool to attract users and streamline the hospital’s functioning. From registering to discharging the patient, it can help you perform different operations easily and effectively. If you are still skeptical about how medical apps for patients can boost your hospital functionality, have a look at the following points:

Hassle-Free Appointment Booking

Patients often have to visit the hospital or call the receptionist frequently just to know about the doctor’s routine and make an appointment. This becomes a matter of concern for both patients and the receptionist. Isn’t it? Now, if we talk about hospital communication apps, the patient can easily check the doctor’s visit timing, book an appointment, and set a reminder. This makes the booking procedure stress-free for patients. In addition, it also lessens the burden of the receptionists as they need not make reminder calls to the patients a day before. They can utilize their time in more productive ways. For instance, Doctor on Demand is a popular mobile app for hospitals that allows patients to find a doctor urgently and book appointments at their convenience.

Easier Access to Medical Reports

With a mobile app, the patients need not rush to hospitals and laboratories for reports. Instead, they can get an online report which can be accessed any time and anywhere. The users can then consult the physician accordingly, without going through the trouble of forgetting the reports at home or misplacing them.

This not only boosts the patients’ convenience but also reduces the paperwork. The hospital management need not be stressed about the report collection, storage, and distribution. They just have to tap on their device, and the report will be delivered to the corresponding patient. 

Improved Efficiency

All the medical apps for patients amalgamated with a centralized database enable doctors to look at the patient’s medical record and provide optimal solutions to him/her. With this ease, a doctor can pay attention to multiple patients simultaneously. As a result, the quality of services will improve your brand reputation.

Besides this, the other staff members will also be able to communicate with each other and clearly understand their responsibilities by introducing a mobile application.

Convenient Bill Payments

Dealing with bills is again a hefty process in the hospital arena for both the hospital staff and patients. It is an irksome and time-consuming task to manually keep track of all the patients who have paid or not paid the bills and run after insurance companies for bill clearance. However, this lengthy procedure can be cut down to a few minutes with mobile apps. The patients can select their preferred payment method, pay online and connect to their insurer (if required) via apps.

Moreover, if you create a medical app, you can customize the content to view only unpaid bills or paid bills, and so on. Therefore, the payment procedure becomes more comfortable for both ends with the help of medical app development.

Accurate Patient Diagnostics

With the help of hospital apps for patients, doctors can closely monitor the patient’s diagnosis and other medical checkups. This minimizes errors that may prove fatal for the patient. Healthcare apps use sensors to track and monitor various health parameters accurately. This in turn, leads to increased efficiency and better quality of healthcare application development services. Medical apps for patients can also provide real-time access to the treatment procedure. So, going ahead with hospital application development is a great idea.

Effective Promotion

Medical apps for patients, as described above, can make you stand out in the market, where hospitals and clinics are still unfamiliar with the ample benefits of mobile technology. It can be employed as the most effective marketing tool. Using the push notification system, you can easily inform the patients about their reports, and appointments as well as share the news, promotions, and special offers. This way, you can convert a one-time patient into a loyal one.

Better Brand Reputation

To stay in the market, it is required that you entice the users, and hospital apps for patients can be the best way to do so. A hospital mobile app allows you to gather patient feedback and analyze user behavior. With the data collected, you can easily determine your services’ shortcomings and develop better and more user-centric marketing strategies.

Timely Care at Even Remote Locations

This is one of the major benefits of mobile health apps. People living in suburbs or far-flung areas can expect the best health services via hospital apps. By scheduling video calls with doctors, the majority of people in faraway locations could get timely care without having to travel to a hospital. Patients can avoid regular clinic visits as doctors can monitor their patients through smartphone apps. Moreover, users can get important health tips and precautions through push notifications. 

Simplified Healthcare with IoT

According to a report, the IoT healthcare market was valued at $113.75 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $332.67 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 13.20% for the forecast period of 2021-2027. There is no doubt that this emerging tech trend has simplified the task of healthcare professionals. IoT makes it easier to monitor vital health parameters and alerts the healthcare service provider when it exceeds the threshold value. IoT in healthcare has also initiated a much better way to manage resources. The medical staff can easily check their large stock of goods and maintain it systematically. Moreover, with IoT, the treatment cost is also reduced significantly, and it has become easier for patients to follow instructions from doctors.

Real-time Communication

This is one of the main benefits of mobile health apps. These hospital patient apps can be used for real-time collaboration, consultation, and information sharing with doctors globally. This benefits the patients as doctors from across the globe can share knowledge in real-time. Moreover, regular real-time communication between patients and doctors also improves monitoring by constantly checking health.

Also Read: How Can Your Healthcare System Become a Digital Health Leader?

Get Feedback

This is another reason which answers why hospital apps are important. With the help of medical apps, a patient can provide feedback according to the medical facilities and rendered service. And on the other hand, staff can also provide their feedback to the higher authority directly with the help of a hospital communication app. Providing a digital medium instead of a paper-filled feedback form is smart. On receiving the feedback, healthcare providers can get started with what can be done to improve services or where the loopholes are.

Must-Have Features for your Hospital App

Now, as you have decided to invest in developing hospital apps, you have to check if the platform you have chosen contains the core functionality of hospital apps.

Depending on your specific needs, here is a list of hospital app features you can add to the functionality and make it more user-engaging and enticing to your target audience.

Appointment Scheduling 

In a world where everything is just a click away, why not book an appointment in the comfort of your home? Booking an online appointment is not just saving the patient’s time but also the doctors. 

This feature allows the patients to book, schedule, reschedule and cancel appointments as per their requirements. This is also a crucial mode of communication between patients and doctors, and it is one of the top features present in the mobile health app. 

E-Prescription 

With the e-prescription feature, doctors can easily generate and send prescriptions to their patients online without any manual error. This is a time-saving procedure that helps in improvising the communication between the doctors and patients and ensures complete patient satisfaction.

Access to EMR/EHR

One of the most desired features of the hospital mobile app is to get access to Electronic Medical Records or Electronic Health Records. It is extremely difficult to implement medical record access because of the restrictions and other security concerns, but it is definitely worth it because it allows complete access to the medical records for both doctors and patients. 

With EHR/ EMR development, both parties can seamlessly exchange information. Other than the doctors, other departments can also access the medical records for laboratory tests, billing, and other purposes.

Push Notifications

With your hospital mobile app, you can send push notifications to your users for various purposes, including making appointments, changing the schedule, and sending personalized reminders for taking their pills, an appointment reminder, or sending any other relevant health parameters.

Secured Payment Gateways

A secure payment gateway is a critical feature for mobile apps for hospitals that lets one process payments faster and easier. With healthcare mobile apps, patients can be reminded about their pending payments of medicines and other miscellaneous bills with alerts.

[Also Read: Why is it the right time for your healthcare business to go digital with payments? ]

Chat Support

Chat support is the basic module for the clinic mobile app, especially if you don’t invest in video conferencing features. Your users should always be able to reach a doctor or a healthcare provider in case of emergency to receive instant care and get answers to critical health-related questions.

Doctor Profiles

Let the patients pick the doctor by their profiles. The healthcare mobile app will include doctor profiles with their photos, detailed descriptions, working hours, and feedback from previous patients. This particular healthcare app feature increases the trustworthiness and transparency of your hospital.

Telemedicine

As per the doctors, telemedicine is one of the most effective ways to diagnose and treat chronic illnesses. Currently, healthcare mobile apps are drastically changing the way doctors interact with their patients, in spite of their geographical distance. Issues like bruises, infections, skin problems, and other related elements can be directly discussed with the doctor through photo-based consultation. 

Telemedicine helps patients to get answers on the symptoms of their chronic illness and choose their preferred doctor from the list of doctors’ profiles and access several other features. Read this blog to know the cost of telemedicine app development. 

One-Click Ambulance 

The one-click ambulance is one of the crucial features of the hospital app for patients. This amazing feature lets you book an ambulance service for your family, friends, or anyone in need. With a one-click ambulance feature, you can also get your trusted contacts notified about the hospital and its location. Additionally, you can also check out the list of nearby pharmacies and laboratories in case there is any emergency.

Integration with Wearables

Wearables are not just meant for fitness purposes but also for checking patients’ health and life metrics. For instance, the wearables can check the glucose level, and heart rate, measure blood pressure levels, and so on. A user can track their own health in an effective way by connecting their app with their wearable device. These wearable devices can also assist in the early diagnosis of any disease. Thus, we can definitely say that wearables are the future of healthcare.

Today’s generation utilizes different types of wearables with each tracking individual health areas. What they are exactly missing is a platform that would connect all the devices together and do a lot more than just being a single platform. Our Appinventiv experts have developed an app called Health-e-People that just does the same. This app allows users to create comprehensive healthcare records by offering them a platform where they can store and monitor all their healthcare apps and device data, find medical assistance or caregivers, and connect with people to build a community.

Top Trends in Healthcare App Development

To create a medical app, you must stay up to date on the latest hospital mobile app development trends. Let’s check them out: 

Rise of AI in Healthcare Apps

In the last few years, we have witnessed the rise in the utilization of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in hospital mobile app development. This is because AI can be used for creating targeted and personalized healthcare applications that can offer patients better care. 

For instance, a few AI-powered healthcare apps can easily track patient health data and offer them personalized recommendations. Artificial intelligence can help with several other task like treatment planning, diagnosis, and patient care.

Cloud-Based Healthcare Apps

One of the key advantages of cloud computing in healthcare is that it offers secured storage, access, and management of a huge amount of data. This means that the implementation of cloud computing in the healthcare industry helps in maintaining and preserving sensitive patient data. As per a recent survey, the global healthcare cloud computing market is estimated to reach the valuation of $89.4 million by the end of the year 2027, growing at a CAGR of 17.8%. 

Patients who have access to cloud-based healthcare apps can easily view, retrieve and save their data with ease from any geographical location. As a result, patients and doctors can now take complete advantage of these cloud-based apps to keep abreast of real-time health updates and treatments.

Blockchain Technology in Healthcare 

One of the most talked about trends in hospital mobile app development is blockchain technology. Blockchain technology offers a decentralized database system that allows transparent, secure, and tamper-proof data sharing. Healthcare organizations are now exploring how they can make the best use of blockchain for sharing and storing critical patient health information. 

Blockchain in healthcare has got the potential to transform the way how healthcare organizations manage data. Also, it becomes easier for the patient to get complete control of their health data along with the doctors who can access their information whenever required.

Augmented and Virtual Reality

Healthcare professionals are now utilizing the technologies of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) to provide patients with a more interactive and immersive experience. Cutting-edge technologies like AR and VR are now an invaluable resource in the medical industry, especially when it comes to helping patients with depression, visual impairments, autism, and cancer. What’s more, the technology also helps medical students study and demonstrate procedures, aiding in the analysis of medical scan images. 

These technologies are also ideal for interactive training, saving time, cutting operational costs, offering personalized therapy, and boosting communication between doctors and patients.

Top Healthcare Mobile Apps that you Ought to Know About

With hospital mobile app development on the rise, more and more healthcare entrepreneurs are now coming up with new health mobile apps that aim to solve healthcare operational challenges. Here are some of the top healthcare mobile apps that have delivered great patient care and satisfaction.

1. Marbella 

With this app, healthcare personnel, doctors, nurses, and other caretakers can easily manage patient rounding. Marbella is an amazing mobile app for hospitals that allows healthcare professionals to specify patient data, considering quality audits and safety. Furthermore, this app integrates with the vendor systems and offers real-time alerts and tracking for follow-ups.

2. YouCOMM

Appinventiv has partnered with top healthcare brands like YouCOMM and has successfully delivered high-end hospital communication app solutions. YouCOMM, is an efficient healthcare system that aims to enhance the patient-doctor relationship by helping patients get real-time medical assistance. 

Currently, over five hospital chains in the US run on YouCOMM solutions. YouCOMM is a kind of patient messaging system that enables the patients inside a hospital to notify the staff about their needs in different modes like utilizing head gestures, voice commands, and making other manual selections.

3. CareAware Connect

CareAware Connect is one of the best health mobile apps that handle the complete workflow of a healthcare organization along with managing critical clinical communication. Through this app, various teams can collaborate, access, and communicate to improve the care coordination process. Also, people from other departments can access the patient data when required. 

4. Soniphi

Soniphi is the very first resonant frequency-based personal wellness platform developed by Appinventiv experts. This health mobile app enables users to record their voices and let Soniphi’s proprietary technology chart out a complete health analysis report for them. 

Our development team integrated the concept of bioacoustic science on mobile and created a platform for millions of users who could witness the relationship between a voice print and the functioning of the human body.

Also Read- Why should your Business Care about Healthcare Automation?

How can you Earn from your Hospital App?

A hospital communication app should complement your business goals. Here are some of the ways through which you can monetize your hospital mobile app:

Advertisements 

Advertisements are one of the most commonly used monetization strategies by healthcare organizations. You can adopt this monetization strategy and promote other businesses in return for charging the advertisers. The strategy mainly revolves around cost-per-action or cost-per-view and cost-per-click.

Freemium 

By offering the freemium version of your hospital application, you are allowing your patients to get the free version of your app, which is just the basic hospital app features. In case the patient wants to unfold the advanced set of features, then they are required to unlock it by paying. As the patient purchase, the advance features you will be able to earn from the paid version of your hospital app. 

Premium Content

In this kind of app monetization strategy, both the patients and doctors need to pay to access the advanced level features. 

Paid Subscription 

A paid subscription is one of the most utilized monetization strategies. Once the subscription ends, the users need to buy another subscription to continue using the healthcare mobile app.

How can Appinventiv Help with Doctor On-demand App Development?

The introduction of technologies and trends in the healthcare sector has made the industry highly competitive. It has become necessary for every hospital and clinic to go with the tides and meet the market demands to taste success. This ultimately means every associated person has to look forward to medical application development. 

A hospital app, as described in the above-mentioned points, will make the hospital operations smooth and add value to patients, provided you have chosen the best healthcare mobile app development services. 

So, if you want to create a medical app or a hospital app, you can contact our team of mobile app development experts. Our team has extensive expertise in developing mobile apps for hospitals. They will help you in creating a mobile app for hospitals that will appeal to users and help you run a successful business. 

FAQs

Q. Why are healthcare apps important?

A. Healthcare apps are now crucial for the overall management of the healthcare system in order to streamline its operations. Let’s have a look at the reasons why healthcare apps are important:

• Provides the patients with faster access to doctors
• Improves medication adherence and other healthcare compliances
• Makes remote patient monitoring possible and easy
• Increases medication reconciliation accuracy, which improves patient safety
• Streamlines communication between the healthcare service provider and doctors

Q. What are the top 5 benefits of having mobile apps in healthcare?

A. Here are the top 5 benefits of having mobile apps in healthcare:

• Improved patient engagement
• Elimination of the risk of misdiagnosis
• Enhanced data management
• Hassle-free payments
• Reduction of manual errors

Q. What are some of the top mobile apps for hospitals?

A. Some of the top mobile apps for hospitals include:

• Wayfinding apps- This type of app for hospitals helps the patients to roam around the property and find their way to different departments or staff members. 
• General hospital app- This is the main app for hospitals that provides complete information about the hospital, its services, wait time, and other details, along with a complete virtual tour of the healthcare organization’s property. 
• Urgent care apps- This type of app for hospitals helps the patients to find the nearest and the most affordable urgent care choice. It shows directions, waiting time, travel time, insurance options, and others. 
• Outpatient/ cancer care apps- This kind of application engages the outpatients where the patient can easily manage the lab results and keep track of their treatment progress. 
• Wellness apps- This type of healthcare application allows the patients to keep track of their own health records. It provides exercise class schedules, health trackers, and health and wellness tips. 
• Childbirth or pregnancy apps- This kind of application helps pregnant women keep track of their appointments and offers pregnancy care tips. It also provides information for both prenatal and postnatal care.

Q. What is the cost of developing an app for hospitals?

A. The cost of developing an app for hospitals  mainly depends on the features and functionalities, development hours, UI/UX design, app development time, app security, choice of platform, choice of the app development company, app maintenance & support services, and other social factors. 

However, the time and cost estimation also rely on the number of development team members involved. The average cost varies from $152,000-  $190,000 for developing a full-fledged healthcare app or hospital app.

Q. What are the top hospital app development trends?

A. Here are the top hospital app development trends that you need to follow:

• Patient-generated health data
• Geolocation
• Healthcare chatbots
• Preventing diseases
• Telemedicine
• Medication reminders