A hospital management system touches every desk in the building, so a poor choice is expensive to undo. Demos are designed to look good. Here are nine things to test before you sign. Bring your billing clerk, your front desk lead and whoever looks after your computers. They will ask questions you would not think of.

1. Does it match the departments you actually run?

List what you have today: OP, IP, theatre, lab, radiology, pharmacy, nursing stations, emergency, maternity. Then ask which of these are included and which are extra. A clinic with no beds does not need an in-patient module, and a nursing home should not pay for features it will never open. Switching modules on and off by licence is a good sign.

2. How does billing work on a busy day?

Ask the vendor to bill a real case, not a demo patient. Test advances, package rates, discounts, refunds, part payments and dues. Check that the bill can be printed on your own letterhead, and that the cash closing at the end of a shift matches what is in the drawer.

3. Can it handle insurance, TPA and government schemes?

Many hospitals lose time and money on claims. Ask how the system tracks a claim from admission to settlement, how it splits a bill between the insurer and the patient, and whether it supports schemes such as Aarogyasri if you take those patients.

4. What reports do you get, and who can change them?

Ask for the list. Day-wise collections, doctor-wise and referral-wise reports, in-patient lists and balances are the ones you will use every week. Check that they export to Excel, and that printed bills and slips can be edited without paying the vendor each time.

5. What happens when the internet goes down?

A hospital cannot stop billing because a connection failed. Ask whether the software runs on a server in your own building or only on someone else's cloud. Both can work, but know which you are buying and what you do on a bad day. If it is on your own server, ask who looks after that server.

6. How are backups done, and who tests them?

Ask what is backed up, how often, and where the copy goes. A backup on the same disk is not enough. Ask when the last restore was actually tried. Then ask who restores it at two in the morning, and how you reach them.

7. Who can see what?

Doctors, nurses, front desk, cashiers, lab and managers need different access. Ask whether permissions are enforced on the server and whether important changes are logged with a name and a time. Ask what happens to a login when a staff member leaves.

8. What will it cost over five years?

Do not compare the first-year price alone. Ask for the licence, setup and training, yearly support, hosting if any, and the cost of adding a module later. Ask what happens to the software if you stop paying for support. Ask about price increases and how much notice you get.

9. Can you take your data out?

Ask for an export of your own records in a usable format, and ask whether it is free. Ask what you can still read if a licence expires. Your patient records belong to your hospital, not to the vendor.

A note on what the software should and should not do

A hospital management system records, organises and reports. Clinical judgement stays with your doctors, nurses and pharmacists. Be careful with any vendor who suggests the software will diagnose, score or decide for your clinicians.

Where Tatbiq HMS fits

Tatbiq HMS runs on a server inside your hospital, with modules switched on and off per hospital by a signed licence. Our pricing page lists the starting prices, and we are happy to walk you through the nine questions above with your own team in the room. Get in touch and we will arrange a demo.