Electronic Health Record (EHR) Software solutions consist of digitized patient data that is routinely collected and exchanged as needed by multiple facilities and agencies.Such systems collect and store all patient's medical history, demographics, progress notes, prescription records, treatment plans, vital signs, laboratory results, diagnoses, and radiology reports
Important Features in EHR Software
1. Easy Patient Scheduling
2. E-prescriptions
3. Clinical Documentation
4. Interoperability
5. Cloud Hosting
6. Meaningful Use Certification
7. Patient Workflow Management
1. Easy Patient Scheduling
A full EHR system should be able to provide a scheduling feature that allows office staff to easily give patients appointments, sign them and choose a reason for their visit.
2. E-prescriptions
E-prescriptions are an important feature that should hold any successful EHR solution. E-prescriptions ensure seamless communication between suppliers and pharmacies, allowing the latter to fill orders correctly with minimal time and effort. E-prescriptions require clinicians to write prescriptions electronically and either give the patient a legible printout or send the information directly to a pharmacy. Providers gain access to a safe platform for electronic prescriptions of controlled substances with e-prescriptions, helping streamline a highly monitored process without compromising on the credibility

3. Clinical Documentation
Charting is an essential feature to be included in all good EHR software. Charting helps doctors to create and store the clinical reports and other patient data digitally. Uniform charting can occur regardless of computer input (tablet, Macbook, or desktop). You will support programmable keyboard shortcuts to save time and effort in charting, just like in flowsheets.
The successful use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in charting methods is a gold standard. Machine learning allows providers to store information automatically based on previously shared data, making the mapping more efficient and streamlined.
4. Interoperability
Integration and interoperability, like any other software, are essential for EHR solutions. As EHR is operated by doctors and medical staff, it should be able to link up with ancillary services in the medical industry — including payers, labs, pharmacies, and testing centers— to save time and minimize effort. Hospital Information Systems and Billing Systems are typically combined to streamline provider and patient billing processes. Integrating EHR with billing processes increases the productivity of front office staff and helps to reduce coding errors which can lead to delays in payment. Billing convergence also helps speed up reimbursements. Another important interoperability-related feature is the ability to connect the EHR system to laboratory and testing centers that can digitally accept instructions, process them and send the results directly to the caregiver. Finally, the EHR software should be able to integrate with other healthcare resources such as practice management software, especially in large multi-specialty hospitals
5. Cloud Hosting
A cloud-based EHR solution is an open, versatile and cost-effective tool for storing cloud-based patient health data, rather than having to store them on in-house internal servers. Data-mining capabilities allow managers to analyze work processes for strengths and weaknesses and check patient data to identify behavioral patterns, potential drug interactions, and health risk factors.
EHR software runs on the cloud reducing the need for hardware or software installation. Providers can get a better return on investment with the quick deployment processes of cloud-based EHR implementations than they would with traditional client-server systems. With protection at bank-level and advanced encryption, EHR systems are able to ensure compliance with HIPAA through automated data center services.
6. Meaningful Use Certification
The implementation of legislation such as the 2015 Medicare Access CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) and the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) allows health-care organizations or doctors to introduce incentives and penalties to promote the use of accredited EHR systems. Compliance with these directives provides meaningful changes and other benefits to health care providers
In addition to promoting the ' important use ' of EHR software, the government has attached great importance to privacy and security criteria through the Health Insurance Portability and Transparency Act (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Safety Act (HITECH).
7. Patient Workflow Management
To help save time and that energy, EHR software can simplify the order of operations at a healthcare practice or organization. For example, EHR software can allow the automation of appointment reminder emails, set automatic reminders for phone calls to patients and automate the sending of test results as they become available. A variety of EHR tools currently available include customizable workflows