If you run a healthcare practice, you can quickly grow a pool of paper documents, including forms, prescriptions, medical records, and test reports. You must not only keep these documents safe but also have them handy when you need them. What’s more? You also have to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to avoid legal penalties.
If managing all this sounds like a lot of work (which it does!), healthcare document management software is the right tool for you. The software takes care of your documents by digitizing them, storing them in a centralized repository, monitoring access to them, and archiving them as needed. It also helps ensure regulatory compliance with data privacy laws such as HIPAA.
New to document management software? Check out this buyers guide to learn about the tool and its features.
If you’re set to pick a tool, we’ve built a list of document management solutions with the highest ratings on Capterra, based only on reviews from users in the healthcare industry. The tools are listed alphabetically. You can read our full methodology here.
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Device compatibility
Overall healthcare user rating: 4.56 (91 reviews)
Notable features: Machine learning-driven auto tags and document lifecycle management
Box is a cloud-based document management system that offers several features to create, organize, share, and store documents. It helps manage the entire lifecycle of your documents, from creation to disposal.
The software offers unlimited file storage. You can use its workflow automation feature to define how a document should be created, reviewed, stored, archived, or disposed. You can also assign access permissions and editing rights to let internal and external users collaborate on documents.
The tool lets you set up document security measures for each device or user that has access to patient data. This helps keep the data safe from unauthorized access and security breaches. The medical document management system also helps you maintain HIPAA compliance for patient healthcare records.
Uploading patient files in Box (Source)
Here’s what reviewers on Capterra have to say about Box:
Visit Box’s reviews page to read more in-depth opinions, including pros and cons.
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Device compatibility
Overall healthcare user rating: 4.61 (28 reviews)
Notable features: Group file sharing, lost file recovery, and version history
Dropbox Business is a cloud-based file storage and collaboration platform that brings all your medical documents together at one centralized location. You can store PowerPoint files, Google Docs, and Trello boards, all in one place. This helps save the time and effort invested in switching between tools to access files of different formats.
The tool’s search functionality allows you to find documents in the repository and check what’s stored where. You can create user groups to share documents with different teams as well as grant or restrict access rights for these groups. You can also share large files via a secure link to cloud-stored patient data.
The tool’s file recovery feature helps recover lost or deleted files, while its remote wipe feature lets you remotely erase healthcare data from any lost or stolen device. Data is deleted only from the specific device and not from your Dropbox account. You can later sync the data from your account to a new device, if needed.
Viewing the version history in Dropbox Business (Source)
Here’s what reviewers on Capterra have to say about Dropbox Business:
Visit Dropbox Business’ reviews page to read more in-depth opinions, including pros and cons.
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Device compatibility
Overall healthcare user rating: 4.74 (316 reviews)
Notable features: Document scan, library sync, and Google Workspace Marketplace
Google Workspace is a suite of business applications, including Google Docs, Google Drive, and Gmail. With the help of these apps, you can create, share, store, and collaborate on clinical documents using a single platform.
You can upload documents from your desktop or mobile device and store them in Google Drive. You can use the sync feature to automatically back up critical documents. To upload physical documents, you can use the scan feature in Google Drive’s mobile app. It takes a picture of the physical document and saves it in Drive as a PDF file. This feature works only with Android phones and tablets.
You can transfer reports or forms from your Gmail inbox to Google Drive using the save attachments feature. And if you work on Google Docs, files are automatically saved and stored in Google Drive, so you don’t have to sync them manually. With Google Docs, you can also share files with your multiple users and modify the access right each user has.
If you need more document management features, Google Workspace Marketplace offers several add-ons you can purchase to improve the capabilities of the tool.
A view of the various tools in Google Workspace (Source)
Here’s what reviewers on Capterra have to say about Google Workspace:
Visit Google Workspace’s reviews page to read more in-depth opinions, including pros and cons.
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Device compatibility
Overall healthcare user rating: 4.71 (737 reviews)
Notable features: Library sync and Microsoft SharePoint
Microsoft 365 is a suite of business applications. It offers tools such as Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Word that support document creation, storage, sharing, and collaboration. While OneDrive serves as a centralized repository for all your documents, SharePoint lets you share and collaborate on documents.
The tool offers 100GB file storage. It allows you to scan documents, arrange them in separate folders, and use the built-in search functionality to locate the files you need. You can also assign document viewing and editing rights to internal and external users.
Microsoft 365 helps keep your documents safe by backing them up and recovering them in case of accidental deletion or a cyberattack. It also facilitates real-time collaboration by creating a SharePoint version of documents, on which your team can comment, annotate, and make edits. The tool also offers version control to help identify the latest version of a patient file.
Backing up documents in Microsoft 365 (Source)
Here’s what reviewers on Capterra have to say about Microsoft 365:
Visit Microsoft 365’s reviews page to read more in-depth opinions, including pros and cons.
Find a document management tool that best fits your healthcare organization
In this article, we’ve mentioned some of the highest rated medical document management tools in the market. That said, every medical facility is unique, and it’s likely that the tools mentioned here, despite being highly competent, don’t include some of the features you need. If you come across such a tool, ask the vendor if they can accommodate your needs by including customized features or through third-party integrations.
If that isn’t possible, check out our 2021 Shortlist for document management software. The Shortlist report features the best medical document management tools in the market based on their user ratings and popularity. It’ll also serve as a great starting point for your software research.