Hospital and Clinic Management Systems in Kenya: Prices and Must-Have Features
A hospital management system covers patient records, billing, pharmacy, lab and insurance claims, including SHA. Here's what clinics and hospitals pay, the features that matter, and what to check before you sign.
Hospitals and clinics in Kenya run on three money flows: cash and M-Pesa, insurance, and SHA. A hospital management system (HMS) has to handle all three while keeping patient records private. Prices vary from monthly subscriptions for small clinics to large one-off implementations for hospitals.
Must-have features
- Patient registration and records with visit history
- Triage, consultation notes and prescriptions
- Billing: cash, M-Pesa, insurance schemes and SHA claims
- Pharmacy stock with batches and expiry dates
- Laboratory requests and results
- Reports for management and the regulators
- Role-based access and audit logs, because patient data is sensitive under the Data Protection Act
What drives the price
- Number of departments (outpatient only, or inpatient, maternity, theatre)
- Number of users and branches
- Integrations: SHA, insurers, M-Pesa, lab machines
- Data migration from paper or an old system
Start with the website patients see
Patients judge a hospital before they arrive. We built the website for Primegala Hospital at Maili Sita: services, maternity, lab, pharmacy, SHA cover and directions, made so a worried patient finds what they need in seconds. A clear website and a working system together are what make a facility look as good as its care.
Antony Mungai
Founder, Steff Cloud — building websites, systems and automation for Kenyan businesses from Nakuru.