Help / Hospital

Charge the bill

How bed days and extra charges build the bill, and how to settle it after discharge.

What the bill contains

Open the patient's chart and choose the Bill section. It has two parts:

• Bed days - a charge for every night in a bed, at that bed's daily rate. The lines read like "3 x Bed charge at 2,000", with the ward, bed and dates.
• Charges - procedures, tests, medicines sold and services you add from your item catalogue.

At the bottom you see Bed days, Charges and Total (before tax). The heading shows whether the bill is running, not settled, or settled.

How bed days are counted

A bed is charged for each night the patient spends in it, that is, every midnight crossed, at the rate of the bed they were in. If a patient moves bed on the same day, the new bed is charged for that day. A patient admitted and discharged on the same day crosses no midnight and is charged one day at the rate of the last bed, so a day-care stay is never free.

Add a charge

You need the Hospital Edit permission, and the bill must not be settled yet.

1. In Add a charge, choose an item. The list shows each item's name and sales price.
2. Enter the Quantity.
3. Leave Price (optional) empty to use the catalogue price, or enter an agreed price.
4. Optionally add a Note and click Add charge.

To remove a wrong charge click Void. A voided charge stays visible but struck through and is not billed.

Settle the bill

The bill can be settled only after the patient is discharged.

1. Click Settle bill.
2. In Paid into, choose the bank or cash account that receives the money.
3. If the patient pays cash, enter Cash given (optional) so the change can be worked out.
4. Click Confirm payment.

Legasum posts an invoice and the payment through the till (POS) to the patient's own customer record, and shows "Bill settled" with the invoice number, the total, any tax and the change to give back. Tax is added when the invoice is posted, so the invoice total can be higher than the "before tax" total on the chart.

Good to know

• A bill is settled once. After that, charges can no longer be added or voided.
• If the stay comes to nothing (daily rate 0 and no charges), there is nothing to bill and the button stays disabled.
• If the payment is refused (for example the account is not valid), nothing is marked as billed and you can try again.
• Billed amounts feed the hospital reports.