Did you know medical errors were the eighth leading cause of death in the United States?
Though the processes and practices have become a lot better since then, these inefficiencies of healthcare practices still exist in the system. While the above stats shows the importance of accurate and right mediation, it also shows the incompetence of healthcare practices not performing to their maximum efficiency.
Though there are a lot of factors contributing to the inefficiency of healthcare practices, it impacts a fortune to the healthcare industry and the lives of many. Having said that, all these factors are out of many people’s control, but what is in them can be easily tackled by custom software.
For instance, while the adoption rate for custom healthcare software systems have been at an all time high, there are still many practices using outdated software systems that are staggering their process and leading to inefficiencies in care delivery. That is why it is important to streamline healthcare operations for practices and surprisingly the latest trend in the healthcare industry with the solution right in front of them.
In this blog, we’ll see how custom healthcare software development for healthcare practices can help in streamlining healthcare operations and help them in making the most of it.
The High Cost of Inefficiency in Healthcare
Before getting into this, being an integral part of the healthcare industry, let’s ask ourselves one question, ‘What are the challenges of using paper records in healthcare?’
Well, we can all imagine the ruckus it can cause in the process, where every process needs approval, and it is oftentimes because the healthcare services providers are preoccupied with something else at hand. To give you an impact on how this wastes the overall time of all the healthcare providers, on average, outdated systems and other inefficiencies consume almost 25% of the physician’s time and around 16-35% of the time of nurses. The failure of care coordination in the US alone costs the industry roughly around $30-38 billion dollars.
Such inefficiencies in the process of care delivery impacts patient health outcomes along with patient satisfaction levels. On the top of that, long waiting time and scheduling errors caused due to manual process further impact every aspect of care delivery.
This is where custom healthcare software comes into the picture. With a combination of appointment scheduling software, patient communication tools, medical billing software, etc., it helps in improving efficiency in healthcare with healthcare workflow automation.
How Custom Software Streamlines Daily Operations
Workflows in the healthcare industry are interlinked with complex procedures and oftentimes it is a compilation of repetitive tasks across multiple sections of care. For instance there is an appointment for which you will be needing an appointment scheduling software, then comes billing where you will need a separate medical billing software and last but not least data entry.
However, these repetitive tasks can be streamlined with a custom healthcare software. Its patient communication tools provide effective two-way communication tools which leads to improved staff collaboration, leading to better management of care and healthcare operations.
Along with that, the integration of custom healthcare software with electronic health records (EHR) can further enhance the entire system, streamlining different aspects of the clinic. For instance, it not only promotes data accuracy in care delivery but also improves the accessibility of crucial data that helps streamline healthcare operations.
Enhanced Patient Care with Custom Software
As a healthcare provider, you might ask, ‘How can custom software improve patient care?’
Well custom healthcare software contributes to streamlining the entire healthcare operations and it does that by taking the practice digital. For example, with online appointment booking and patient portal, the patient can easily book their appointment, where they can choose the time they find convenient.
Here telehealth appointments and EHR integration the access of care is expanded, closing the time of care delivery. Along with that, the same custom healthcare software can be used to collect patient data and feedback which can act as a mirror for practice to find the loopholes in the process and work on that to improve the overall patient experience and staff efficiency.
Improved Regulatory Compliance with Custom Software
One of the biggest challenges of small medical practices trying to shift to a digital practice is that they find it difficult to comply with the regulatory requirements. In such cases one of the biggest benefits of custom software for small medical practices is that custom healthcare software can be curated with respect to the regulations put forth by the regulatory bodies like HIPAA, HITECH Act, GDPR, etc.
Ensuring adherence to these bodies is essential because it helps maintain the privacy of data and safeguard patient information when it is at rest and in transition. Another aspect that custom healthcare software covers gracefully is regulatory audits. By streamlining reporting and documentation processes, it becomes easy for the practice to conduct regulatory audits without much hassle. This way, the healthcare practices can easily find the loopholes in their system and immediately act on them to improve healthcare processes.
The automation of repetitive tasks, reporting, and most of the billing process, as well as custom healthcare software, can help minimize errors. So, with custom healthcare software, it becomes easy for providers to manage their appointments easily, comply with regulatory requirements, minimize errors for effective care, and protect patient health data.
The ROI of Custom Software for Healthcare Practices
ROI of custom software for healthcare providers comes in different ways. While the financial impact can only be experienced in the long run, the impact it has on the efficiency of healthcare practices and the entire processes of clinical operations can be felt immediately.
Seamless patient communication tools and other features that automate repetitive tasks help make the custom software a complete healthcare practice management software. It helps increase the productivity of healthcare providers and reduces the administrative cost of the practice. This helps the practice reduce the time to care compared to a traditional setup. This has a direct impact on patient health outcomes, leading to the growth of the practice and increased revenue with efficiency.
Taking this a step further, with growth of the practice, it starts to demand more from the software. Here the scalability feature of custom healthcare software offers the digital practice flexibility and reliability. This way it becomes easy for the healthcare practice to accommodate future growth and offer holistic patient centric care.
Furthermore, looking at the long term cost effectiveness of the custom healthcare software, it helps the practices in saving monthly subscriptions, updates, maintenance and support costs. Which in the long run costs more than the development cost of the software. Along with that, an off-the-shelf software does not offer flexibility, scalability and customization which further cost to separate than the implementation costs.
Conclusion
Custom healthcare software helps streamline healthcare operations, and this is one of the reasons why it has become one of the fastest-growing trends in the healthcare industry lately. Despite this, the distinctive benefit of custom software for small medical practices is hidden in the processes that it automates, resulting in increased productivity and improved patient health outcomes.
So if you think your healthcare staff is not working efficiently then rather than asking them to work harder, maybe it’s time to switch to a more swifter and smarter healthcare practice management software.
Then, what are you waiting for? Let’s work together to improve your practice’s efficiency with custom healthcare software.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are the different types of custom software solutions for healthcare practices?
Software built specifically for a practice’s needs. They can improve efficiency (e.g., appointment scheduling), patient care (e.g., telemedicine), or both (e.g., chronic disease management apps).
- How much does custom healthcare software cost?
The cost of custom healthcare software varies greatly depending on several factors, such as complexity, integrations, and development team location. A rough estimate can range from $10,000 for basic applications to over $500,000 for complex solutions.
- What are the benefits of custom software over off-the-shelf solutions?
Custom software offers a perfect fit for your specific needs, unlike off-the-shelf solutions that cater to a general audience. It can integrate seamlessly with existing systems, scale to meet your growth, and prioritize features important to you.
- How long does it take to develop custom healthcare software?
The development time for custom healthcare software varies greatly depending on complexity. Simple apps can take 3-6 months, while complex systems with features like AI or integration with multiple devices may exceed 1 year.
- What is the process for implementing custom software in a healthcare practice?
The process involves defining your needs, selecting a developer, designing the software, development, testing, deployment, and training.
