Choosing Between Ready-Made and Custom EHR Solutions: Tips for Decision Makers

In the US these solutions lie in the heart of the healthcare reform, and the adoption of EHR solutions by the local hospital community is almost complete. Healthcare organizations need a software product that can align all the electronic processes with their internal workflow. Purchasing the right EHR platform is a challenging task for medical organizations. Each business is unique, and needs may vary depending on an organization type and its size, aims, and objectives.

Healthcare business owners usually get stuck when they start choosing between an out-of-the-box product, EHR customization or custom software. Let’s take a careful look at EHR systems’ benefits and weaknesses.

Off-the-shelf EHR systems

There are a number of reasons why medical organizations opt for such types of EHR software:

• Being industry-specific, these solutions are likely to meet most needs of an organization.
• Reasonable up-front costs. Development costs are distributed throughout a large number of end-users. These out-of-the-box products are an attractive option for those who have a limited budget.
• Ready-made solutions have many features that a business may start using later on as it evolves.
• End-users can be sure that any software problems will be timely addressed as vendors often provide support and maintenance services.

On the flip side, there are some things that make such software a bad fit:

• Healthcare specialists do not always need the full functionality of off-the-shelf EHR medical software or may need other features that are not on hand. For example, caregivers who are too busy to enter information on new patients could benefit from using voice recognition technology, but a limited number of ready-made EHR products have such a feature.
• Customers may ask the vendor or a third party to add some functionality to the system. But this always means extra expenses. Still, these expenses are not as high as when it comes to custom software development.
• Healthcare organizations have to pay for upgrades, support services, different licenses, etc. So, the solution’s final cost may be higher than the customer expected.
• Sometimes ready-made applications may fail to comply with in-house security requirements or end-users’ hardware may be not powerful enough to run them smoothly.
• EHR software users may lose much time becoming familiar with the software and learning how to utilize it.

Ready-made EHR software

Custom EHR solutions

Many healthcare organizations choose custom systems. And here is why:

• Custom solutions will have all the important features and functionality that the business needs.
• End-users do not spend much time getting acquainted with the product, as custom software developers pay close attention to customers’ business processes and needs while working on the solution.
• Custom EHR software products perfectly fit end-users’ security, software and hardware needs.
• No additional or licensing fees are required. The customer pays only once.
• The vendor provides direct support to its products, and all the problems are solved quickly.

There are also some crucial aspects that prevent healthcare organizations from ordering custom solutions:

• Custom products are usually associated with high prices. Small-sized businesses can hardly afford paying high upfront costs, and they make it work with ready-made products.
• Software development is a lengthy process. Healthcare organizations must understand that they will not get the desired solution in a week or two. They will be able to start using the product in at least a couple of months.
• The customer may choose a wrong developer that lacks relevant expertise and experience, e.g. a software company that has never created custom EHR software.
• Organizations may have to pay for new features if they want to add them to the solution.

Custom EHR systems

Conclusion

EHR systems are in great demand among medical organizations. End-users are spoilt for choice as there is an extensive array of vendors that know how to create EHR software and customize it to the needs of any business.

It is not easy to decide between off-the-shelf and custom EHR platforms. The pros and cons described above can help healthcare business owners in choosing an EHR system.