Choosing an EHR ( Electronic Health Record) is a decision that requires some knowledge about the current technology and choosing one type of EHR over the other can be made easy when you know the details about each one of them and also what are the advantages of one over the other. There are two types of EHR available in the market today — Cloud Based EHR solutions and Client Server based EHRs that require you to install some software on your computer. The goal of this article is to make chiropractors aware of the differences and figure out which one is good for their specific type of practice and more importantly their lifestyle.
EHRs of this day and age are moving towards making life easier for the providers and we will discuss here how you can put them to work in your favor. We will discuss some key differences between the two kinds of EHRs and to help guide you in choosing the right EHR.
Ease of installation
Cloud-based EHR software does not need any specific installation in most situations. Most futuristic Cloud based EHR should automatically adapt to the screen size and screen resolution of your tablet or laptop or desktop without requiring you to download or install any software. On the other hand, Client Server based EHRs have to be installed on your local machine and would require physical data servers in your office or a remote location and also a need for a backup server. I am guessing that since most of us are not very good at IT stuff and at maintaining the servers we will need an IT person to help manage the servers and updating them which will end up costing you more in the long run. So unless you are a big practice or a hospital and already have an IT team in place, a cloud based software is best suited for smaller clinics and individual chiropractors.
Flexibility of usage
Cloud based EHR solutions can be accessed from any place where you will have an internet connection. It provides you the flexibility of working and updating your patient records from home or even while you are on vacation and since the records are updated real time so all the members of your team can access your latest notes and changes to care plan you have made. Also you can access most cloud based EHR software from your phones and other mobile devices. Client Server EHR lack the flexibility provided by the cloud based EHR. There are workarounds possible like using a remote access software to access it from another device. However, these remote access connections are typically slow. As a result, a significant amount of time get wasted when trying to use the software remotely.
Security
Maintaining your patient’s health information in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is of utmost importance these days. We have heard of Ransomware attacks on the hospital where the hackers either limit access to the EHR or encrypt the data. Hospitals end up paying money to the hackers to get back the access and data. On top of that there is the risk of natural disasters destroying the data servers in case of Client Server based software where all the data is sitting on a single device. In order to mitigate these risks, you have to buy something separate to backup your data to a remote location. These risks are to a very large extent mitigated with the use of cloud based EHR software. The cloud chiropractic EHRs come with multiple, redundant backups safely kept in distant locations on top of the more robust security layers used by cloud companies.
Cost
Client Server EHR are more expensive to install and maintain which limits their usage mostly by big hospitals and clinics. On top of that you need a 24/7/365 IT team in case there are any issues or pay the software company additional fee to provide support and maintenance. Cloud based EHR software are much cheaper and basically have close to zero maintenance costs.
Upgrades
Client Server EHR’s usually need manual upgrades by your IT team who basically will install the upgrades on your local computer. Cloud based EHRs are automatically updated and have very limited downtime.
Based on all the above determinants you have to choose which software will be best suited for your clinic or organization. Obviously there will be other factors that will also be coming into play when you choose the EHR for your practice. Hope this article was helpful in improving the understanding of basic difference between client based vs cloud based EHRs.
