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EHR Integration Service in US & Canada: Epic, Cerner, Telus, Allscripts, Meditech and Many Other

The adoption of digital health technology or tools has been on an upward trajectory.

The following chart depicts that the adoption of digital health tools in all categories has dramatically increased between 2015 and 2019.

Adoption of digital health tools

However, like other digitalized industries, the digital healthcare industry has also evolved with many challenges.

One such deep-rooted challenge is related to data and security.

A healthcare app or any other digital healthcare tool in almost all categories requires real-time patient or user data.

Without this data, not a single objective of the healthcare app can be satisfied.

To provide quality care and not promote manual workflows, it is vitally important for a healthcare app or software to fetch patient data from different sources.

Here is where EHR (Electronic Health Records) systems and EHR integration come into the picture.

What is the EHR System?

EHRs are a vital part of the digital healthcare system.

An EHR system is the digital version of a patient’s paper charts.

It works in real time and makes patient information available instantly and securely to authorized users.

An EHR system stores the patient’s medical history, diagnosis, medications, treatment plans, allergies, radiology images, and laboratory test results.

One of the major features of the EHR system is that it can be integrated with any other healthcare mobile app or software.

In fact, it is designed and developed in such a way that it can share real-time data with other mobile apps and software.

What are the Major Differences Between EHR and EMR?

EMR vs EHR

People generally get confused between EHR and EMR as both are the same thing with different use cases and limitations.

Unlike EHR, an EMR is used within a healthcare organization such as a hospital.

Why?

Well, it is unable to share clinical information with other EMRs natively.

However, using 3rd party tools or solutions, you can make it happen but it requires a lot of effort and technical expertise.

Another major difference between EHR and EMR is accessibility.

EMR can only be accessed by clinicians whereas patients can also add data to EHR.

What is EHR Integration?

As we discussed earlier, multiple healthcare entities generate different medical data for the same patient.

This decentralized data should be available on a single platform to actualize easy access to medical data for clinicians.

An EHR system stores patient data generated by different healthcare entities.

If a healthcare app or healthcare software requires patient data, it should be integrated with the EHR system.

This means, that EHR integration is nothing but the process of integrating digital health products including healthcare mobile apps, software, or CRM in terms of data and clinical workflow with an EHR system.

The output of the EHR integration is seamless patient data sharing between EHR and digital health tools.

What is EHR integration

When Should You Consider an EHR Integration?

The main purpose of the EHR integration is to allow secure, efficient, and seamless patient health records exchange between one electronic system to another.

As a result, medical professionals can deliver a more patient-centered healthcare solution.

So, here are some cases in which you should do EHR integration to deliver a more quality care experience.

  • Want to make a streamline administrative and clinical workflows
  • Need real-time and up-to-date patient health records during treatment
  • Desire to deliver adequate healthcare outcomes for patients with several medical conditions
  • Want to avoid the time-consuming and error-generating procedure of collecting patient health information
  • Want to save time during patient interaction

What are the Benefits of EHR Integration?

The following are the top benefits or reasons why EHR or EHR integration service is crucial for the success of digital healthcare tools.

Rapid Data Accessibility

Without EMR, clinicians rely on paperwork, and relying on paperwork leaves room for errors.

It also makes data accessibility difficult as they every time need to open EHR while providing care with any 3rd party tools.

But with EHR or EHR integration, every single piece of data remains in the same place.

And since it is a digital space, it is effortless to access patient data.

Faster Update

Every new patient or medical data generated by healthcare entities reflects on EHR instantly.

And most importantly, all authorized users can view this updated data.

This is not possible if you are following paper-based processes.

EHR systems also make it easy for clinicians to exchange observations, test results, and prescriptions in real time.

More Secure

Because of the precisely developed systems and multilayer security mechanisms, data stored on EHR systems are very secure.

The data gets encrypted and only authorized users can get access to patient data.

We can never ever achieve such kind of security in paper-based processes.

If we lose only a single page of the patient data, the results would be devastating.

Increased Patient Safety

EHR enhances patient safety and avoids any goof-up by automatically initiating drug-to-drug and drug-to-allergy interaction checks as soon as a physician writes the prescription.

In the absence of EHR, there is the possibility that physicians prescribe to patients without knowledge of their allergies.

What are the Common Challenges of EHR Integration?

Integration of EHR with your existing practice management system is not an overnight process, it needs effective planning and execution to compete with all the integration-related issues.

Major Challenges that Arise During EHR Integration

  • Compatibility with the current software
  • Data privacy and vulnerability issues
  • Insufficient planning for the data migration process
  • Integrating third-party technologies such as – vital sign monitors, wearable devices, and analytics tools
  • Interoperability issues

Cloud-Based EHR vs Locally-Hosted EHR

Before integrating EHR, you should know the difference between cloud-based EHR and locally-hosted EHR as it influences your budget and long-term benefits.

The Cloud-Based EHRs

Cloud-based EHRs provide scalable and on-demand access to EHR features.

The cloud can help you rapidly launch the EHR system and it also reduces management efforts and costs.

Benefits of cloud-based EHRs:

  • It reduces hardware and software costs
  • It reduces ongoing maintenance costs
  • It is scalable
  • It reduces run-time failure
  • It increases system availability

A common challenge: You have a lower level of control over cloud-based EHRs compared to locally-hosted EHRs.

The Locally-Hosted EHRs

The locally-hosted EHR system and data are housed on server computers at your location.

Benefits of locally-hosted EHRs:

  • You have full access and control over locally hosted EHRs
  • It requires less investment in internet connection upgrades

Common challenges:

  • Maintenance is your responsibility
  • You should take regular data backups and ensure security

Top EHR Systems or Vendors in Canada/USA We Offer Integration With

There is more than one EHR vendor available in Canada and this is what makes it a difficult task to select one.

Sensing the urgency, we assess your requirements and help you select the most suitable EHR system or vendor along with EHR integration.

PointClickCare EHR Integration

PointClickCare is a cloud-based electronic health record (EHR) solution.

It is designed for the long-term industry.

It is equipped with many important modules such as care delivery management, marketing, financial management, business intelligence & analytics, and Quality and compliance.

We’ve already executed many projects integrating PointClickCare EHR into different healthcare systems.

Allscripts EHR Integration

Allscripts is a publicly traded information technology company.

It offers practice management and EHR software.

The company has been ranked number one Top Ambulatory EHR Vendor by Black Book for several years in a row.

TELUS Health EHR Integration

TELUS Health is evolving in a new era of healthcare.

They are aiming at making a positive difference in healthcare with technology.

Their electronic health records software is built out of two main components: the Health Integration Platform and the Drug Information System.

Epic EHR integration:

Epic holds the whopping 34.05% inpatient EHR market share. It is cloud-based EHR software to manage the day-to-day patient health records.

Epic is one of the largest health information technology providers. For that reason, large hospitals and medical groups are more likely to use the EHR system offered by EPIC.

Cerner EHR Integration

Cerner is a hospital facility management software.

It helps large healthcare systems and medical groups to create a streamlined workflow that helps them to provide the most suitable medical services to their patients.

By understanding the healthcare major challenges, Cerner offers services for workflow management and efficient communication.

It also helps to enhance the patient care experience.

Team Members (Resources) Needed to Execute Integration with EHR Successfully

It is not a single-man job as it requires different skill sets such as development, compliance, and interoperability.

1: Healthcare Developers

They carry out all the coding parts required to establish communication between your digital solution and the API provided by the EHR vendor.

2: Interoperability Experts

They work parallel with developers to help them in understanding and implement interoperability standards such as FHIR and HL7.

3: Compliance Specialists

They have a serious job.

They ensure that no newly emerged privacy vulnerability puts compliance-readiness at risk while integrating EHR with a digital solution.

Very important for you if you are serious about EHR integration:

Integrate Multiple EHRs in a Single Shot with Redox Integration Engine

One of the limitations of EHR integration is we have to integrate each EHR individually which increases the development hours and so does the cost.

So, if you are planning to integrate multiple EHRs with your healthcare digital solution, you have to invest in each EHR integration.

But with Redox Integration Engine, you can integrate all top EHRs with your healthcare solution in a single shot.

Redox is 3rd party solution that offers a single API to connect all top EHRs including Allscripts, AthenaHealth, and Cerner with any sort of healthcare app.

Our Ideal Procedure for EHR Integration

As a healthcare IT company, we always focus on a client-centric approach which helps us to deliver the most promising EHR integration solutions.

Step 1: We completely understand all the requirements of the healthcare business.

Step 2: Our healthcare-specific tech specialists examine the product architecture.

Step 3: To solve all your EHR integration queries, we offer EHR technical consultation.

Step 4: We assign our expert and experienced developer team for your EHR integration.

Step 5: We now integrate EHR by keeping in mind all the interoperability concerns.

Step 6: We have a team of compliance specialists who make sure that there are no privacy issues.

Step 7: Our expert team of QA engineers checks and fixes all the bugs, errors, and interoperability issues as per the HL7 and FHIR standards.

Step 8: After reviewing and fixing all the issues, we offer you a working demo of the EHR integration

Step 9: For any technical issues, we provide ongoing technical support.

Carry out EHR Integration in Canada and the USA through Our Experts

We are one of the top Ontario-based healthcare IT companies and have been serving the Canadian and USA healthcare industries for 8+ years.

We have dedicated healthcare integration experts who have earned the ultimate mastership to integrate any EHR with zero interoperability and security issues.

We also accommodate app developers, business experts, and compliance consultants who all work together to satisfy all of your requirements and ease your IT pain.

We also have a proven mastership working with HL7 and other interoperability standards.

Feel free to contact us to share your requirements and get a personalized quote for the EHR EMR Integration Solution.

Our expert will give you free insightful IT consultation.