Hospital Mobile App Development: A Complete 2024 Guide
All sectors of the economy have mobile applications, and the healthcare sector is no exception. The emergence of hospital apps has been a blessing for the medical field, serving as a lifeline and accessible resource for patients in need of specialized care.
Through the streamlined operations of mobile apps, the communication gap between patients and caregivers has been closed, reducing the workload of hospital staff. Physicians can now treat patients promptly and accurately from the comfort of their homes thanks to hospital apps.
It goes without saying that hospital apps have greatly changed the healthcare sector in a variety of other ways. This blog covers the motivations behind creating hospital apps, as well as their key functions, popular culture, development methodology, cost projections, and monetization techniques.
- The Current State of the Global mHealth Market
- Reasons to Consider Hospital App Development
- Easy Scheduling of Appointments
- Hospital App Types That Revolutionize Patient Care
- Steps Involved in the Hospital App Development Process
- Important Things to Think About When Developing a Hospital App
- Must-Have Features for Your Hospital App
- How Can You Earn From Your Hospital App?
- How Appic Softwares Expertise Makes Hospital App Development Simple?
The Current State of the Global mHealth Market
For the past ten years, the global mHealth market has grown significantly due to the rising number of smartphone owners. The global mHealth market is anticipated to reach $181.1 billion in 2023 and surpass $300 billion by 2025, according to a Statista report. Also, over 350,000 hospital apps are available for iOS and Android smartphones, according to the IMS Institute of Healthcare.
These days, hospital apps offer vital services that are deemed absolutely necessary for the healthcare industry as a whole. These hospital apps are essential to the advancement of healthcare because they perform exceptionally well in data management, in-hospital patient communication, and service delivery.
Let’s examine some justifications for your hospital and clinic to think about creating a medical application in order to provide you with more clarity.
Reasons to Consider Hospital App Development
A mobile app is a useful tool for drawing users and streamlining hospital operations. It can assist you in carrying out various tasks efficiently, from checking in to releasing the patient. If you’re still unsure about how patient-focused medical apps can improve hospital operations, consider the following:
Easy Scheduling of Appointments
To find out the doctor’s schedule and schedule an appointment, patients frequently have to visit the hospital or give the receptionist a call multiple times. Patients start to worry about this, as does the receptionist. Is it not? With regard to hospital communication apps, patients can now conveniently schedule an appointment, check the time of their doctor’s visit, and create a reminder.
Patients don’t have to worry about the booking process because of this. Furthermore, it relieves the receptionists of the responsibility of calling patients a day in advance to remind them of an appointment. They are able to make better use of their time. For example, patients can find a doctor quickly and schedule appointments at their convenience with the help of the well-known app ZocDoc.
Streamlined Medical Report Access
Patients no longer have to run to hospitals and labs to get reports when they have access to hospital apps. Alternatively, they can obtain a report online that is accessible from any location at any time. Without having to worry about losing or forgetting the reports at home, the users can then consult the doctor as needed.
This lessens paperwork for the patients while also improving their convenience. The distribution, storage, and gathering of reports shouldn’t cause the hospital administration any concern. All they need to do is tap on their device, and the relevant patient will receive the report.
Enhanced Productivity
Doctors can view patient medical records and recommend the best course of action by combining the patient medical apps with a centralized database. A doctor can attend to multiple patients at once with this ease, which will enhance the quality of services and the reputation of your brand.
In addition, by using a mobile application, the other employees will be able to interact with one another and comprehend their roles with clarity.
Easy Ways to Pay Bills
Paying bills is another difficult task that hospital employees and patients must complete. Keeping track of all the patient’s bills by hand and chasing insurance companies for bill clearance is a tedious and time-consuming task.
With mobile apps, though, this time-consuming process can be reduced to a few minutes. Patients can use apps to connect with their insurer (if necessary), choose their preferred payment method, and make online payments.
Additionally, you can modify the content of a mobile app you create for your hospital to show only bills that have been paid or bills that are still pending. Thus, with the aid of medical app development, the payment process becomes more comfortable for all parties involved.
Reliable Patient Assessments
Hospital apps assist physicians in closely monitoring patients’ diagnoses and other medical evaluations. This reduces mistakes that could endanger the patient’s life. Sensors are used by healthcare apps to precisely track and monitor a range of health metrics.
Better quality and more efficiency in healthcare services follow from this. It is possible to create strong mobile apps for hospitals that offer access to real-time treatment procedures through mHealth app development.
Successful Marketing
The above-discussed medical apps for patients can help you stand out in a market where many rural and other transitional hospitals and clinics are still unaware of the many advantages of mobile technology. It can be used as the best marketing instrument.
You can quickly notify patients about appointments, reports, and news, promotions, and exclusive deals by using the push notification system. You can turn a patient who visits you once into a devoted one in this way.
Improved Image of the Brand
You must attract users if you want to stay at the top of the cutthroat industry. The greatest way to do so might be through the hospital apps for patients. You can analyze user behavior and get patient feedback with a hospital mobile app.
You can quickly identify the shortcomings of your services and create more effective, user-focused marketing strategies with the help of the data gathered.
Timely Assistance in Remote Areas
One of the main advantages of mobile health apps is this. The greatest medical services are available via hospital apps to those who live in remote or suburban areas. The majority of people in remote areas could receive timely care without having to travel to a hospital by scheduling video calls with doctors.
IoT-Based Patient-Centric Solutions
The use of IoT in healthcare has led to far improved resource management. The medical staff can keep their extensive inventory organized and check it with ease. Additionally, IoT considerably lowers the cost of treatment and makes it simpler for patients to comply with doctor’s orders.
IoMT can also highlight patient-centricity by allowing patients to share medical information online, reducing the need for recurrent hospital stays. Through the simplification of medical workflow management, the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) has enhanced patient care in both in-person and remote settings.
Instantaneous Communication
One of the key advantages of mobile health apps is this. With the help of these hospital patient apps, doctors around the world can collaborate, consult, and share information in real time. Patients gain from this because physicians can exchange knowledge instantly across borders. Furthermore, frequent real-time communication between medical professionals and patients enhances monitoring by continuously assessing health.
Obtain Input
This further clarifies the significance of hospital applications. Patients can rate medical facilities and services and leave feedback with the aid of medical apps. On the other hand, a hospital communication app enables the medical staff to directly provide feedback to the higher authority.
It makes sense to offer a digital platform rather than a paper-based feedback form. Healthcare providers can begin by identifying areas for service improvement or gaps after receiving feedback.
Investing in a mobile app for your hospital can be a wise and useful move that will improve communication, draw in new patients, and streamline operational procedures. After learning the main justifications for getting a mobile app for your hospital, let’s talk about the kinds of hospital apps that are transforming patient care and service delivery.
Hospital App Types That Revolutionize Patient Care
The section above should have given you some idea of the broad range of applications that the hospital segment offers to address various relevant industry challenges. Below, let’s look at a few of the various hospital apps that are frequently used by hospitals.
EHR Applications
Healthcare workers can electronically maintain and access patient records with the use of an electronic health record (EHR). From their mobile devices, they can quickly access the patient’s prescriptions, medical history, treatment plans, lab results, and other information.
These apps improve patient safety and care by reducing paperwork, promoting better healthcare decision-making, and ensuring seamless information sharing among the medical staff.
The Health-e-People app was created by our specialists at Appic Softwares to accomplish the same task.
With the help of this app, users can locate medical help, connect with others to form a community, store and track all of the data from their healthcare apps and devices, and create thorough medical records.
Apps for Appointments
The process of making an appointment is made simpler by this type of hospital app. Patients can easily schedule any available time slot at their convenience, reschedule any existing appointment, and receive push notifications for appointment reminders with the help of these appointment scheduling and management apps.
Additionally, by streamlining the scheduling procedure and lowering the likelihood of patient no-shows, these appointment scheduling apps help hospitals make effective use of their resources.
Apps for Telemedicine
Apps for telemedicine have become very popular in the last few years. Telemedicine apps provide ultimate convenience to patients and physicians for more efficient healthcare management by enabling remote consultations between in-hospital doctors and patients via voice, video, or chat messages. This guarantees ongoing regular checkups and aids in the management of chronic conditions.
Apps for Emergency Response
When there are serious emergencies, every second matters. In an emergency, users can share their location or access medical information by using emergency response and monitoring apps to get help quickly.
Additionally, these emergency apps gather patients’ real-time medical data and notify users of any worrying or alarming changes in the patients’ conditions, providing them with the opportunity and time to receive appropriate treatment.
Apps for Payment and Billing
The traditional method of handling patient bills in hospitals is very complicated, prone to errors, and may result in the loss of important records. These procedures can be made simpler with hospital billing apps, which give patients instant access to their insurance documents, the ability to view their bills, and the convenience of making simple online payments.
Additionally, these apps assist hospitals in increasing their revenue stream, reducing administrative costs, managing online billing paperwork, and improving the patient’s overall financial experience.
Apps for Staff Collaboration
For a hospital to provide coordinated patient care, good communication between the medical staff is essential. Apps for staff collaboration and communication make it easier for medical staff to securely manage patient resources, share files, communicate, and assign tasks to one another. These apps boost response times, foster better teamwork, and improve patient care and coordination.
These are but a handful of the wide range of hospital applications that are available right now. These apps have the power to drastically change healthcare by improving patient outcomes, productivity, and the overall healthcare experience. Now let’s examine the detailed procedure for creating a hospital application.
Steps Involved in the Hospital App Development Process
Since the goal of a hospital app is to improve healthcare delivery, it is a complicated process to develop. The following is a detailed description of the steps involved in developing a hospital app:
Evaluation of Needs and Collection of Requirements
Establishing the objectives of the healthcare organization is the first step in creating a hospital app. This necessitates understanding the specific problems the hospital wishes to address, such as improving patient engagement, bolstering staff communication, or optimizing workflows. Once the needs have been identified, a comprehensive development plan is created that details the features, goals, and schedule.
In order to gather precise requirements, hospital administrators, medical professionals, and end users work closely with the developers during this phase. The specialists specify the features and functionalities, user interface, and any specific regulatory compliance—like HIPAA in the US—that is necessary for the healthcare sector.
Create and Model
Based on the obtained requirements, designers create the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) for the app. Wireframes and prototypes are made to visually represent the functionality and layout of the app. In order to enhance the design and make sure it serves the goals of the healthcare organization, user input is crucial at this point.
Progress
The development phase includes developing the app’s architecture and writing code. Based on the needs of the project, developers select the optimal database and technology stack. The hospital app is created iteratively, testing and debugging frequently to identify and address issues.
Combination and Examination
Hospital apps frequently require the custom solution to be integrated with their current healthcare systems. The new app and these systems will exchange data seamlessly thanks to this integration and testing process. To make sure the app satisfies high standards, thorough testing is done, including performance, security, and functional testing. Healthcare providers can be confident in the app’s efficacy and dependability because it has undergone extensive testing.
Implementation and Start-Up
After the app is deployed to a production environment, users can access it. The deployment process may include setting up servers, databases, and cloud hosting services. The availability and functionality of the app are constantly being observed.
After-Launch Upkeep
Hospital app development is an ongoing process. The developers release updates, security patches, and maintenance on a regular basis to keep the app reliable and current for users.
Important Things to Think About When Developing a Hospital App
The process of creating hospital apps is very difficult because of the requirement to provide top-notch patient care. Among the main difficulties are the following:
The ability to scale
In order to accommodate increased usage without compromising or worsening the app’s performance during hospital expansions or patient volume spikes, the hospital app needs to be scalable. To avoid bottlenecks, scalability planning is essential.
Patient Involvement
Encouraging patient participation with the app can be challenging. Hospitals must develop features and functionalities that can assist in encouraging patients to actively use the app for tasks like making appointments, tracking their health, and accessing medical records.
Adoption by Users
Healthcare personnel are often reluctant to adapt when it comes to using new technology. Getting hospital staff to accept and use new software effectively can be a challenging task. User-friendly interfaces, in-depth training, and ongoing support are required to promote user adoption.
Compliance and Data Security
Strict data security regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the US, apply to applications used in the healthcare industry. Patient data security and privacy must always be ensured. To safeguard sensitive data, developers must incorporate strong encryption, access controls, and audit trails.
Creating a hospital app is a challenging process that involves many factors, including user adoption, data security, complex workflows, and regulatory compliance. To effectively navigate these obstacles, a comprehensive plan that prioritizes cooperation, adaptability, and a never-ending commitment to improving patient care and healthcare efficiency is needed. Now let’s take a look at the essential features of the hospital app.
Must-Have Features for Your Hospital App
Here is a list of features you can add to your hospital app to increase its functionality and attract more users, depending on your particular needs.
Making Appointments
Considering how easy it is to get anything these days, why not schedule an appointment from the comfort of your own home? Not only can patients save time by scheduling an online appointment, but doctors can also benefit from this.
With the help of this feature, patients can make, modify, and cancel appointments as needed. This is one of the most important features of the mobile health app and a vital means of communication between patients and physicians.
Electronic Prescription
Doctors can generate and send prescriptions to patients online with ease and error-free manual handling thanks to the e-prescription feature. This is a quick process that guarantees total patient satisfaction and enhances doctor-patient communication.
EMR/EHR accessibility
The ability to access Electronic Medical Records (EMR) or Electronic Health Records (EHR) is one of the most requested features of the hospital mobile app. Medical record access is very challenging to implement due to restrictions and other security issues, but it is well worth the effort as it gives patients and doctors complete access to medical records.
Both parties can exchange information in a seamless manner with the development of an EHR/EMR. The medical records are accessible to other departments besides the doctors for the purposes of billing, laboratory testing, and other needs. To learn how electronic health records will advance further in 2023, read the provided blog.
Push Alerts
You can use your hospital mobile app to send push notifications to your users for a number of things, such as scheduling appointments, modifying the schedule, and sending individualized pill reminders, appointment reminders, or any other pertinent health parameters.
Safe Payment Gateways
Hospital mobile apps that facilitate faster and simpler payment processing must have a secure payment gateway. Patients can receive alerts regarding past-due medication payments and other unrelated bills via healthcare mobile apps.
Chat Assistance
The clinic mobile app’s basic module is chat support, especially if you choose not to purchase the video conferencing options. In an emergency, your users should always be able to get in touch with a physician or other healthcare professional to get immediate attention and answers to important health-related queries.
For instance, healthcare chatbots are increasingly essential in giving patients the information they need, improving their whole experience with healthcare. In the healthcare sector, chatbots collect and store patient data, provide a range of educational responses to patient inquiries, and automate lower-level tasks and responsibilities performed by medical representatives.
Physician Biographies
Allow the patients to select the physician based on their personal histories. The mobile app for healthcare will feature doctor profiles with photos, thorough bios, office hours, and testimonials from past clients. This specific feature of the healthcare app improves your hospital’s transparency and dependability.
Doctors say that one of the best ways to identify and manage chronic illnesses is through telemedicine. Despite their geographic distance, mobile apps for healthcare are fundamentally altering the way doctors and patients communicate with one another. With a video-based consultation, you can speak with the doctor directly about things like bruises, infections, skin conditions, and other related information.
Patients can choose their preferred physician from a list of profiles, get information about the symptoms of their chronic illness, and access a number of other features with the aid of telemedicine.
Ambulance with Just One Click
One of the most important features of the hospital app for patients is the one-click ambulance. You can schedule an ambulance service for yourself, your loved ones, or anyone in need thanks to this incredible feature.
You can also let your trusted contacts know about the hospital’s location with a one-click ambulance feature. In the event of an emergency, you can also look over the list of pharmacies and labs in the area.
Combining Wearable Technology
Wearables can be used to monitor patients’ health and quality of life in addition to being used for fitness. The wearables, for example, can measure blood pressure, check heart rates and glucose levels, and more. By linking their app to their wearable, a user can efficiently monitor their own health. Additionally, these wearable gadgets can help with early disease diagnosis. Wearables are undoubtedly the way of the future for healthcare, for this reason.
The wearables used by the current generation track different aspects of their health. A platform that would link all the devices and accomplish much more than just serving as a single platform is precisely what they are lacking.
After talking about and learning about the essential components of a hospital app, let’s take a look at some of the most recent developments in hospital app development services.
Top Trends in Healthcare App Development
You need to keep up with the most recent developments in hospital mobile app development if you want to create a medical app. Let’s investigate them:
Growth of AI in Apps for Healthcare
The development of mobile apps for hospitals has seen an increase in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years. This is due to the fact that artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to develop customized and targeted healthcare applications that improve patient care.
Some AI-powered healthcare apps, for example, can track patient health data and provide personalized recommendations with ease. Other tasks that artificial intelligence can assist with include diagnosis, treatment planning, and patient care. See also: How AI speeds up the diagnosis process in medicine.
Cloud-Based Apps for Healthcare
The ability to securely store, access, and manage enormous amounts of data is one of the cloud computing industry’s main benefits for the healthcare industry. This indicates that sensitive patient data is maintained and preserved when cloud computing is used in the healthcare sector.
Accessing cloud-based healthcare apps allows patients to conveniently view, retrieve, and store their data from any location. Consequently, in order to stay up to date on health updates and treatments in real time, patients and physicians can now fully utilize these cloud-based applications.
Blockchain Medical Technology
One of the most talked-about developments in hospital mobile app development is blockchain technology. A decentralized database system made possible by blockchain technology makes data sharing transparent, safe, and impervious to manipulation. Healthcare institutions are currently investigating the most effective ways to exchange and store vital patient health data using blockchain technology.
Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize data management practices in the healthcare industry. It also becomes simpler for patients to regain total control over their health information, and for physicians to access it as needed.
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Nowadays, medical practitioners are using virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies to give patients a more engaging and immersive experience. Modern medical technologies, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), are now indispensable tools for treating patients with depression, visual impairments, cancer, and other conditions.
Additionally, the technology aids in the analysis of medical scan images and helps medical students learn and practice procedures. Additionally, these technologies are perfect for time-saving, cost-effective operations, personalized therapy, improving patient-doctor communication, and interactive training.
The advantages of metaverse technology are no longer exclusive to the healthcare sector. When developing strong and creative healthcare solutions, the majority of healthcare executives are now taking metaverse healthcare services into consideration.
In the field of healthcare, metaverse provides an immersive three-dimensional setting that enables patients to consult with doctors virtually from the comfort of their homes, discussing treatment options and other diagnostic procedures.
To create a mobile application for a hospital, one must stay up to date on the latest developments in hospital app development. Keeping up with these trends makes it possible to incorporate pertinent features and functionalities that cater to patients’ and healthcare professionals’ evolving needs. Now let’s examine how much it costs to develop a mobile app for a hospital.
How Much Does Developing a Hospital App Cost?
The process of developing a hospital app is intricate, requiring careful steps at every turn. A hospital app’s development can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $300,000, depending on a number of factors, including the application’s complexity, which are covered in more detail below.
MVP or Prototype: Since hospital app development is costly, it’s imperative to begin with an MVP or prototype for your app idea. The most basic features and functions of your hospital app, which will be further verified by end users, will be included in an MVP model. You can add more features to the MVP model later on. The price range for this clickable prototype is between $15,000 and $150,000. To learn how much it costs to build an MVP, read this blog.
Characteristics and Capabilities
Your hospital app needs to be jam-packed with excellent features if you want to keep users interested throughout. Basic features can be included for less money; advanced features will increase the cost of developing a hospital app. An advanced app can cost anywhere from $150,000 to $300,000 or more, while a basic hospital app can cost you between $25,000 and $50,000.
Selection of the Platform
In order to make sure your hospital app reaches the right people, platform selection is crucial. You have two options: cross-platform development or iOS or Android. A hybrid app will guarantee a larger audience reach, but a native app created for one platform will be less expensive.
Application Complexity
The entire cost of developing a hospital application is directly impacted by its complexity. This is due to the fact that maintaining and updating a more complex application calls for greater resources, including time and knowledge. The intricacy of the application may also raise the likelihood of bugs and other technical problems, which raises management expenses even more.
Design of UI/UX
A well-thought-out layout with user-friendly features is essential to the success of your hospital app. Depending on the complexity, unique graphics, and other features your medical app needs, the UI/UX design may cost more. The price range for the UX/UI design is between $10,000 and $50,000.
Location of the Development Team
The cost of developing a mobile app for a hospital should be taken into account depending on where the development team is located. In comparison to the Eastern regions, the hourly rates in the Western countries are relatively higher. A table outlining the total hourly cost of developing a hospital app based on global regions can be found below.
Compliances with Regulations
For data security and privacy, developing a hospital app requires compliance with laws like HIPAA. It needs secure data processing practices, such as encryption and SSL certificates. Healthcare must ensure clinical validity while also adhering to privacy laws such as the CCPA and GDPR.
FDA approval and ADA compliance may be necessary for medical device apps in order to ensure accessibility. It is essential to keep these regulatory issues in mind when developing apps in order to reduce the likelihood of legal and financial issues.
Upkeep and Assistance
The annual cost of ongoing upkeep, updates, and support is typically calculated to be between 15% and 20% of the original development cost. This is because bug fixes, security updates, ongoing monitoring, and user support are required.
These expenses guarantee that the system or software is safe, secure, and kept up to date with the rapidly changing technological environment. Regular backups, server maintenance, and software licensing costs are all included in ongoing maintenance and support. To find out how much it costs to create a hospital management system, read this blog.
How Can You Earn From Your Hospital App?
An app for hospital communication should support your corporate objectives. The following are some methods for making money off of your hospital mobile app:
Commercials
One of the most popular monetization techniques employed by healthcare organizations is advertising. By using this monetization technique, you can charge the advertisers to promote other companies. Cost-per-action, also known as cost-per-view and cost-per-click, is the primary focus of the strategy.
Premium/Freemium
Your patients can use the free version of your hospital app, which only has the most basic features, if you offer a freemium version of your app. The patient must pay to unlock the advanced features if they wish to utilize them. The paid version of your hospital app allows you to make money as soon as the patient purchases the advanced or premium features.
Reimbursed Subscription
One of the most common forms of revenue generation is a subscription service. Users cannot use the healthcare mobile app after their subscription expires; they must purchase a new one.
How Appic Softwares Expertise Makes Hospital App Development Simple?
The healthcare industry is now fiercely competitive as a result of new trends and technologies. In order to experience success, it is now imperative for any hospital or clinic to adapt to changing market demands. If you have selected the best healthcare application development services, a hospital app will improve patient value and streamline hospital operations as outlined in the aforementioned points.
From concept to deployment, Appic Softwares, an IT healthcare consulting and hospital app development company, offers end-to-end services and has a proven track record of creating reliable healthcare apps. Data security, HIPAA-compliant apps, and flawless user experiences are all guaranteed by their knowledgeable and talented development team.
Therefore, get in touch with our mobile app development specialists if you want to create a medical or hospital app. They have a great deal of experience creating scalable and user-friendly mobile apps for healthcare facilities. Join us today to begin your path to success!
Conclusion
In 2024, developing mobile apps for hospitals will be essential to transforming the healthcare industry. With intuitive and cutting-edge mobile solutions, you can empower patients and boost engagement while fostering a more cohesive and effective healthcare environment.
Moreover, if you are looking for a healthcare software development company through which you can hire developers, then you must checkout Appic Softwares. We have an experienced team of developers that can assist you to build a medical software. You can even hire dedicated developers from us and let them manage your billing software.
So, what are you waiting for?
