9 Top Clinic management software in free & open source (2022)

During the deadly COVID-19 pandemic period, Clinics and hospitals proved the boons. But because of a surge in cases due to an increase in the number of coronavirus patients, governments have ordered to test rapidly, which has put immense pressure on them. In such scenarios, free clinic or hospital management (HMS) software can be a helping hand. However, every healthcare-related institute can’t afford costly software especially those are in rural areas, in such scenarios open source and other free ones are the most reliable alternative option.

What is a clinic management system?

A Clinic Management System is software that could handle various resources and other medical activities & operations carried out in any clinic or hospital.  Such kind solutions are an integrated information system, which means a collection of tools or software/modules packed working together to carry out complex tasks. That’s why a Clinic management system should have the ability to manage various medical operations. As we know clinics or hospitals have various departments therefore there should be a proper record of each and everything. Including a database of how many patients visited or got revealed, Pharmacy management keeps informing authorities what kind of medicines or drugs are available,  HR/Payroll, accounting, etc. Hence, software systems meant to handle all such healthcare tasks are called Clinic management systems.

Why one needs clinic management software?

There is no single reason for which a clinic management team should opt for such software. Because various activities happen in any healthcare organization they are definitely in need of some application that can handle various activities of theirs. As I mentioned above, such as recording patient data, task management, Instant alerts and messages, Doctors onboard information, management of lab, pharmacy, inpatient & outpatient; accountability, effective resource management; task management, eClinic Systems, HR/Payroll; Biometric integration, Online Scheduling, Messaging or notifying Doctors and Patients, feedback system and more… Are some of the advantages of Clinic management application suites.

So, here are some of the top available free clinic management system projects including open-source ones.

Best Clinic Management software free and open-source- 2021

1. OpenClinic GA

The first on the list is an Open Source Integrated Hospital Information Management System that is hosted on sourcforge.net and absolutely free to use. It is based on java and very popular in its category, the good thing is it’s an active and up-to-date project. Thus, no worry about its compatibility with the latest platforms. OpenClinic CA is available in multiple languages to cover broad audiences of the world, the supported ones are English, french, dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese available. So far commercially more than 500 healthcare institutes have successfully implemented, covering clinics and hospitals from 5 to 400 users.

We can extend its functionality by using the java class extensions that are highly customizable. It covers the lab and pathology, x-ray, pharmacy, ADT, clinical management and has the ability to record & maintain the data of meal distribution and more.

It has a stable billing system, human resource management module, report generation system, Biometric /Fingerprint identification support; Barcode identifier with mobile interface support; integration of DCM4CHE/Weasis based, multimedia management, and more.

• See the full detail on its official website.
• Platform support: macOS, Linux & Windows
• Database support: Microsoft SQL ServerMySQL
• Interface: Web-based
• License: Open Source
• Price: Free

 

2. Open-EMR

Open-EMR is one of the best available advanced software in the open-source category to manage clinical records and resources. This is the perfect alternative to premium electronic health records and medical practice management solutions.  In 2014, it got the certification from ONC for international usage. The reason behind its popularity and performance is its big community that keeps developing and extending the features of OpenEMR for almost decades now. That is why we can use it in more than 30 languages.

When we come to features, this advance (HMS) hospital management system has a long list such as scheduling, electronic billing, e-Prescribing, Medical Billing (including CPT, HCPCS, ICD9, ICD10, and SNOMED codes); CMS Reporting, Lab Integration, clinical decision rules engine, HIPAA-friendly (fine-grained access control objects) and a lot more.  It can run on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and many other platforms.

• Download
• Platform support: Windows, Linux, Mac OS
• Database support:  MySQL
• Interface: Web-based
• License: Open Source
• Price: Free

 

3. Open Hospital

This software is for those not need much extensive featured clinical management software for free, instead of a simple one to full fill basic needs. Open Hospital has been developed by Informatici Senza Frontiere, a non-profit organization that helps those who are living in poverty using different tools or software. And this is their first software product developed to help the doctors and nursing staff working to manage various medical activities in St. Luke Hospital in Angal (Uganda). However, they developed Open Hospital as an open-source project that means anybody can install and use it to manage various kinds of Clinical/hospital resources. Such as records of In & Out-patient visits, management of pregnancy, Laboratory, Pharmacy management (with cost tracking), Bills Management, Therapy, and Malnutrition control. Apart from it, Open Hospital is a multiuser and multi-language software; comes with a vaccines database, SMS patient’s reminders, XMPP Communication (internal chat), DICOM viewer, and Reports & Statistics in PDF & Excel formats.

• Download
• Platform support: Linux & Windows
• Database support:  MySQL
• Interface: Web-based
• License: Open Source
• Price: Free

 

4. Bahmni

The demo of this tool is available on the official website. Bahmni is a single solution created by combining and enhancing multiple open-source projects related to hospital management such as OpenEMR for electronic medical records and patient management; OpenERP for inventory, billing, financial accounting, and OpenELIS for laboratory management. Thus, Bahmni hospital system software meant for organizations running on a low resource provides a practical but free solution for clinical, diagnostic, and patient management information.

It features an intuitive design and integrated solution to manage patient information across registration, point of care, investigations, and billing. Bahmni supports a variety of devices, including tablets and laptops.

• Installation
• Platform support: Linux & Windows
• Database support:  MySQL
• Interface: Web-based
• License: Open Source
• Price: Free

 

5. HospitalRun offline EHS/HIR

HospitalRun is an offline hospital management software developed by its founders after seeing the requirement. There are lots of places in the world where internet connectivity is not that good; also if one wants to travel to far-flung areas but needs to access all the data offline, in such a scenario HosptialRun could be a nice option. However, it is yet in the beta stage and the users can try its demo on the official website. If you are running a clinic then HospitalRun is the emerging one you should try at least due to its easy-to-understand interface with only the needed options. Yes, sometimes a hospital management software (HMS) with lots of module and features become complex to understand and handle.

The project is also available on GitHub along with the demo and its developers are planning to release a stable 2.0 version of the software with more enhancements and features.

• Link to demo
• Platform support: Linux
• Database support: CouchDB
• Interface: Web-based
• License: Open Source
• Price: Free

 

6. OpenMRS

If you are looking for one of the best available hospital management software then OpenMRS is the one to ponder upon. It is also available as free and open-source, distributed under Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0.

OpenMRS has written in Java and offers a web-based interface just like other tools mentioned in this list. Its built-in web application uses OpenMRS API that works in a concealed manner to ensure all its module works, in the same way, to manage electronic medical record system data.

Actually, this application was built to support HIV care in Kenya and Rwanda but later developed further to offer a full-fledged EMR system. If you are an owner of the clinic then using this software can make patient management easy. It generates a unique ID for each painter profile with support to add other information such as BMI, weight, BP rate, and more. Furthermore, OpenMRS uses a concept dictionary to segregate and manage collected data.

Apart from patient management, document, workflow, and cohort management are also there. User-based security, flexible reporting system, customized electronic forms,  HL7 compliance, modular framework, different modules can be used to enhance its functionality; and multi-language support are some other features.

• Download
• Platform support: Linux & Windows
• Database support:  MySQL
• Interface: Web-based
• License: Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0.
• Price: Free

 

7. One-Touch EMR

In case you don’t want to install anything then try out the cloud-based clinic and hospital management software One-Touch EMR. Being a cloud one it is available in multiple plans from free to premium to business. The clinics that are looking for some free software but without any hassle of installation and backend management can think about Open-Touch.

Almost all basic features are available in the free plan such as Patient Management: Demographics, Schedule & Check-In/Out; Patient Portal, Draw & Annotate Image, HIPAA Compliant / SSL Security, ICD-10 Complain, ICD-9 to ICD-10 Converter Tool; Supports Group Practices & Multiple Offices, Built-In Fax, e-Prescribing Capabilities, Appointment Reminders: Text & Email, smartphone; EMR for iPad, Android & Windows support and more…

For more features, one can go for paid plans.

• Webpage
• Platform: cloud-based
• Interface: Web-based
• Price: Free and paid. Starting from $199.

 

8. Medkey Medical Information Software

Another fully open-source software to manage various medical information that doctors and staff need to handle in clinics or hospitals. This is easy to install personal medical records software, with modular Architecture and a responsive interface. Medkey is PHP based open source clinic management system, thus lots of developers can easily handle and modify it as per the desired results.

As most of the health care management software platforms, Medkey is also a Web-based healthcare system that can be operated from anywhere using the Internet.

It has compatibility with all most all mainstream operating systems such as Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Linux, Ubuntu, and macOS.

Users can extend Medkley features with the help of integration tools and modules for laboratories and medical device manufacturers. Also, this EHR (Electronic Health Record) system provides compatibility to OpenEHR (Open Electronic Healthcare Record), HL7 (Health Level Seven), and other medical software. Furthermore, electronic registration is supported by it to create online appointments via the website or social media channels; Personnel accounting with forecasting, planning & drug inventory management, and Integrated medical CRM  are a few other features of it.

Note- The project is yet in the beta state (while writing this article), so before installing for production make sure you have good developer support.

• Download 
• Platform: Linux
• Interface: Web-based
• License: Open-source
• Price: Free

 

9. Chikitsa -Patient Management System

Generally, small or single-handed running clinics don’t require software that they couldn’t understand and manage thus in such as Chikitsa which is also PHP based and meant to full fill the basic needs of clinic management such as maintaining patient visit record & contact details, diagnosis, and treatment history; book appointments for doctors, maintain appointment status, easily generate a bill and print receipt. It is an up-to-date product.

• Download 
• Platform: Linux
• Interface: Web-based
• License: Open-source
• Price: Free

 

Closing thoughts on best free Clinic management systems

The benefit is of using open-source software for medical resource management is your data will always with you and with the help of developers you can customize them as per the requirement. Thus, no dependency and need of paying hundreds of dollars to a company providing premium clinic management solutions. It means more cost savings that could be used to develop clinics or health care center resources specifically those are running on a low budget or serving rural areas. However, if you have a good monthly budget and don’t want to take the inconvenience of purchasing hosting plans, implementing such PHP or Java-based opensource solutions, hiring a developer to maintain it then you should think about paid solutions such as Practo, 75 health, MedStar HIS, Caresoft HIS, GeniPulse eHospital Systems and more are there to rely on.