What should a good E.H.R (Electronic Health Records) Solution Include?

It has become harder and harder to find products (either Enterprise Software or SaaS offerings) that offer the key components of a complete EHR system.

Based on some modern-day requirements, at the very least, one needs to look for the following in an E.H.R solution:

1. Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Module
2. Practice Management Module (PM)
3. A Patient Portal
4. A Document Management module
5. A Referral Management Module
6. Meaningful use Management Module
7. Reporting (Customizable Reports) from E.H.R. data
8. ePrescriptions – ePrescribing Module
9. A Mobile App 
10. A Messenger App

Some questions to ask the E.H.R vendor

1. Billing Questions – Will the EHR system simply send bills to a Centralized Billing System – or will it need to handle the entire billing process ? What about Medicaid and Medicare payment options?

2. Security Groups – Should Clinic A be able to see Clinic B’s records?

3. Referrals – Will the system support referrals from outside (external providers) – or only referrals from other Clinics? If  referrals from other clinics only, should Clinic A be able to see Clinic B’s records?

4. Appointment Scheduling – Should the system support this ? This is different from simple REMINDERS (for Immunization and follow-up). Reminders can be a part of the Appointment Scheduling.

5. Clinical Protocols –  Will the system support common clinical protocols (Clinical protocols are specific care plans for various indications) ?

Some Industry Leading  E.H.R products

1. Amadeus from Orion Health – SaaS – would be my first choice. It is a well thought out solution.
2. Netsmart – E.H.R Suite
3. Maven Medical
4. eClinicalWorks – SaaS

Summary

This is my top 10 list for features I would like to see in an EHR  product.