How to Build an EHR system: Particular Steps And Requirements

he COVID boosted the healthcare market in the way it needed but it was totally unexpected. It has encouraged demand for health innovation and health-tech solutions, and many businesses have begun to invest in healthcare software development.

There are plenty of articles about types of healthcare software but I'm gonna describe the process of building EHR - the most common type of projects that we have in our software development company. I've already described in detail how to build Medical Practice Management Software (it's also called medical software) and then I decided to cover another widespread tech solution.

If you are planning on making an EHR system, a few steps need to be taken into account to get you started off with the process.

1. The Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA) and GDPR compliance. Make sure you are well-aware as to what market you are targeting. For the US-based audience, an EHR software is essential. The software is specially designed to make sure that the data is being processed and is storing personal details such as health-related information which needs to be regulated timely. HIPAA comprises such regulatory measures that make the job easier for you. For the European Union (EU), there is the GDPR compliance which is another set of regulatory measures that is followed.

2. The EHR software can be installed on your phone. If you get a customized EHR system, it should have a web version that has many features to give you a better experience in the form of a web application that can be easily accessed on your mobile phone. The web version needs to have a phone-friendly version to improve the communication between the physician and the patient respectively. Just be sure that the EHR software that you are using covers a wide range of audience and that it is available on the Android and iOS operating systems.

3. Get a certificate for the EHR software. To be able to reach this stage of the EHR system development procedure, having a certificate is compulsory. The users should be confident that your system is legal and safe for them to use. Here is how you can make sure to get the certification done in due time:

• For the citizens living in the USA, an Office of the National Coordinator - Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies (ONC-ATCB) Certification is required.
• If you are based in one of the EU countries then you will need to get a EuroRec certification that serves the same purpose as the ONC-ATCB but is exclusively made for the EU citizens.
• One thing that you need to know is that it is illegal to distribute the EHR system without getting a certificate made.

4. A protocol and standards compliance is essential. You obviously need to follow certain standards and go through a few protocols to transfer health-related information. Following are the standards that need to be followed:

• CCD
• CCR
• HL7
• CCA

You can use any one of the above mentioned as per your country’s standard requirements.

5. All the relevant information needs to be transferred. When you install the new EHR system, make sure that you transfer the previous data from wherever you had stored it to make it more accessible. A proper staff or administrative person should be hired and assigned this task in order to make sure that the data is efficiently stored and managed.

6. The performance of the customized EHR system should be monitored. In order to keep the work running efficiently, here is all you need to know about the EHR software analytics:

• The doctors should be satisfied
• Clear records for the understanding of the data should be maintained
• Track any errors in the information at the beginning
• To maximize the profit, the ROI calculation should be done
• Continuous feedback from the patients to keep the quality in check.

7. Sync the software with the iOS to update the health records. Let us face the fact that the Health Application in iOS is a life savior and keeps all the health-related data for Apple users in one place without any issues. Another exciting thing about the EHR software is that it synchronizes easily with the Health application in Apple which helps all the US-based clinics to self-register themselves on the iOS system as well as on Apple’s official website.

What are the requirements to build an EMR software?

The basic steps to create an EMR software are more or less the same as the EHR system development. The one distinguishing quality as compared to the EHR system is that the EMR software is way easier to integrate and create. The reason is that it keeps data for one clinic rather than multiple healthcare facilities like the EHR system.

Some of the key features for the EHR software development

If you are someone who is installing the EHR system for the first time and only testing it, for the time being, there is no need to incorporate multiple features which would be too expensive for you. You can literally just create the HER software with limited features that will get the job done for you in no time.

Here is a list of all the features you need to have on the EHR software:

1. The electronic document management. The first feature that you need to make sure to have is a fast-running electronic system that manages all the healthcare-related documents and data efficiently. Just be sure that the staff and physicians are familiar with the usage of the system so that they do not face any trouble later.
2. Managing the tasks efficiently. You need to make sure that your interface has an advanced task management feature installed in the EHR software development that you plan on using to make the work easier.
3. The profiles of the patients. Managing data of patients and profiles is the most important task in healthcare facilities. In order to do the job easily, make sure you install this necessary feature of the EHR system. The profiles contain everything you need to know about the patients. Be it their medical history, what illness they are suffering from, and getting treatment for or their personal details.
4. Managing the prescriptions. This feature is most essential to physicians as it allows them to prescribe medicines at their own convenience through a system. It is also convenient for patients as it saves them a lot of time and trouble that they go through when they stand in long queues and wait for their turn to get the medicines from the physicians or pharmacy.
5. Getting a distributed access control. Having distributed access control means that all healthcare personnel will have independent control and access on all levels. This does not mean that the physician and the nurse will have the same level of access to all the information or data in the EHR system. This extraordinary feature enables only a few to access sensitive data while keeping it confidential from the rest for security reasons. This way less information is at the risk of being leaked or shared outside the clinic.
6. Integrating the labs. Through this feature, the labs will be allowed to send the test results directly to the health application or the EHR system after being integrated.
7. Making charts. Tailor-made charts are one of the most interesting features of the electronic data management system. To be able to make charts on the system is such a luxury in disguise as it saves plenty of time and there is less room for mistakes. You can also implement the algorithms and analyze data efficiently.
8. Integrating the chats. This feature helps physicians and patients to have better and easier communication. The text chat is such a life-changing feature in the EHR system which can be upgraded with a photo upload feature later on. This allows patients to send pictures of any visible symptoms they are experiencing to the doctors directly.
9. Install a dashboard for the clinic. Installing a clinical dashboard on the EHR development software enables the physicians to closely monitor the results of the treatment they have proposed to the patients and also have a look at their lab reports in case they have been advised to get any tests done.
10. Work on the scheduling of things. There is a built-in calendar feature in the system that helps the patients to schedule appointments and the physicians can reschedule the same if need be. There is also a place for feedback just in case either one of the two need to add any comments or intimate in case of an emergency.
11. Managing regular reports. If you want to integrate an EHR development software with an extensive overview of the healthcare process, just make sure to add regular reports and keep updating them over time. These reports are helpful to both the physicians and patients as the former can monitor test results and prescriptions while the later can keep track of how effective the treatment has become over the course of time.
12. There should be cloud hosting. Let us face the music now, after all, at the end of the day, no matter how efficient and proactive, the ERR software development is a computer-based integration system that can lose data or stop working any time. To be able to deal with the worst-case scenarios, make sure that you have a backup plan which means that there should be cloud hosting. Make sure that the EHR software should have an intuitive user interface.

What is the cost of the EHR system?

The cost of the EHR software development varies from the country you are based in. An easy way to get a rough idea of the average price of EHR software for more than one phone platform is to multiply its design cost. Backend development is added in the same.

If you need to calculate the approximate price for building your own EHR - contact me in DM or just send your question here.