Implementing EHR systems

EHR system implementation isn’t the quickest of onboarding processes. This isn’t meant to scare healthcare organisations, but rather it’s just an honest appraisal: the more involved a software solution is in your daily operations, the more complicated or complex the installation and thus the longer time required to do it correctly – or you pay more to involve more developers to achieve the results faster.

Implementing an EHR system can take anywhere between 10 weeks and 18 months depending on the scope and scale of the healthcare organisation that is onboarding a solution. As mentioned above, the complexity of a hospital or trust is one factor, but so too is interoperability – the capability of a solution to communicate with other software solutions; whether within your organisation or elsewhere.

It is important during your hunt for a suitable EHR solution to investigate the reputation of software providers and the testimony of customers to see how they found the implementation process; were the providers reliable in their delivery of the solution? Were they able to answer the questions your staff had about the software? Was the work completed on time? Does it work as intended? These are potentially obvious but certainly important questions to ask about the delivery of an EHR system.

Web based EHR systems

Cloud and SaaS (software as a service) provides many advantages for organisations, especially smaller healthcare providers who primarily need to keep down costs and have increased flexibility.

These cloud based EHR systems are the future, and something we at Access are working towards with our own Rio electronic patient record modules. The concept is simple: you agree a deal with a software provider, and then the solution – hosted in the cloud – allows you to log in to a verified account via a suitable web browser. So long as you have an internet connection and the right permissions, you can then log in to your healthcare organisation’s electronic health records and access patient notes just like you would if you had onboarded software the traditional way onto a local server that serves your organisation’s computer network.

The upside with a web-based EHR system is the reduction in time and resources required to house and maintain an IT infrastructure; you just boot up, log in, and away you go. For now though, we must be patient. Cloud based EHR systems are in their infancy, and whilst the speed of technological advancement and software breakthrough is rapid – particularly in the health and care sector – it will still be a bit longer (months, maybe years) until a web based solution is fully fledged and viable. Once this happens the game has changed forever, but it’s a steady process to ensure that the functionality and reliability are both there. Health data is crucial for care, and being too eager to play with the newest toy (software solution) could be detrimental rather than beneficial. Patience, due diligence, and these solutions will become the norm in the near future.

Cost of EHR Systems

There are two parts to the cost of EHR systems; the financial impact of implementing a software solution and the detrimental cost of not utilising such data records.

We already know about the advantages and disadvantages of electronic medical records though, so for this segment we’ll focus on purely the financial aspect; drawing on our own market knowledge without going into competitive specifics.

To implement an EHR system costs. There are onboarding fees for the skillset and labour involved in developers installing software solutions onto a server, as well as for the amount of software being installed. This might sound odd at first, but a lot of solutions – including our own Rio EPR – are modular, meaning you can tailor the selection of health and care components within your record system based on the services you provide. This helps keep costs to just what’s required, rather than buying any extraneous tools.

The other part of costs are the annual fees. These typically cover the live service elements of the software provider giving you technical support, software updates, and levels of staff training, to ensure that your solution runs smoothly and is a benefit to your organisation’s care services.

EHR system selection

Now that you know what implementing an EHR system entails, what about EHR system selection? Which software is right for your organisation?

The annoying answer is that there are many solutions that are suitable, and it’s up to you to do your due diligence and research which providers are trusted and who by, and whether they have any certifications to support their claims of quality.

In the case of Access, we are used by NHS trusts and health boards, as well as a range of other services and private providers, but we’re not the only providers in the market.

Providers like EPIC, Oracle Cerner and System C have strong reputations and are notable competitors of ours in the healthcare market, as are Allscripts, Meditech and DXC. Some of these solutions, like our Rio software, are interoperable, whilst some are not. Some are part of an all in one suite of care software, and some are standalone.

For additional recommendations, why not check out this Forbes article on the best EHR software, or read our very guide to all-in-one versus best of breed solutions.