OH is developed in Java and it is based on open-source tools and libraries; it runs on any computer, requires low resources and is designed to work without an internet connection.

Open Hospital is the first of a set of software applications that ISF - Informatici Senza Frontiere has developed to support the information management and the activities of hospitals and health centers in the simplest manner possible, by providing tools for the administrative operations (like registering patients, manage laboratory analysis and pharmaceutical stocks) and to produce detailed statistics and reports.

When OH is used in PORTABLE mode, it is easily possible to move the installation on another computer or even run it from a USB stick or drive.

Informatici Senza Frontiere ("IT Without Borders") was formed in 2005 after a meeting between an Italian doctor working at St. Luke's Hospital, Angal, a small rural hospital in northern Uganda, and a group of Italian IT managers about the importance of computer technology even in remote areas where to have drinkable water, medicines and competent doctors might seem a higher priority.

[1] After a few months of work by Roberto Carrer, Flavio Voltolina and their students at ITIS Vito Volterra in Veneto,[2] the first application for the hospital was ready; it was delivered in 2006.