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Patient Management Tools

Some patient management tools track patient progress. Others are used to look up symptoms and treatments of common diseases, while others can track how well a hospital is delivering care to its patients.Some of these tools are free to use and download, but most require a fee.

  1. Patient Adherence Tracking Tool

    • This is a free tool provided by the National Diabetes Education Initiative, which is a type 2 diabetes education program for health care providers. The goal of this tool is to track how well the patient is following the doctor's recommendations, and it can be kept within the patient's file or chart. Three questions listed on the sheet should be asked every time the patient comes in as this instills diabetes management principles and helps keep the patient on track. These are asking about the person's ideal weight, blood pressure and target A1C (glycated hemoglobin, which indicates how much plasma glucose is in the patient's system). The tool also features places to keep track of exams, lab results, vaccinations, BMI, glucose numbers and cholesterol numbers. It is available online at ndei.org

    Harrison's Practice

    • This tool can be used to look up common disorders and diseases, and items can be searched by the exact title or symptoms. The Harrison's Practice diagnostic and patient management tool will pull up all the information related to a disease or disorder, including treatment plans, needed tests and care guidelines.While there is a free 45 day trial subscription for this software, interested parties will have to pay a yearly subscription to use it. As of 2010, prices generally range from $400 to $1,100 per year depending on the package, and student packages are available for between $75 and $300. Some packages, however, may be significantly more for larger hospitals. It is available online at lexi.com.

    Heart Failure Patient Management Tool

    • This tool is offered by the American Heart Association, which seeks to reduce the number of deaths related to cardiovascular (heart) disease. The Heart Failure Patient Management Tool helps hospitals track how well they are providing American Heart Association guidelines treatment to their patients and how well they are doing overall in following those guidelines. This is an online tool, which can keep track of notes, patient interactions and benchmarks. Other features include the ability to figure out the patient's risk of dying and how well the hospital ranks against other hospitals. Hospitals may request a demonstration of how this software works before they choose to purchase it. Pricing for this service varies by hospital size, but it is generally upwards of a $1,000 plus per year in 2010. For information, visit heart.org.

    Patient Care Management Software

    • This is an interactive software program that allows healthcare providers to pull up comprehensive information on the patient, including lab results, current medications, appointments, vaccinations and diagnosis. This tool can also be used to find a patient's records by searching for certain information, and it has the ability to pull up the charts for up to five patients. As of 2010, the Ad-Free License is $100 per month, but there is an Ad-Supported License where users have to view ads from third-parties. Learn more at practicefusion.com.

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