MANUAL EXPENSE RECORD MANAGEMENT SOLUTION FOR NIGERIAN HOSPITAL

Manual Expense Records Management in Nigeria Hospitals

Just like any other business, running a hospital involves a careful balance with costs, and a significant part of this balance is managing expenses. Think about all the medical supplies, staff allowances, and even the unexpected costs that pop up in the day-to-day running of a hospital.

Staff members often have to make out-of-pocket purchases and then submit reports for reimbursement. As the hospital owner or financial admin, you’re tasked with approving these expenses, keeping an eye on the hospital’s spending, and ensuring everything is documented for proper financial analysis and audits.

Now, while some hospitals have waved goodbye to the era of paper reports, heaps of receipts, and confusing spreadsheets, replacing them with user-friendly expense management software, to help them streamline this cumbersome process. Most hospitals in Nigeria, often find themselves stuck with outdated manual processes and systems. And let me tell you, this can lead to some serious challenges and hidden costs.

These hidden costs are akin to a slowly leaky faucet. On the surface, it might seem manageable, even negligible. But over time, each drop accumulates, leading to a huge mess. That’s why it’s so important to shine a light on these hidden costs and implement effective strategies to manage them, cause ignoring them is like ignoring that leaky faucet, thinking it’s just a minor issue, until one day you’re faced with a major mess.

The Unseen Financial Burdens of practicing Manual Expense Records Management in Nigeria Hospitals

You know what they say, not all costs are as upfront as they seem. When it comes to managing expenses the old-fashioned way, there’s a whole world of hidden expenses lurking beneath the surface. We call them “silent expenses” because they often go unnoticed until it’s too late. Let’s talk about them.

1. Increased administrative costs: Nigeria hospitals that rely on manual expense records face higher administrative costs due to the need for dedicated staff to manage and process paper-based transactions. The expense of hiring employees for data entry, verification, and filing can strain the hospital’s budget, diverting resources away from patient care and essential medical services.

2. Cash flow management challenges: For hospitals in Nigeria, efficient cash flow management is critical for its day-to-day operations and quality patient care. Manual expense records make it harder to track expenses promptly since it involves cumbersome processes from sorting receipts, manually retrieving data, and reconciling transactions.

These are both time-consuming and require a long process leading to delays or inaccuracy in financial reporting and waiting for what feels like forever to get reimbursed.

What this cause to your hospital is unexpected cash shortages, delayed payments to suppliers, and potential disruptions in the procurement of essential medical supplies and equipment that helps in healthcare delivery.

3. Compliance and regulatory risks: Nigerian hospitals must comply with local financial regulations(tax) and healthcare standards. Manual expense records may lack the necessary documentation and organization required for regulatory audits, exposing the hospital to compliance risks and potential penalties.

Inaccurate or incomplete record-keeping, difficulty in tracking and categorizing expenses, limited real-time visibility, documentation challenges, and limited reporting capabilities all contribute to these challenges. Meeting reporting deadlines and providing accurate financial information becomes more challenging, potentially leading to non-compliance issues.

This can damage the hospital’s reputation and lead to penalties, fines, and legal consequences, straining hospital finances and diverting funds from patient care.

4. Prone to document errors and loss: Manual expense records, stored as physical copies like receipts or paperwork, are susceptible to errors, damage and loss.

Misplaced decimal points, calculation mistakes, or even illegible handwriting on receipts can lead to inaccurate expense entries and financial discrepancies.

The loss of important financial documents can disrupt hospital operations and increase the costs of recovery or recreating records. All these can affect budgeting decisions, lead to overspending, and result in challenges during financial audits.

            And there leads us to the last one and the most damaging of all

5. Increased vulnerability to fraud: Nigeria’s healthcare industry is not immune to fraud risks. Manual expense records can make it easier for fraudulent activities to go unnoticed or be difficult to detect since is not all a transparent process. For example, expense reimbursement fraud, where submission of fake or inflated expense claims are carried out. This is cause due to the lack of strict controls and verification processes.

Inflated vendor invoices pose another risk, as manual systems make it difficult to catch discrepancies and prevent dishonest vendors from submitting overpriced or fictitious invoices. Additionally, the absence of strong access controls in manual processes increases the risk of unauthorized access and unauthorized spending, enabling fraudsters to misuse hospital funds and divert resources for personal gain.

The impact goes beyond financial losses, as fraud undermines trust and damages the hospital’s reputation. Rebuilding trust takes time and effort, affecting partnerships and donor contributions, further straining hospital finances. Implementing strong internal controls is one way for hospitals to mitigate fraud risks and ensure resources are dedicated to providing quality patient care.

So, if you’re running a hospital in Nigeria and find yourself nodding along to these challenges, it’s time to consider making a change. Adopting expense management software such as one found in Cliniqueplus EMR can help immune your hospital operations from all of these challenges.

CliniquePlus EMR software have an efficient expenses records management that can help streamline your hospital processes by automating expense recording, data entry, and reporting processes.

Hospitals can streamline operations, drastically reduce errors, improve financial transparency, enhance compliance, mitigate fraud risks, and allocate resources more efficiently to provide better patient care. It’s a small step that can make a big difference in the way your hospital manages its expenses.

In just 3 steps. You can begin automating expense recording, data entry, and reporting processes for your hospital operation

Step 1

• Request for payment by staff for themself or others
• System automatically auto-fill with staff bank details ensuring accuracy and convenience
• Toggle to request payment for non-staff
• Can also filter expenses by dates for easy tracking

Step 2

• One time setup finance admin (who will be in charge of expense approval and payments)
• Admin request approval for transparent process(only finance admin can see others payment requests)

Step 3

• Pay disbursement with ease(Only approved requests can be paid)
• Enter payment details and allocate funds from the company purse e.g imprest purse
• Upload payment proof if any for record keeping

With Cliniqueplus EMR, finance administrators can record expenses on the go, eliminating the need for cumbersome physical records. By using this software in your hospital operation, it ensures you don’t have to worry about expense fraud anymore, every expense is accurately recorded and accounted for by the finance admin.

With just a few clicks, you can streamline the reimbursement process, making it faster, more transparent, and helps simplify financial management.  

But don’t just take our word for it – see it in action in this short clip below and witness firsthand, how this innovative software transforms expense management in hospitals.