Buying guideNursing homeHMIS
Hospital software buying checklist for a 20-bed nursing home
A checklist for choosing software for a 20-bed nursing home: modules you need on day one, ABDM, price, data and exit terms, support, and how to run the demo.
- Author
- Kentron Technologies
- Published
- Reading time
- 5 min read
A 20-bed nursing home needs hospital software that covers OPD, IPD, pharmacy, billing and ABDM out of the box, costs a known amount each year, runs on the computers and internet you already have, and comes with someone who answers the phone at night. This checklist puts those requirements in the order you should check them, with the question to ask and the answer to expect.
A nursing home buys software once in five or ten years, so nobody on the team has practice at it. Vendors do it every week. The checklist is meant to level that difference in an afternoon.
What should the software cover on day one?
| Area | Must have for 20 beds | Good to have |
|---|---|---|
| Front desk and OPD | Registration by mobile search, tokens, doctor schedules, OPD billing | WhatsApp booking, a waiting-area display |
| IPD | Bed board, admission and transfer, nursing vitals and notes, medication chart, structured discharge summary | Tablet at the bedside, voice-dictated summaries |
| Pharmacy | Batch and expiry, purchase and GRN, prescription-linked sales, GST invoices | Ward indents, supplier ledger, reorder suggestions |
| Lab | Test orders from OPD and IPD, result entry, signed reports | Analyser interfacing, WhatsApp report delivery |
| Billing and accounts | Itemised and package billing, deposits, dues, receipts by mode, daily collection report | Tally or accounting export, TPA claim ledger |
| ABDM | ABHA creation, HFR and HPR registration, record linking (M1, M2, M3 certified) | Patient app with ABHA records |
| Security and admin | Individual logins, roles, login logs, audit trail | Two-factor login for administrators |
| Reports | Daily MIS: collections, occupancy, dues, pharmacy margin, doctor-wise OPD | Scheduled reports on WhatsApp |
If a vendor sells any must-have row as a module with a separate price, note it and add it to the quote before you compare.
What should you ask about ABDM?
- Which milestones is this exact product certified for? Ask for the certificates and check the ABDM partners page yourself.
- Show me an ABHA created on production with a real OTP.
- Is HFR and HPR registration done inside the software and included in onboarding?
- Show me a discharge summary linked to an ABHA and a consent request arriving.
- The full list of questions is in how to check whether an HMIS is really ABDM certified.
What should you ask about price?
- The first-year price and the renewal price, ex-GST, in writing. Healthixio's clinic and nursing home plan for up to 20 beds is ₹40,000 in the first year and ₹20,000 a year after that.
- What is included: onboarding, data migration, training, support, updates, backups. In Healthixio all six are included in every plan.
- What is charged separately: SMS, WhatsApp per-message fees, payment gateway. These are normal, but they should be listed.
- Is there a per-user or per-bed limit, and what happens when you cross it?
- How the prices compare across vendors is covered in hospital management software price in India in 2026.
What should you ask about data, security and exit?
- Where is patient data stored? The answer should be a data centre in India, including backups.
- How often are backups taken, and when was the last restore test?
- Is there a VAPT report from a CERT-In empanelled auditor? Ask to see the cover page and the date.
- Does every user get a personal login with a role, and can I see who viewed a patient record and when?
- What do I get if I leave: the export format, the time it takes, and the cost? Get it in the contract.
- Who owns the data? The contract should say the hospital does.
What should you check about support and training?
- Support hours and the channel. A nursing home admits patients at night; the number must work at night.
- Response time in writing, and what counts as an emergency.
- Training: how many sessions, for which roles, and whether retraining after staff turnover is included.
- Who does the data migration: patient master, pending dues, pharmacy stock with batches.
- Ask for two customer references of similar size and call them. Ask about the first month, not the demo.
How do you run the demo?
- Bring your own scenarios and make the vendor run them. A walk-in OPD patient with a pharmacy bill. An admission with a deposit, a ward transfer, a medication chart, a discharge with a summary. A TPA patient from pre-authorisation to claim file.
- Put your receptionist and a nurse in front of the screen, not the owner. They will see the slow steps.
- Time the tasks: registration, a round of vitals, a pharmacy bill. Speed at the desk is the difference between software that is used and software that is bypassed.
- Ask to see the daily MIS on real data, not a sample.
- Ask what happens when the internet drops for an hour and how the desk continues.
- Ask for a free trial after the demo, and use it with real patients for a week.
Healthixio is used by more than 500 hospitals in over 110 Indian cities, publishes its prices, and offers a free demo and trial. If you would like to run this checklist against it, get in touch.
Frequently asked questions
Is free or very cheap hospital software a good idea for a nursing home?
Rarely. Free software has no one to call at night, no ABDM certification and no one paying for backups. Very cheap software usually recovers the price through modules, training days and per-user fees. Compare the three-year total with everything included, and weigh the cost of a lost day of billing against the saving on the subscription.
Should a nursing home choose cloud or on-premise software?
Cloud, unless the nursing home has no reliable internet and no mobile network to fall back on. A cloud system removes the server, the backup routine and the person who looks after both, and the money saved pays for a second internet connection. The comparison is in cloud hospital software vs on-premise.
How long does it take to go live?
For a 20-bed nursing home with clean data, a few weeks from signing to the front desk using the system, with the pharmacy and wards following once opening stock and tariffs are entered. The slow parts are on your side: deciding tariffs, collecting doctor registrations, counting pharmacy stock. Start those before the software arrives.