When you scratch the surface of the market for EHR integration solutions for your custom healthcare software then you basically have two choices. And probably the first solution that you would mostly encounter will most likely be an off-the-shelf integration solution.
Moreover, these solutions are fairly good, and the EHR system integration cost will also be fair. However, for your custom healthcare software, a custom approach is what would suit the best.
But why do custom healthcare software solutions need a custom EHR integration?
You see your custom healthcare software is curated in such a way that it will meet all your specific needs, workflows, functionality, etc. With such high customization, an off-the-shelf EHR integration solution offers very limited customization. This might affect your workflow due to unalignment, mismatched templates, etc.
Furthermore, if you are serving specialized healthcare services, then the solutions will most likely be incompatible. Some of the persistent problems being data mapping complexity, interoperability challenges, infrastructure raising security concerns, and the loss goes on.
However, the major factor for custom EHR integration is cost. Custom EHR integration cost is quite high when compared to off-the-shelf integration solutions. Having said that, if you know the right way around you can cut down on some costs and get a solution for the right cost.
On that note, let’s decode the custom EHR system integration cost and try to find the return on investment (ROI) of EHR integration. So, without further ado, let’s get started!
Key Factors Affecting Cost
Before directly comparing cost sheets of different healthcare IT companies providing custom EHR integration services, let’s first understand the key factors that affect the cost of EHR system integration cost.
- Scope of Integration
The first thing on which the EHR integration cost directly depends on is the number of systems. To keep it simple, the higher the number of systems you want your healthcare software to be integrated with, the higher the cost. Along with that, the complexity of the integration and systems will also influence the cost of integration.
The scope of integration has such a direct impact on the EHR system integration cost because it requires more time and undertakes more systems. So, having an idea about the scope of your integration is extremely necessary, and according to that you can make the necessary changes in the healthcare IT budget.
- EHR System Complexity
Apart from the scope of integration, the next thing that impacts the EHR system integration cost is the complexity of the EHR system. The complexities referred to in this regard are user bases, system functionality, and workflow. For instance, all the EHRs have set core functionalities such as patient demographics, medical history, medications, appointment scheduling, etc.
On the other hand an advanced EHR system might have additional features such as clinical decision support, analytics, data management, etc. This directly impacts the interoperability implementation cost, which increases the data migration and cleanup expenses. This further complicates the integration process, greatly influencing the cost of integration into the EHR system.
- Data Migration and Cleanup
Data migration and data cleaning are the most integral part of integration. This might take up most of the time of healthcare IT professionals. While most healthcare systems use different methodologies and formats to store data, migrating that data during the integration becomes difficult.
The complexity of the data and system directly influences the time taken to migrate and clean the data. This directly influences the data migration and cleanup expense, which will impact the EHR integration cost. That is why it is recommended that clean data management practices be implemented.
- Customization and Configuration
If you have developed a custom healthcare software, then the integration process will likely require a lot of customization and configuration in the system. This is necessary to meet the specific organizational needs and might impact the API integration pricing as well. Depending on the customization and configuration, the cost of EHR integration will likely vary.
- Team Expertise and Experience
EHR integration is necessary for your healthcare practice in this digital healthcare landscape and the quality of care provided by you will most likely depend on it. That is why during the development phase, it is suggested to hire experienced developers. The same goes with integration specialists as well. Their expertise will directly impact the cost but the time taken to achieve the goal will be reduced.
Cost Breakdown
To help in healthcare IT budget management, let’s break down the cost for your digital healthcare landscape.
- Development Cost
The cost of software development includes front-end, back-end and API development. Since APIs enable communication between your healthcare systems all these factors come under the development cost of the software. Here some factors that can influence the development cost is the complexity of the software, the functionalities that you want to include and the team size of developers you are hiring to develop the software.
- Testing and Quality Assurance
When the software is developed, it should also function the way it does under different circumstances. That is why testing and quality assurance are significant aspects of development. Different types of testing are done to test the software for its quality, such as unit testing, API integration testing, and user acceptance testing. Though these can influence the cost, it is necessary to ensure the...Click here to read more