Hospitals in America are quickly moving toward a digital transformation strategy to address the shrinking workforce, growing expenses, and evolving demands of patients. By taking advantage of technology, particularly AI, telehealth, and cloud computing, hospital and other healthcare leaders want to achieve better outcomes, more efficient operations, and more guided, data-driven decisions.
However, many hospitals are learning that custom healthcare software does not map to their workflow. Packaged solutions are, in many cases, creating inefficiency and do not integrate into their current systems, nor do they have the flexibility to map to regulatory or specialty-specific workflows. This means that organizations are seeking
Why Off-the-Shelf Software Falls
Short in Healthcare
Off-the-shelf software products can
certainly serve an organizational need, but the complexity of organizations,
especially in healthcare, often proves them inadequate. Certainly, hospitals a custom healthcare software development. Re capable of custom software development for their unique workflows, adhering to
guidelines and standards required within the industry, and coexisting within
the integrated infrastructure they have designed. Unfortunately, off-the-shelf
products seldom deliver on the promise they advertise.
1.
Limited Customization and Rigid Workflows
Healthcare organizations are
hyper-specific in terms of their clinical and administrative workflows.
Off-the-shelf software, more often than not, dictates to hospitals how they
will deploy their workflows, as opposed to working with the established workflows
the staff abide by. The combination of rigid workflows and the implications
that it has on efficiencies, and the potential for errors that can occur in
patient care delivery, is less than desirable.
2.
Compliance and Security Risks
Given regulations related to patient data
privacy (such as HIPAA and GDPR), compliance with organizations such as the
United States Department of Health and Human Services and others will
inevitably become a part of your day-to-day thinking. On the security front,
off-the-shelf solutions, in many instances, have general security as an option
as default, to the industry need, accounting for the complexity within a
healthcare environment. Off-the-shelf generic software exposes organizations to
risk related to data breaches, or worse, be swayed by fines or penalties.
3.
Limited Integration Capabilities
Healthcare delivery is complicated by the
multiple different systems that need to talk to each other, including
electronic health records (EHR), billing, telemedicine, diagnostic machines,
etc. Custom healthcare software
development regularly does not deliver on interoperability, and is too
often viewed as a silos of software, and the loss of efficient integration can
have serious repercussions as a result.
Investment Trends: Why US Hospitals
Are Prioritizing Custom Development
US hospitals continue to move investments from generic commercial tools to custom software development for healthcare. The objective is uncomplicated: strive to combat the escalating complexity of managing healthcare delivery while maintaining compliance, security, and operational effectiveness. Instead of being bound by a restrictive built model, custom-built solutions permit hospitals the flexibility to construct technology to suit their needs rather than fit their needs around available technology.
Challenges Associated with Custom Software Development
Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software products continue to create barriers for hospitals. Many COTS solutions are rigidly designed with mandates that put staff in a position of altering their processes to fit the technology, leading to inefficiency and frustration. Additionally, disjointed communications from a lack of integration with legacy systems, medical devices, or third-party software lead to sub-optimal situations.
Security is another item to consider; generic tools may lack the technologies and measures necessary to secure information within the ever-evolving confines of strict regulatory compliance, such as HIPAA.
Benefits of Tailored Development
Custom solutions are creating a new expansion
of creativity in healthcare. Hospitals create more streamlined workflows by
adopting automation for scheduling, billing, and documentation tasks. The
hospital may be able to automate or streamline even further and allow more of
the clinical team's time and energy to go toward patient care. Hospitals gain
interoperability by being able to fully integrate their EHR with their lab
systems and the billing system into a unified view of patient data.
Custom solutions can further enhance data security and compliance by ensuring data encryption and customizing access to patient data. On the patient side, custom apps and portals facilitate patient engagement by allowing secure messaging, appointment reminders and access to medical records.
Conclusion:
Building the Future of Healthcare with Custom Software
Custom
healthcare software development is changing the
landscape of how hospitals operate and deliver care. Within the blueprint of
custom software solutions that tailor to specific workflows and departmental
needs, subsequently improving patient engagement through portals and mobile
applications, enabling personalized medicine through predictive analytics, and
operational efficiency through automation hospitals have the potential to
greatly improve patient care.
There are a few significant trends that paved
the way for hospitals to customize software solutions, including artificial intelligence, machine learning as a means for
diagnostics, continuing advanced data
analytics, guidance in clinical decision making, as well as blockchain for
secure, compliant data management.
Organizations like Innostax are helping US hospitals obtain these newer technologies through
custom solutions that integrate seamlessly with existing systems and are
compliant with Federal regulations.
