Though now EHRs are adopted by the majority of US healthcare providers, growing a CAGR of 7.2% to reach up to 21 billion by 2025, MarketsandMarkets report. However, the efficiency of most EHR implementations is still questionable. What is more, while the researchers have noted that cloud-based EHR is slowly but steadily becoming a trend, a great number of healthcare providers are hesitant about these solutions, held back by numerous fears associated with the cloud.

In this article, we will look into the most popular risks associated with cloud-based EHR adoption, see if they have any ground, and explain how to overcome them.

Overcoming well-known complications of cloud-based EHR adoption

Understandably, healthcare providers proceed with caution when it comes to serious transformations because the cost of error can be grave. Besides, when it comes to technologies, their cost can turn out exorbitant. This in its turn leads to the need to submit numerous reports and offer explanations to stakeholders, which distract clinicians from patient care. To avoid such situations, you need to take into account the following factors.

Practice size

Some providers believe that making EHR cloud-based is a viable path only for large healthcare networks that have a lot more data than the usual on-premises EHRs can accommodate. However, the cloud is one of the few solutions that work equally well for both large medical networks and small rural clinics or private practices. The solution here is to choose the right architecture and features.

Large practices are usually general hospitals. In this case, the key service model can be emergency visits and the top capabilities can be the ease of creating a new record and interoperability. The latter is important because emergency patients are usually referred from other hospitals and can have various needs. Hence, a cloud EHR solution needs to be generalized.

For small practices, the situation is different, because they usually offer services in a single specialty, such as dermatology, neurology, and more. Such practices often serve many regular patients, so a cloud EHR of this kind should be tailored to the field’s specifics, load records swiftly, and preferably have an on-the-spot scheduling assistant.

Interoperability complications

Some providers doubt that cloud EHRs can be interoperable but in fact, interoperability in the cloud is much easier to achieve. You will have to either configure access for their partners and other clinics in the network or create a separate cloud for data exchange, as it was done by Littleton Regional Healthcare hospital in New Hampshire.

Here the problem was even more complex. Littleton is a community hospital with quite a few specialties, and in many of them, specific EHRs are used. In this case, introducing a cloud EHR was aimed at ensuring interoperability within one clinic.

Thanks to the new cloud EHR, Littleton managed to ensure interoperability not only across the hospital setting but also with their partner, a clinic located nearby. The project is still on, and the teams are very excited about making the EHR cloud-based. Among other things, they plan to improve patient experience and revenue cycle management.

Security issues

Some healthcare providers think that the cloud is vulnerable to various security risks. These fears were confirmed by the Electronic Health Records in Healthcare report published by the US Department of Health and listing EHR cybersecurity threats. According to the report, cloud technologies are among the top five EHR risks, along with phishing and ransomware attacks. What’s more, there are viruses targeting specifically healthcare clouds. Yet another cybersecurity risk comes from the workers themselves, who lose their gadgets, open phishing letters, etc.

To mitigate EHR-related security risks, you need to hire IT vendors with proven expertise in healthcare security. Such vendors can ensure HIPAA compliance of their solutions and offer a cloud-based security broker (CASB). CASB is a software solution that works as a mediator between the actual users and cloud service providers. The cloud HIPAA compliance and CASB make extra security layers, protecting the cloud environment and medical data it contains.

As for internal threats, you should go the extra mile and make sure your employees get relevant security training to become aware of the top cybersecurity threats and the respective prevention steps. For instance, they should know how to detect potential phishing emails.

As we know, such emails come from faulty sources: the names of persons involved, domain names, or the email body are modified, containing typos for example. Your employees should be alert and notify your IT department in case suspicious emails have been detected instead of clinking the links or downloading the attachments.

Cloud EHR risks that often go unseen

At the same time, there are cloud EHR risks that healthcare providers do not suspect or simply disregard. However, you should be aware of them as well to make the right decision about deploying a cloud EHR solution.

Customization issues

Cloud EHR customization may be complex. Since cloud-based EHRs are as a rule SaaS solutions, making them fit some specific requirements is not always easy. Of course, users can switch to a another service model, but such a shift can lead to increased monthly subscription cost. What’s more, SaaS software often involves hidden costs. Besides, to operate a large amount of data, you may need to switch to another bandwidth. As a result, the system costs pile up.

To avoid unpleasant surprises, you should assess cloud EHR’s total cost of ownership (TCO) at the beginning of the project.

Security

Cloud security is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s great that it’s cloud EHR vendor not the healthcare provider, the amateur in cyber security, who is responsible for personal data safety. But on the other hand, this results in a strong dependency on the cloud provider. The provider also controls and has access to the uploaded healthcare data, which can be very sensitive. EHR data is highly valuable on the black market, and serious reputational damage is unavoidable if medical data is leaked.

When considering a NetSuite implementation for your EHR project, it’s crucial to mitigate risks and avoid potential issues. One effective strategy involves thoroughly vetting the IT vendors you’re considering for this NetSuite implementation. Reviewing their track record, particularly in NetSuite deployments, by examining their portfolios and discussing their experience with similar projects can be immensely beneficial. Additionally, reaching out to past clients who’ve undergone NetSuite implementations with these vendors can provide valuable insights based on their experiences and feedback. This comprehensive approach helps in selecting a vendor best suited to handle your EHR project’s NetSuite implementation while minimizing potential risks.

Summing up

We’ve looked into the concerns that providers have when selecting a cloud EHR system. We can conclude that some of them are unfounded, while other are manageable. Besides, there are several problems you can face. To solve them effectively, you need to carefully study the vendors’ portfolios, their approach to setting up cloud EHRs, as well as their willingness to answer questions and discuss your potential project.