Top Success Strategies for EMR Integration Projects

The technological sector is growing very fast and it has become a necessity for other industries to keep up with it. This growth has been adopted by the healthcare sector. For the healthcare sector, it is very important to complete their tasks and medical assignments at the right time. These tasks can be patient care related, using new technologies to provide better treatments, or reducing the extremely high costs of healthcare services. Different healthcare organizations have to keep track of all patient files and medical records at all times.

In the old times, these files were handwritten and had a lot of errors. But with the use of new technologies and software systems like the EMR software development, making patient files and storing them has become easier. Now there are no errors in a hospital or clinic’s monitoring system.

But what exactly is EMR Integration?

EMR (Electronic medical monitoring) is a software system that helps in keeping track of all medical files of a patient. The electronic medical records software system allows medical care providers to work fast and gives them easy access to patient files. These software systems can store a patient’s entire medical history, and at the same time keep track of the ongoing treatment process also. The software system can also store the test results, lab reports of a patient. 

These software systems can easily be used on a laptop, mobile phone, or computer. Before these systems came into existence, all the patient data was handwritten by doctors or nurses. The EHR software development has helped in increasing the speed of patient care-giving. Both the old and new systems did the same things but with the electronic systems, the process has become extremely simple and fast.

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Electronic medical records software systems are being used by different hospitals and clinics, worldwide. Almost all hospitals have certified electronic health records software systems. But for many healthcare organizations, finding a proper electronic health records software system still remains an issue. Many hospitals are not able to integrate their monitor systems into electronic medical records systems. This resulted in poor healthcare systems services and efficiency processes, this problem also made healthcare costs extremely high. The software system can easily evaluate different patient data at the same time and give easy treatment solutions to healthcare providers.

What does the EMR software system consist of?

1.  The electronic medical records software can note down a patient’s entire hospital visit time table. These software systems also keep track of the times a patient had to stay in a hospital. The electronic medical records systems also keep track of the phone calls a patient makes to their doctor.

2. The electronic medical records software system helps healthcare workers to view patient information easily. This could be their personal information, such as their name, height, weight, age, gender, etc. The system is able to give a small preview of the patient. These software systems are able to help medical care providers remember small details about a patient and their medical condition.

3. Healthcare providers no longer have to write down detailed notes related to their patient’s treatment, they can just note everything down in the electronic medical records software system. These systems never lose any of the notes and are beneficial to the doctors in the long run. 

4. The electronic medical records system can also transfer patients' test results. This saves the time of the healthcare workers as they now don’t have to go to a different department in the hospital and bring the patient’s results.

5.  With the help of an electronic medical records system, healthcare providers can order patients tests anytime they want. They can even prescribe medicines to doctors.

Why is EMR integration so important?

With the current availability of services in the healthcare sector, EMR integration makes sure the healthcare provider and patient get the most out of the available medical resources. There are different types of EMR (electronic medical records) development software systems available in the healthcare sector. There are new rules that are promoting the use of electronic medical records systems more in hospitals and clinics. This software system can also be used in wearable technologies. To deliver the best treatments, these software systems have become a must. 

There are many healthcare organizations that have more than two or four systems operating in one monitoring system. Sometimes hospitals use more than hundreds of software systems. It can sometimes be difficult to handle all these software systems and to communicate in between these systems. The problems faced by the healthcare workers while using so many software systems at once can reduce the efficiency of these software systems.  It is important for hospitals and clinics to keep their monitoring software systems working at the same time. 

Why sometimes EMR integration causes problems?

Healthcare organizations sometimes have two systems working together at the same time. It can sometimes become very difficult to carefully handle the software systems. Both the systems should be able to communicate together but it can become challenging. EMR integration can cause different problems in a hospital’s system.

1. There are hundreds of PHR software systems available in the market. All of these have the same structure, systems, models and the same strengths. This can become a big problem for EMR extraction. 

2. Different EMR systems can have different uses, these uses can vary from one hospital to another. Systems having the same uses can prove to be a problem in a successful interpretation of patient data.

3. The patient data that is recovered in EMR integration, can be in different formats. In the process of formatting, re-recording the data and standardizing the data into a standard format and then saving it can be difficult. The medical data should be safe in the entire transfer process.

4. Transferring medical data from an EMR system or to an EMR system can be difficult. This process can consist of different challenges. The challenges can be poor network connectivity, data unavailability, in many cases data can get lost.

While there are problems that can occur with EMR integration, solutions are also given.

EMR integration solutions

Many EMR software development companies have tried to make the integration process easier. New operators are out to make the process simpler and the data integration process easier. Healthcare providers have to share medical data with each other. There are many data pools and tools available for healthcare providers to minimise the potential risks in EMR integrations. 

Many healthcare providers have to use ETL (extract, transform and load), this is provided to them by their vendors. ETL’s are big data pools that help in the integration process.  Using ETL is important when shifting valuable data. 

The technological industry has a lot of different data management systems available for healthcare organizations. These management systems all have their own benefits, features and challenges. With the speed the healthcare sector is growing, it is important to keep up with the trends.

To fix the challenges faced by EMR integration, these steps should be taken.

1. The data system should have different EMR software systems connected to it. These data systems should be able to transfer information from different EMR software systems. 

2. The data system should also be able to detect any matching patient data. The system should also be able to format the files properly.

3. All the patient data should be saved in the same format and the data should be standardized. 

4. The EMR system should be able to transfer the data safely. This means no broken transformations of the data.