Everyone’s a patient.
At one point or another, no matter how much some people may fear the doctor, every single American needs medical care. As a result we are all extremely aware of the lack of efficiency the industry can have. While our country has the best doctors, nurses, researchers and medical professionals available, the industry’s lag when it comes to web technology is an obvious problem.
With the passing of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act in 2009 and the mandation of the use of health IT, health care organizations have been forced to implement inadequate EHRs and ERMs.
While the idea was there initially, the execution has fallen short. These systems are expensive, inefficient, inflexible and to top it all off, have a poor UX. In addition, due to many technologies’ proprietary nature, there is a lack of data portability that was one of the initial goals of the HITECH Act.
But there is a solution.
Drupal is an free open source content management system (CMS) that has the security, flexibility and state-of-the-art features the healthcare industry needs to run efficiently in the digital age. Some of the world’s most well-known websites (like whitehouse.gov) run on Drupal, and the system’s capabilities remedy many of the digital pains the healthcare industry has.
Do we have you intrigued? Check out some of Drupal’s top features and exactly why it is the perfect system for healthcare.
Open Source
An open source CMS, like Drupal, is a a software in which the source code is made public and available for anyone to work on. This solves a critical issue when it comes to the efficiency of sharing patient’s medical records between different healthcare organizations and doctors, as anyone can have a website on Drupal.
Because Drupal is open source, not only are thousands of the world’s best developers constantly improving the source code, the flexibility allows for efficient record sharing.
But does the sound of an “open” software scare you in an industry where patient privacy is of the utmost importance…
Security
…then you should know that Drupal’s security is unbeatable.
Some of the most secure websites are built on Drupal CMS. The White House, CDC, DOD, NASA, the Department of Homeland Security and many more all rely on the Drupal Security Team to keep their private information secure.
In addition, Drupal partners with the best hosting providers out there, like Acquia, that specialize in and strictly observe HIPAA’s guidelines.
Remember that group of developers voluntarily working on Drupal’s code we mentioned above? The Drupal community is one of the most technically-advanced out there. They work tirelessly to to identify and fix any possible security breaches. That’s the true benefit of open source.
Flexibility
Drupal websites aren’t just robust, they are also extremely flexible. In fact, Drupal’s ability to adapt to the needs of an array of websites and digital properties is what sets the CMS apart.
If you go with Drupal for healthcare, an enormous benefit is that the CMS’s flexibility means your digital properties are able to accommodate new features with ease. This allows for economical and seamless upgrades upon the existing framework. If you decide to add a video chat feature that allows for doctors to quickly speak to patients face-to-face, that is an easy, cheap fix to Drupal website design.
Healthcare requires flexibility with its digital assets. It’s one of the biggest pain points plaguing the industry today. Choosing Drupal will set up your organization’s web presence for future innovations and upgrades.
Data Portability
Did you know an estimated $148-$226 BILLION dollars are wasted in healthcare every year due to a lack of coordination?
Ouch.
Drupal makes it simple to connect your website and digital properties with others cross-platform. By using Drupal, your healthcare website can seamlessly integrate with other networks and securely share medical records and patient data. It also allows for granular permission settings which grant different personas access to appropriate levels of data. A patient could access their medical records, as could their practitioners across multiple specialties. And because this is all running on Drupal, you know it is secure.
Interested in learning more about Drupal and whether or not it is right for your health care organization? Give us a call and we’ll help you sort out your options.
