An All-Inclusive Guide to Creating EHR Software

Electronic Health Records (EHR) software has become an inseparable part of every modern-day healthcare facility whether it is a big hospital or a small-sized clinic.

Developing flawless and highly functional EHR software is a complex process and involves several steps. You need to pick the right business model and feature set that suits you best. You also need to identify the tech stack and software development tools that best fit your user case requirements. All of these tasks also depend on your project’s complexity, budget, and resource availability.

So, if you are planning to develop EHR software, you need to have a clear idea of the nitty-gritty of EHR development. If you plan to go for off-the-shelf EHR systems, you should have a thorough knowledge of the software so that you are able to pick a solution that matches your business objective and operational requirements.

This post provides detailed insights into an EHR solution, the must-have features, and guidance on how to develop it.

What Is EHR Software?

EHR software is a digital records system that electronically stores patients’ health information. Authorized users can access this information. This software helps healthcare service providers capture and store patients’ data including their medical history and information about matters such as diagnoses, medications prescribed, imaging reports, laboratory results and allergies. EHR software promotes interoperability between various systems and devices within a healthcare facility. As such, you can consolidate healthcare data from all sources into a centralized location. This allows a provider to effectively manage data and share it with authorized persons whenever required. EHR usage ensures effectiveness and security for data storage and exchange.

This software also sends reminders and alerts for crucial to-do functions. These reminders can be anything from preventive medical screenings to potential drug interactions. An EHR solution offers tools to support clinical decisions. Moreover, healthcare providers can access a patient’s entire health-related information. This way, providers can identify health risks with patients on time, implement preventive measures, and make more informed patient-care decisions. EHR also helps providers to manage administrative tasks such as revenue cycle, billing, financial reporting, payment processing, and insurance claims processing.

EHR offers patients an engaging and highly satisfying user experience. Patients can access their medical data online, schedule appointments with doctors, and also communicate with healthcare professionals and providers. Hence, patients can participate more actively during their treatment process and can communicate more effectively. Furthermore, the quality of care they receive is outstanding.

Why Do Customized EHRs Prove More Effective Than Generic Ones?

For all healthcare organizations opting for an EHR system, there are two options. You can either use an off-the-shelf healthcare product or develop custom software according to your unique requirements. Providers using an off-the-shelf EHR system can access generic features and have to adjust their existing infrastructure to the system. This approach works for some medical providers whose requirements are generic.

However, most providers have specific use case requirements. Hospitals and clinics come across interoperability issues when implementing a ready-made solution and integrating it into their existing infrastructure. This is why healthcare organizations need a tailor-made solution. So, it’s a great idea to partner with an experienced healthcare app development company and get a custom solution based on the unique requirements of your hospital.

Custom EHR software streamlines workflow, automates billing cycles and supports evidence-based practices. You can include advanced security features or add an extra security layer, such as strong data encryption and two-factor authentication, to protect healthcare data from cyber-attacks.

What Are the Major Types of EHR Systems and How do They Work?

These are the two primary types of EHR systems: physician-hosted and remotely-hosted systems.

Physician-hosted EHR Systems

A Physician-hosted EHR system is installed and managed on servers that are owned and operated by an individual physician or a healthcare organization. Data is hosted on this healthcare entity’s on-premise servers. The individual practitioner or healthcare facility installs and maintains the hardware and the software.

On-premise data storage comes with several benefits. The entire control remains with the healthcare provider without the need for depending on any external Cloud vendor. Such servers do not need a wireless Internet connection. As a result, there are fewer data security risks and one can quickly access bandwidth-intensive medical data.

Remotely-hosted EHR Systems

A remotely-hosted EHR system is a Cloud-based off-premises data storage system. Here, healthcare providers host their data on the servers that a third-party vendor owns and operates. Healthcare data is stored remotely and can be hosted via the Internet.

Off-premise Cloud storage comes with benefits such as cost-effectiveness. Data can be easily accessed from any place and at any time. Such a system also allows healthcare services to scale up and down based on the need.

Which EHR System Should You Choose?

EHR system selection depends on specific requirements and preferences of healthcare services. Consider factors such as cost, customization abilities, control, and accessibility. For example, a remotely hosted EHR solution is more affordable and needs less technical expertise to maintain than other EHR solutions. This is because the healthcare provider focuses on data collection rather than IT management. Authorized users can access this data remotely via the Internet. However, medical facilities opting for this approach are likely to face issues related to data privacy and security. Customization options are also not available.

So, if you require high-grade data security and privacy and a customized EHR system, a physician-hosted system will serve your needs better.

What Are the Key Features to Include in an EHR System?

Patient Portal

The patient portal is one of the most vital features in an EHR system. It must include all necessary patient details including name, age, address, medication details, test results, radiology images, ultrasound scans, medical history, specific allergies, treatment plans, and past treatment history.

Doctors can add data to this portal. Authorized persons, such as patients, and related healthcare professionals, such as doctors, nurses, and lab personnel, can also access data. Once patients fill out their information, the portal records it. Patients don’t have to furnish the provide the same information twice as the data is present in the portal.

The portal is a place where patients can check their treatment plans, lab results, and vaccinations recommended. They can also schedule lab tests and receive notifications about upcoming doctor appointments. All patient data consolidated in one single place helps doctors make a more accurate diagnosis and monitor a patient’s cure process.

e-Prescription

The e-Prescription feature is another essential element of an EHR system. This feature is used by physicians to prescribe medicines to patients remotely while avoiding any instance of drug incompatibility. This feature maintains a record of all prescriptions so that patients and their doctors can access their medication history whenever needed.

Integration with Imaging Labs

Integration with imaging labs adds value to your EHR model. Medical providers can place patients’ orders directly from the charts, get the results, and share this electronic data with the concerned patients. This feature enables doctors to track and access their patient’s test results, helping them to make treatment decisions effortlessly.

This functionality adds to the credibility of the entire healthcare process and speeds up treatment. Lab operators can also easily identify which tests are to be carried out and can consult practitioners directly to clarify their doubts. This boosts the efficiency as well as the accuracy of the imaging process altogether.

Charting

It becomes a tedious and time-consuming task for doctors to fill out charts and forms. The charting feature automates these tasks effectively and correctly. Here are certain ideas for implementing this smart feature.

• You can consider customizing chart templates for making your EHR software more productive and unique. Responsive charting and voice recognition are USPs you can include.
• Utilizing Machine Learning (ML) for creating this functionality will bring a lot to the table. ML algorithms will automate tasks using intelligent auto-filling methods and checkboxes, ensuring a high accuracy rate. ML integration requires professional healthcare app developers who will integrate these advanced techniques correctly and also optimize the EHR system based on the underlying device.

Reporting

Every medical service has its own reporting system to collect medical data and save it for future reference. Medical records are accessed by various departments of a hospital and other stakeholders of the healthcare facility’s ecosystem. The records often evolve with time and end up in lengthy documents that are difficult to understand.

Advanced reporting software, therefore, holds great importance in an EHR system. Such a feature allows you to create daily reports and sort them. The reports get automatically updated with time. This provides more transparent visibility of a healthcare service’s operations. These reports can prove to be beneficial for doctors as well as patients. The reporting software allows doctors to track the rate of success in terms of a patient’s treatment process. Patients can track how effective their treatment is going on. Above all, the reports are consolidated in one place in a uniform format. Hence, all the medical fraternity stakeholders in the chain find it easy and convenient to obtain the necessary information without much ado.

Access Control Mechanism

It’s important to protect the privacy of every patient’s personal information and healthcare data. This can be done by restricting access using the access control function. This feature restricts access to patient data by defining a set of limitations. This data can be only accessed by authorized users including the individual patient and the doctors and medical professionals handling that patient.

Medical Billing Module

Matters such as payments for treatments, invoice generation, and insurance claims and denials are part and parcel of every healthcare organization. The medical billing software module function makes these tasks easier, faster, and hassle-free.

A billing dashboard is an essential feature of an EHR system. It speeds up billing-related processes and adds to the convenience of patients and healthcare service providers unanimously. Patients can select their convenient payment methods from several options. They can also save payment mode information for future payment transactions. A billing dashboard can also enable one to submit billing-related queries and respond to them. Healthcare providers can view the insurance information of patients and also update this information when required. They can also utilize this feature for transferring medical data from charts to bills. The dashboard also stores healthcare payment records history.

Cloud Computing

You can host EHR data locally using legacy systems or remotely using Cloud-based software. Cloud-based electronic health record modules have proven to be the most popular ones. Such systems come with multiple advantages. Healthcare providers can reduce costs related to the installation and maintenance of hardware and software. Cloud-based systems also lower the risk of run-time failures as they automatically back up healthcare data without human intervention.

How to Develop an EHR System?

Check out the key steps of the software development lifecycle.

Analyze the Requirement

Identify the requirements of your healthcare facility and the needs of your customers. For example, some of the commonest challenges in a healthcare facility are doctor-patient communication woes, lengthy form-filling activity, and lack of coordination between different departments of a hospital. Examples of patient requirements include the convenience of access to medical services and remote services.

Define the Roadmap

Set up the infrastructure and select the technology stack, programming languages, tools and frameworks. Choose the tech stack based on the performance, security, and scalability requirements of the software you have envisioned.

Design and Develop the EHR Solution

Create the software architecture and the user interface (UI). The software architecture should be flexible and scalable. The UI should be easy-to-use and intuitive.

The development phase involves software coding and testing to ensure that the software functions as expected. You need to integrate your software with healthcare systems such as medical devices, billing systems, and lab information systems.

These are the key development steps.

Front-end Development

Create the UI that facilitates interaction between medical service providers and patients. You can use technologies such as JavaScript, CSS, and HTML and frameworks such as Angular, React, and Vue.js.

Back-end Development

This phase includes server-side coding that processes requests, retrieves data, stores it in databases, and interacts with other systems. Here, you can use technologies such as Python with Django or Flask, RoR, and Node.js. You can use databases such as MongoDB, MySQL, and PostgreSQL for saving EHR data.

API Integration

API integration is necessary as it helps establish communication between the EHR system and other systems. For example, RESTful APIs are used for developing scalable and secure EHR solutions.

Mobile App Development

EHR software systems often need to integrate with mobile apps to provide patients with access to their medical data. Examples of mobile app development technologies are React Native, Kotlin, and Swift.

Adhere to Security Standards and Compliances

Healthcare data is highly sensitive. And, the fact that healthcare software involves third-party integrations and that this data is shared with  various stakeholders, creates security loopholes. Because of this, your healthcare software solution must protect patient data from unauthorized access and security breaches. Experienced healthcare app developers generally employ security protocols such as OpenID, SSL/TLS, and OAuth2.

Thankfully, there are several stringent compliance and data privacy laws mandated by government authorities that healthcare software, including EHR, needs to comply with. Adhering to standard compliances minimizes security vulnerabilities. According to US Government regulations, for example, every healthcare solution must comply with the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) guidelines and the ONC-ATCB (Office of the National Coordinator- Authorized Testing and Certification Body). Health apps operating in the  Europe Union need to comply with EutoRec and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).

Test, Deploy, and Maintain

Once, you finish developing the software, thoroughly test it in the production environment to check whether all the features are working as desired. Test the EHR for scalability and performance and ensure that the software meets regulatory compliance. To carry out automated testing, you can use testing frameworks such as Mocha, Jest, and Selenium.

It’s advisable to launch an MVP version at first including all the basic features. This will provide you with an opportunity to practically check the usability of your EHR against the market requirements and your business objectives. You’ll be able to find out the areas of improvement that your final end-product needs. You will also be able to collect useful insights from the target audience.

Thereafter, you can add extra features, remove faulty functionalities (if any), and edit any of the existing features according to the demand. You should also provide continuous support to an EHR system to identify bugs, resolve issues, and roll out updates to stay relevant.

Concluding Lines

EHR solutions should be able to handle huge amounts of data and be scalable and secure. Hence, you need to partner with healthcare development services that provide skilled and experienced resources. You need a multidisciplinary team consisting of designers, developers, testers, and healthcare professionals for EHR software development. You need to involve healthcare professionals to ensure that your EHR system meets healthcare service delivery requirements.