Over the last few years, the global healthcare sector has gone through a major revolution. Handling a pandemic has given a wake-up call to several hospitals and healthcare professionals across the globe. One of the areas where the industry is improving is software development.
Irrespective of the domain they operate in and the scale at which they operate, doctors and hospitals are implementing healthcare software solutions to streamline their services. Gone are the days when all health records were handled manually or with the help of traditional practices. In 2023, the healthcare sector is getting increasingly equipped with custom software solutions that help doctors as well as their patients.
So, what is custom healthcare software development?
What Is Custom Healthcare Software Development?
Custom software development is the process of building a software solution according to your specific needs and preferences. It involves the designing, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance of your software from scratch. Working with a custom software development company allows you to build a software application unique to your business.
Custom healthcare software development involves the development of customized software applications for doctors, hospitals, pharmacists, or anyone working in the healthcare industry. It allows developers to build applications that leverage the medical care offered by healthcare institutions. From automated record management to enhanced diagnoses, custom healthcare applications are designed to help doctors and patients alike.
Types Of Custom Healthcare Software
Depending on your requirements and objectives, you can choose the right healthcare software for your facility. It is important to understand the options available to doctors and hospitals to know how custom software development is transforming the healthcare industry.
Here are a few major types of custom healthcare software implemented by healthcare facilities worldwide:
Hospital Practice Management Software
Hospital practice management software (HPMS) is a custom software solution used to streamline the daily tasks performed at a hospital. It allows your hospital staff to optimize their daily tasks and manage the clinical workflow in the best way possible.
These software solutions help healthcare professionals in tracking their patients’ medical records, managing day-to-day finances, scheduling appointments, streamlining administrative processes, and much more.
Electronic Health Records Software
In 2023, hospitals prefer working with electronic health records (EHR) instead of traditional paper records. These medical records facilitate easier, faster, and more effective data management in a hospital.
Electronic health records software helps doctors and hospitals manage their patients’ health records effectively. From keeping track of prescriptions and updating lab tests to storing medical history and viewing demographic reports, these software solutions streamline the way data is handled within healthcare institutions.
Prescription Software Solution
As the name suggests, a prescription software solution allows patients to send their prescriptions directly to pharmacies or drug stores instead of making physical visits. The pharmacists can then assess the prescriptions and send the required medications to the patients hassle-free.
Emergency Care Solution
Emergency care solutions allow patients to seek immediate medical help in the case of emergencies. They help patients obtain necessary help until they reach the hospital and approach their doctor.
Healthcare CRM
Healthcare CRM is a custom healthcare software that allows hospitals to track their patients’ journeys from the moment they are admitted until they are discharged. It helps users store all necessary information about every patient in the hospital to provide holistic medical care.
Why Should You Develop Custom Healthcare Software?’
If you are planning to digitize your hospital and transform your healthcare services, it is advisable to build a custom healthcare application. Here are a few important reasons why you should develop custom healthcare software:
Enhanced Security
Nothing beats security when it comes to managing the health records of your patients. You cannot afford to take the sensitive data belonging to your patients’ health lightly. Legacy platforms are no longer reliable in the secure handling of data within a hospital.
Custom healthcare software development provides you with the much-needed security to handle medical records. Building a custom application allows you to set your own security protocols, making sure your system is rock-solid. Building highly secure healthcare software prevents issues like unauthorized access, data leaks, cyberattacks, etc.
Moreover, a robust custom software application allows you to adhere to the relevant data compliance regulations, assuring your patients that their data will be collected and used fairly.
Virtual Consultations
Several custom healthcare software solutions prevent patients from waiting for too long at hospitals by facilitating virtual consultations. An app for virtual consultations allows your patients to interact with you from the comfort of their homes. For the cases wherein virtual diagnosis is possible, doctors can have simple video calls with their patients and provide suitable prescriptions to them.
If there is a need to make a hospital visit nevertheless, these applications also allow your patients to schedule their appointments and arrive right before their turns to avoid unnecessary crowding at the facility. The COVID crisis has made us all realize the importance of organized consultations.
Seamless Management Of Records
Custom healthcare software allows you to manage your patients’ health records in the best way possible. From entering the records into your database to sharing the same with suitable doctors as the patients visit them for consultations, customized software solutions are helpful in organizing all your hospital records and handling them using a centralized platform.
Better Efficiency
No matter how skilled your staff is, humans are always likely to commit errors at some point in time. Custom software development eliminates the scope for error as your medical records are handled by the hospital staff. Using technologies like process automation, AI, machine learning, etc. makes your teams more efficient in the tasks they perform.
Better Medical Care
The primary purpose of a hospital is to provide wholesome medical care to its patients. Doctors aim for flawless success rates by doing their best to treat their patients with finesse. Building a custom healthcare application adds to the quality of medical care offered to your patients.
A single application can keep track of your patient’s prescriptions, appointments, lab tests, health conditions, and doctor’s remarks. Improving the medical care at your facility helps your patients get better soon and obtain quality services.
Building Healthy Relations
Doctors and hospitals need to maintain healthy relations with their patients to make their healing journeys more robust. Implementing custom healthcare software allows you to provide personalized attention to every patient. When your patients know that they are being cared for by looking into the smallest details regarding their health, they feel special.
Establishing and maintaining healthy relationships with your patients helps you improve the word of mouth about your medical care. You hardly need a marketing strategy if you are able to strike the right chord with your patients!
Improved ROI
Custom software development helps you streamline your medical care services and make the most of your resources. Features like virtual consulting, quicker processes and personalized attention in your application help you drive home more traction and revenue, thereby improving your ROI.
Although the primary purpose of running a healthcare institution is not to earn profits, you need a good ROI to sustain yourself in the industry and improve your medical care. A robust custom software solution helps you thrive in the industry and stay ahead of the curve.
Building A Unique Identity
One of the biggest benefits of custom software development is that it allows businesses to create their unique identities in the industry. The same is true for doctors and hospitals as well.
A custom healthcare application serves as an extension of your hospital’s identity, making it more recognizable in the healthcare industry. If you manage to build a powerful software application that represents your hospital, your patients will start associating the app with you, thereby helping your brand image.
Multi-platform Support
In the age of digitization, patients seek support on multiple platforms. A comprehensive healthcare software solution allows your patients to interact with you across multiple platforms. Especially in the case of a healthcare CRM solution, you can track your patients’ journeys across several platforms, including personal visits, desktop apps, mobile apps, social media, etc.
Better Scalability
Like any other organization, every hospital aims to scale its services over time. Developing a custom software application for your facility makes it easy to scale your offerings with time. This way, you can accommodate more cases and handle more records without spending more time, money, and effort.
As the source code of your custom healthcare software is with you, scaling your application becomes easier. By seeking help from skilled and experienced developers, you can make necessary adjustments to your application to enhance your services.
The Final Word
These were a few major ways how custom software development is transforming the healthcare industry. If you belong to the healthcare industry and are willing to embrace digitization, seek the best custom software development services with the IntelliSource that are in tune with your objectives. A custom software solution gives you and your healthcare staff the much-needed security, flexibility, and scalability in the care provided to your patients.