Choosing Between Ready-Made And Custom EHR Solutions

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Ready-Made EHR Solutions

There are multiple reasons why healthcare organizations opt for ready-made EHR software. They include:

• As these solutions are industry-specific, it is likely to meet most requirements of a company.
• Affordable up-front costs. Development costs are scattered between a large number of end-users. Ready-made EHR software is an attractive option if you have a limited budget.
• Ready-made solutions have several features that a company might start using with time as it evolves.
• Users are assured that any software problems are timely addressed as vendors usually provide maintenance and support services.

On the other side, few things make ready software a bad option:

• Healthcare specialists don’t always require the full functionality of a ready-made EHR solution or may require other features that are not available.
• Users can ask the provider or a third-party to add more functionality to the system. However, this means extra costs.
• Medical organizations have to pay for support services, different licenses, upgrades, etc. Thus, the system’s final cost can be higher than what the user expected.
• At times ready-made apps can fail to comply with the security requirements or the user’s hardware may not be powerful enough to run them smoothly.
• Dependency on a particular system could limit options in buying software for other uses.

Custom EHR Solutions

Several healthcare organizations choose custom EHR systems. The reason being:

• Custom EHR solutions have all the crucial functions and features that the business needs.
• Users don’t have to spend much time getting acquainted with the product. This is because custom software developers pay close attention to the user’s business processes and requirements while working on the solution.
• Custom EHR solutions completely fit the user’s security, hardware, and software needs.
• The customer has to pay only once. No licensing or additional fees are required.
• All problems are resolved quickly as the vendor provides fast and direct support to its products.
• Organizations have to only pay and manage for features that they want
• Custom EHR can be in sync with existing workflow and hence the organization does not have to make any changes

Few aspects that prevent medical organizations from ordering custom EHR solutions include:

• Custom EHR products generally have high upfront costs. The costs can be recuperated through overtime eventually creating a positive ROI
• Software development can be a lengthy process. Medical organizations should understand that they will not get their desired EHR solution in a week or two.
• Custom EHR has a dependency on the execution team to build the product. It is hence, always advisable to choose among established players