There’s a plethora of medical software for any given specialty out there. EHRs are all but mandatory for any health care organization though, no matter your focus. So what do you need to know about EHR integration with all the speciality platforms you already use?

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What This Article Covers

• Importance
• Interoperability
• Cost of Implementation
• Benefits
• Challenges
• Keys To Successful Integration
• Bottomline

Leveraging EHRs enables health care providers, physicians and clinical staff members to deliver safe and high-quality care while discovering new ways to grow their organizations. That said, successful EHR integration is still a challenging feat to achieve for many.

Before getting into the thick of the matter, let’s take a quick look at why an EHR is necessary for clinics.

Importance

To stay ahead of the curve in today’s data-driven world, you need to implement the best products available on the market. The medical industry has already chosen EHRs as its preferred medium of patient data management.

Besides maintaining data, EHRs enable both hospitals and patients to utilize the information on hand to achieve better collaboration and strengthen the relationship between both parties.

Integrating an EHR into your workflow allows you to leverage data and insights from digital health tools to update doctors with crucial information, detect threats and proactively guide your organization. The old EHR solutions were encounter-based, transactional systems unable to support newer data processing technologies such as data analytics, predictive analytics and wellness applications.

Health systems must find a way to integrate EHRs to achieve the ultimate amalgamation of programs. This is even more important due to an increase in data exchange with innovations like wearables and monitoring devices.

EHR integration has emerged as the key to success in the modern medical industry. It’s the holy grail of the present decade that can help an organization scale fast. Through EHRs, patients can access their medical records and take control of the care process. The technology also keeps track of lab reports and treatment information, reducing duplicate testing.

As health care organizations implement hundreds of different products and solutions, information lies hidden in isolated databases, incompatible systems and proprietary software. Collecting all this information in a centralized location that a user can easily access is essential. Given the challenges, policymakers and hospitals view interoperability as the answer.

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Interoperability

Interoperability is the cornerstone for success in the medical field. A clinic or hospital excels in care delivery when all applications are interconnected and linked to one another. It improves the quality of care doctors provide and helps patients traverse the health care system.

Care providers primarily focus on interoperability to achieve the optimum results from these new-age technologies. With EHR interoperability, a clinic can effectively communicate health information electronically.

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) defines interoperability as “the ability of different information systems… to access, exchange, integrate and cooperatively use data in a coordinated manner, within and across organizational, regional and national boundaries, to provide timely and seamless portability of information…”

In simple terms, interoperability paves the way for more straightforward access to essential data by all concerned parties. Further, it allows an EHR platform to receive data from third-party products that might help in patients’ care.

Interoperability has transformed health care data into an electronic format that automatically eliminates pen and paper communication. Connected health systems facilitate the easy exchange of data and streamline referrals, communications and transitions between health providers.

Cost of Implementation

According to a study conducted by Valuates Reports, the EHR market will grow and reach $47.25 billion by 2027. This sheds light on how EHR implementation has gained traction over the last decade and extends beyond the initial setup to include optimization.

Having said that, one of the essential elements of EHR implementation is selecting, executing and optimizing your chosen product. Needless to say, it’s critical you make a lot of considerations before dedicating a chunk of your capital to an EHR.

Purchasing an EHR program is no easy task, as the upfront cost of a licensed EHR for multi-practice organizations typically ranges between $100,000 and $200,000. That’s not all; an organization has to pay recurring expenses, including hefty first-year maintenance fees. Finally, transferring structural data from legacy platforms to an EHR may cost extra.

Given all these additional costs, it is imperative that you make an informed decision, considering all the contingencies and extra maintenance costs. Make an EHR budget methodically and avoid costly mistakes.

Primary Benefits

As health care centers focus on the proactive exchange of more complex data, EHRs are coming into the limelight and taking center stage. Let’s look at some EHR benefits a clinic can obtain after a successful EHR integration.

• Streamline Workflows: In the age of digitalization, keeping data in an electronic format is the need of the hour. Compared to other industries, the health care sector deals with enormous amounts of data.
  EHRs automate and streamline clinical workflows by allowing users to create, manage and share patient information across the health care continuum. This makes it easy for authorized personnel to locate patients’ data in centralized storage.
• Improve Patient Interactions: Legacy EHR software deprived patients of participating in their care processes. Older systems focused entirely on improving data transfer between care providers. In comparison, modern EHRs are opening doors for patients to participate in their care actively and update their data on EHRs directly.
• Enhance Care Delivery: EHRs integrate both structured and unstructured data and gather siloed information. Successful EHR integration not only enhances care coordination but also reduces clinical errors.
• Increase Data Privacy and Security: Safeguarding patient records is one of the primary concerns of a clinic. Data security is of paramount importance. To that end, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has passed the HIPAA security rule stating all EHR solutions in the U.S. should be HIPPA compliant.

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Challenges

With tons of benefits to offer, EHR software has made a name for itself in the medical industry. Clinics worldwide are accepting the technology to bolster efficiency and streamline workflows. However, there are huge downsides when it comes to EHR integration.

One must overcome these barriers to reap the benefits of an EHR system. Let’s take a peek into the various challenges you might face while implementing an EHR into your facility.

• Technical Challenges: With EHRs becoming the data exchange go-to for medical facilities worldwide, technical challenges riddle the implementation process. For starters, you have to properly oversee the integration of all third-party applications with the EHR.
  Further, you should not overlook the importance of the existing IT infrastructure during EHR implementation. The technical infrastructure plays a crucial role in enabling the free exchange of health information among digital health tools and EHR systems.
• Inconsistent Data: The quintessential requirement of EHRs is free-flowing data. However, health care facilities often choose different user applications that are incompatible with their existing system. This causes an inconsistent flow of data that disrupts the integrated care model and the quality of data.
• Clinical Workflow Integration: There can be a myriad of challenges in the clinical workflow with improper EHR integration. You must make a note of the systems that are making EHRs harder to use for doctors and staff members so you can optimize these interactions later.
• Data Privacy: Data privacy is a hot topic in today’s digital world. Keeping data private in the medical sector is paramount for patients and clinics. Protecting EHRs against hacks is a must. Governmental policies are in place to compel organizations to implement strict security protocols to preserve data confidentiality.
• Improper Communication: An effective EHR system has IT members and health care providers working together. EHR implementation is not a one-time task. It is ongoing, and you must strive to solve both parties’ disputes and concerns swiftly. In addition, the vendor must provide periodic updates and required tools to attain the desired results from an EHR.

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Keys To Successful Integration

With the EHR adoption rate going up in recent years, medical institutions are implementing different strategies and solutions to overcome common challenges around EHR integration. With that in mind, we are presenting solutions that will come in handy when you decide to implement an EHR. Without further ado, let’s get into the list.

• Meticulous Planning: While undertaking a daunting task such as EHR integration, you must prepare a detailed, strategic plan to make the process seamless. Set up communication with physicians, teams and patients to answer their concerns during the initial implementation phase. Prepare the team for any contingencies and upcoming processes.
• Data Selection: Map out data from previous years and add them to recent ones to prepare a dataset to convert into electronic medical records. Segregating data for conversion will save time and additional expenses.
• Functional Integration: Achieve proper integration by configuring and updating existing systems to address administrative and technical challenges during EHR integration. Having the right tools and technologies on hand will help you cover contingencies, if any, and achieve successful operations. Choosing the correct EHR solution is essential to gain a seamless flow of operations.
• Data Migration Planning: With segregated data sets at your disposal, proceed to data migration. Organize the data structure from most recent to a year old and check their accuracy. During integration, keep a close eye on all converted data and ensure everything is where it should be.
• Patient-first Approach: Having a patient-first approach while implementing an EHR is crucial for its success. Pay close attention to every process and consider how it will help patients or make physicians’ care delivery better.
• Expert Opinions: Take advantage of the knowledge of EHR experts to achieve a successful integration. Train your team and all users to leverage the technology with their feedback and advice properly.

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Bottom Line

The health care sector needs to navigate any and all technical challenges to achieve the desired goal of EHR integration. In recent years, medical facilities have implemented measures to achieve successful integration.

Given the popularity of the EHR system and its manifold benefits to the health care industry, health care institutions are ensuring continuous progress with industry coordination. With the digital age in full swing, EHR-enabled care is the direction the industry continues to move.

Given the challenges it imposes, its obvious successful EHR integration is a difficult feat. However, you might pull it off with proper planning and reading this article. That said, consider carefully while choosing an EHR solution for your facility.

Map out the requirements with our EHR requirements template and match the solution aligned with them. Remember, choosing the right platform is the first step toward a successful EHR integration.

What do you think are the critical factors for a successful EHR integration? Let us know in the comments.