Looking at the rising market graphs related to the healthcare industry shows a surprising trend in EHR software adoption. Some recent reports have stated that around 96% of hospitals use EHR software, and as many as 78% of the total physicians use a certified EHR software system.

Electronic health records have changed the way the healthcare industry works today, and the way care is being delivered virtually. However, it brought new challenges to the healthcare ecosystem, where the EHR system found it difficult to connect and exchange information comfortably with disparate healthcare systems. This unique proposition gave rise to custom EHR development for practice, which offered a wider range of offerings with additional benefits.

However, one of the major problems that healthcare providers have faced during custom EHR development has been the selection of features of the software. This is quite natural for healthcare providers who might be confused with the features and with times the needs of the clinical might also change.

But on the base level there are some features of the custom EHR development that must be present in your software. On that note, let this blog post be the guide for you on how to choose the right features for your custom ehr and the right custom EHR functionalities for optimizing EHR workflow.

Core Features for Efficient Patient Management

Here are some of the must-have features of EHR software systems that help in patient engagement with EHR and improves the overall efficiency of the practice.

  • Comprehensive Patient Demographics & Medical History

Starting from the very step of patient enrollment, the EHR software should be able to capture detailed patient information. This can be done with the comprehensive patient demographics which will make it easier for healthcare providers to capture essential patient details like allergies, medication histories, immunizations records, surgeries, etc. 

This serves the main purpose of your custom EHR software which is to show the entire medical journey of the patient. Apart from that, this also makes it easier for the care providers to access the complete chronological history of the patient care journey.

  • Secure Appointment Scheduling & Management

Apart from enabling healthcare providers to capture patient demographics, the software should allow the patients to schedule online appointments and integrate that into the existing practice management calendar. It will not only give patients more freedom in scheduling their appointments but also enable healthcare providers to manage their time better and plan jumping from one consultation to another comfortably.

While detailing the offerings in this feature, some of the essential features like appointment reminders, confirmations, and cancellation management should be given, as it keeps the patient engaged in their care journey, and the chances of missing out on an appointment are minimized.

  • Streamlined Documentation & Note-Taking

One of the key features that you need to focus on while custom EHR development is implementing a user-friendly interface and template. This will make it easy to document and enable healthcare providers and patients to take notes easily. 

For this part, features like voice recognition, dictation can be included, which will improve documentation speed and accuracy. Along with that, it will also close the gaps of human errors, improving the overall process significantly.

  • Robust Reporting & Data Analytics Tools

The last feature that you need to consider that helps you in enhancing the efficiency of your healthcare practice is the reporting functionality. This feature should enable you to generate reports on patient care, diagnosis process and also the treatment trends. This will help you gain valuable insights about the patient care journey and the loopholes that can be filled with easy human interventions or any customizations in the system.

However, allow this data to be presented in comprehensive and visualized format as it becomes much easier to read, understand and interpret. This will help you in improving your practice’s efficiency and performance and enhance care with a holistic approach.

Features to Enhance Patient Engagement & Communication

Patient engagement is a crucial aspect of patient care delivery, both in traditional and virtual care delivery. When developing a custom EMR software system, here are some features that your software systems must have to improve patient engagement and communications.

  • Secure Patient Portal & Online Access

As virtual healthcare platforms are becoming more and more popular, the role of custom EHR patient portals has grown to be even more evident. The feature of the patient portal will give the patients almost instant access to their health records, test results, and even appointments. This will not only give them a sense of freedom and control over their care journey but will also keep them engaged in their entire care journey.

While you provide this feature, also check for establishing a communications feature, which will enable both patients and providers to connect with the care team whenever required. That is the reason why a custom EHR patient portal is one of the top features for improving patient engagement through your custom EHR.

  • Patient Education & Medication Management Tools

One of the best ways to engage patients in their care journey is to educate them about their health condition. That is why integrating educational resources is so important. Consider integrating this feature as it will not only help in increasing awareness about the disease and make necessary lifestyle changes to make progress.

Along with that, it also integrates medication adherence tools into the EHR systems. It will help both patient and provider to easily manage their medication and adhere to the dedicated care journey.

Additional Features to Consider

Custom EHR development offers some of the most lucrative features that can define your practice. Some of the essentials that you can consider are given below:

  • Telehealth Integration & Remote Patient Monitoring

Telehealth integration is something that you should consider and integrate in your practice when required because it enables your conduct virtual consultation. This further closes the communication gaps between the healthcare patient and providers. Along with that, it also adds the factor of convenience to your practice which has been one of the rising trends in the modern day healthcare landscape.

Taking the telehealth integration further and making your practice a truly digital one, you can also integrate remote patient monitoring tools in your custom EHR development. It will further close the gaps between care delivery and enable continuous monitoring, optimizing patient care with custom EHR features. It will enhance your practice effectively, and this way, you can also complete the entire patient journey virtually with the help of your one custom EHR software.

  • Decision Support Tools & Clinical Workflow Optimization

The last feature that you need to consider and must integrate is the tools for Clinical decision support in EHR. These features can define the custom EHR functionalities and help healthcare providers in providing crucial data-backed decision support to assist with diagnoses and curating personalized treatment plans. Benefits of clinical decision support in custom EHR to reduce the margin of error and improve the speed of healthcare delivery is impactful.

Apart from that, also check for other features that might help you improve the efficiency of your practice specialty. It is crucially important to consider such features for specialties because every specialty practice has unique needs and workflow, and that has been one of the major reasons for the rise of custom EHR software development. It will help you stand out from the crowd.

Conclusion

From patient portals to educational material, telehealth integration, and clinical decision support, these features define the functionality of your custom EHR software, which defines your healthcare practice. However, one thing to consider in this is to align the features that you choose with the unique preposition of the practice’s unique needs and goals. Here, balancing budget with functionality in custom EHR design is also important for building a scalable custom EHR system for future growth.

When the clinical workflow and the features work in perfect synchrony, every aspect of the care delivery is enhanced leading to improved patient care, operational efficiency and overall practice goals. On this note, let this blog be your guide to prioritizing features for your custom EHR development project and having a smooth transition from traditional to virtual healthcare practice.