HEALTHCARE INTEGRATION DOESN T NEED TO BE SCARY

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1 White Papers HEALTHCARE INTEGRATION DOESN T NEED TO BE SCARY Integrating with an EHR can feel overwhelming from where to begin all the way to going live, there s a lot to know and even more to get done. Our goal is to simplify healthcare integration and let you focus on what you do best: creating kick-ass digital health applications.

2 Redox partners with companies in all stages of growth, and we recognize that everyone s integration journey begins at a different place. This document is meant to take you through each step of the process and detail what each phase is like from the very beginning all the way to going live with end users. Understanding Healthcare Integration... 2 Integration Alphabet Soup What s the Deal with EHRs? Selling to Health Systems... 4 Product Offering Sell Like a Champion Solid ROI Approachable Scope Redox Integration Strategy Kit Working with Health Systems... 7 Contracting Security Review Kicking Off Your Project What Does an Implementation Look Like? Going Live Working with Redox

3 Understanding Healthcare Integration So, you ve developed a game-changing healthcare application that will improve the lives of clinicians and patients. In your first sales pitch to a health system, they ask about your plans to integrate with their existing Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. Or, if you re farther down the line, you ve already gone live at a few (or many) sites and your customer asks about integrating with their EHR to improve the functionality of your product. In either case what do you do next? The first step is to decide whether now is the right time for your product to integrate. If you aren t sure, the following materials will help you understand what integration means for your application. Integration Alphabet Soup Integration in healthcare enables digital health applications to seamlessly fit into existing workflows and leverage clinical data that lives in EHRs. Since EHRs and applications are typically built in different languages, integration usually involves some form of HL7 interfacing and potentially C-CDA exchange (with a variety of protocols such as XCA, XDS.b or DIRECT) or EHR-specific Web Services. And then there s FHIR a theoretical language-panacea which hasn t yet proven itself. But what does all this actually mean? 2

4 HL7, C-CDA, and FHIR represent different standards in the healthcare industry that can be used to exchange information. It s important to note that which method is used is always going to be dependent on the health system. Due to this, integrating is easiest if you start by leveraging what already exists at the health system, and that s why we built Redox to be totally compatible with any system or standard in use adapting our solution to match what the health system already has in place limits the amount of work required by their staff. You will always exchange data in the same format and protocol, we take care of the customization and complexity on the health system side, allowing you to focus on expanding your footprint. What s the Deal with EHRs? You ve likely heard of electronic health/medical record systems, which are standardly referred to as EHRs. In 2009, CMS introduced the HITECH Act, a law incentivizing health care organizations to digitize paper patient records. This led to a large boom of EHR installations at health systems across the country, resulting in over 80% of healthcare organizations using EHRs today. While there have been many positive effects of having information available electronically, it s created some difficulties and voids (and a new caret) that third-party applications can address. Specifically, applications can both augment and streamline work done by clinicians in EHRs, and provide new ways for patients to seamlessly interact with their medical records outside of hospitals and clinics. Health systems expect these applications to leverage data from their existing EHR, and, when appropriate, have the capability to send information back in for up-to-date accuracy. This is why understanding and being prepared to answer questions from health systems about integration is critical in bringing your application to reality. 3

5 Selling to Health Systems So, you ve got an awesome product and are ready to sell to a health system, but how do you get them to bite? Here are five key topics to focus on that can make the difference between being passed over and landing that sale: 1. Product offering what unique benefit does your product provide? Does your product offer something that can t be done by their existing EHR? This could be functionality that fills a gap in the EHR, or some of aspect of your application that does a specific workflow better than what s currently used. It could also be something that their EHR can t do to meet their specialty s specific needs, as specialty offerings are a big market in healthcare. Be careful, though even if you have a superior product, if the problem you solve is being met in some way already, it is likely that adopting your solution (even if it is an improvement) will be low on the priority list. Finding an angle that makes your product is indispensable will lead to greater success. 2. Sell like a champion today who is your champion? Depending on your application, you re going to be most successful identifying a champion early on within the health system you re selling to who is in a clinical or director-level (or higher) position. Someone who is willing to champion your product and is invested in making your project a success is crucial in helping you connect with the key decision-makers at the health system, as well as shepherding your application through the approval process. Without someone actively fighting for your solution, it is unlikely you will rank high on the health system s priority list. 4

6 3. Solid ROI why does your product rock? One of the key things you need to attract a champion is a sellable return-on-investment. For many health system champions, this is likely based in efficiency rather than dollars. For many health system governance groups, though, quantifying dollar amounts is essential, as they likely have sunk hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars into their existing workflows. If they re going to spend more, it needs to be quantified, so take the time to figure out how to clearly and concisely explain how your product will impact their bottom line. 4. Approachable scope how much time will this take? Health systems often have a different concept of what implementing an application costs and may subsequently view the project as a more intensive than it actually is. Coming from a world of direct interfacing, they believe the cost to be tens of thousands of dollars and months of work. This is why one of our main value propositions is that an implementation project with us typically takes 4-6 weeks* and requires about hours of time from a health system s IT staff (we ve even gone live in two days when an application and the health system already used Redox for a different integration.) When it comes to marketing and selling your product, two options stand out as having had the most success: 1. Sell the benefit of your product as a stand-alone first. The ability to integrate improves and expedites adoption and the realization of efficiencies, but it s rarely the only reason that a health system will choose your product. Highlight what it does and the problem it solves on its own. 2. Start with a read-only integration scope. Focusing on integration needs that only require the health system to send data to your application is typically less time consuming and stressful for the health system. This guarantees that you aren t doing anything that will impact end user workflows and requires minimal configuration changes on the health system side, if any at all. 5

7 5. Redox Integration Strategy Kit Once you ve gotten the health system interested in your product, you ll need to articulate what your integration will look like. Some organizations want a detailed project plan while others will be satisfied just knowing it s available. In order to prepare for either, we recommend working with our solution team to develop a strategy for these different scenarios, and we ll scope your application s specific integration needs and help you prepare any collateral for sales meetings. Aren t Sure How to Approach the Sales Process? Don t worry we offer Sales Enablement coaching to provide you with sales-specific support from our integration experts. Reach out to us anytime at sales@redoxengine.com. We re here (and happy) to talk with you.

8 Working with Health Systems So, you re pitch went well and you ve found the holy grail: a successful sale. Before kicking off your project, there are a few more steps that typically occur: 1. Contracting Before kicking off your project, you ll need to go through the contracting process with the health system. For some organizations, this is quick and easy; others can take several weeks to months. Be prepared for this variance and ask about their approval and contracting process during the sales cycle so that there are no surprises down the road. Be warned: a lot of health systems operate on annual budgets, so if you aren t proactive about this step, you might miss getting slotted as an expenditure for this year and have to wait up to a year for your next chance. 2. Security Review Security in health IT is a hot button issue and is critical in making health systems feel comfortable sharing data with you. Many health systems require you to move through a required security process that s after approval but before system access can be granted. If this is the case, expect an intensive security questionnaire that you and Redox will fill out together to validate that you meet the expected security requirements of the health system. If this sounds daunting, don t worry we ve filled out hundreds of these and will help you with the tough stuff. 7

9 3. Kicking Off Your Project Once all the contracting and security reviews are done, it s finally time to kick off your project! As part of our Implementation Process, we ll provide you with the materials and tools needed for a successful kickoff and implementation. Our team is here to be the liaisons between you and the health system, taking the fear out of integration by translating data and managing every step of the project. We ll outline the project plan and make sure everything gets done on time. 4. What Does an Implementation Look Like? Kickoff marks the start of the project, and your Redox Implementation Lead will be responsible for guiding both you and the health system through it. The first step is establishing connectivity with the health system through either a secure VPN connection, proxy, or certificate exchange depending on your workflow and data requirements. Next, a member from the health system Interface Team will point the interface to Redox and send us test messages. Based on these, Redox will complete configurations designed to translate the data to meet your application s needs. While we re working on connectivity, you can finalize your endpoint setup to Redox and complete your connection testing with our engine. Once we re receiving the expected information from the health system, we ll be ready to start integrated testing between them and your application. We ll use that testing to validate the Redox configuration and ensure you re receiving everything you expect to from the health system. After that, it s time to go live. 8

10 5. Going Live There are two stages to going live the first is a soft or (technical) go-live and usually lasts 1-3 days. During this window, we re exchanging production-level data between your application and the health system, but actual users aren t interacting with the data yet. The goal of this is a final check on the integration to validate that what we saw in testing matches what production messages will look like. Once you and the health system are satisfied with the messages, it s time for users to start seeing the magic of your integration. During the go-live period, Redox is available to provide support and validate that the information flow is correct. After a successful go-live, it s on to the next project! Still looking for more information? The best thing to do is reach out to our solutions team. We have a process for learning about your needs and ensuring you get the most targeted information that helps you move forward. Contact sales@redoxengine.com to talk with us.

11 Working with Redox Redox is your integration partner, and we re passionate about improving healthcare interoperability (seriously). We also recognize that everyone has different needs, and so we offer a variety of integration plans to help you utilize our services in whichever way fits you best. Regardless of your needs, there are a few things we do with all of our customers: first, we want to talk to you! Schedule a call with our team so we can learn more about what you do and how Redox can help. If you like to explore, sign up for a free developer account and kick the tires on what it looks like to connect to Redox. You can also check out our data model documentation to start identifying which ones you ll need. Don t worry, if you re unsure, we will point you in the right direction after hearing your workflow and data requirements. There are a couple things we ll want to know about you, so be prepared to discuss the following in your first call with Redox: The story of your product how it came to be, who it serves, etc. An overview of your past integration experiences High-level partnership goals An overview of the types of health systems and EHRs you re targeting Types of information you ll need to receive and send Once we ve had a chance to discuss our partnership with you, the next step will be to develop a custom integration solution. Moving into this stage, we ll want to go through the following: 10

12 A product demo and workflow highlighting key integration points A list of the data that needs to be exchanged Initial thoughts on the data models that meet your needs Timelines for when to talk with your next (or first!) health system EHR Integration Doesn t Need to be Scary With Redox, you have a trusted partner that specializes in all things integration. We allow you to focus on your product and users and provide you with a flexible technical platform that scales and changes with you. Best of all, we become part of your team we celebrate your successes and are there for you when things get difficult. Everything we do is to help the best healthcare solutions get in the hands of patients and providers and we can t wait to help yours. Give us a call and we ll show you how straightforward integration can be. Overview of Redox Redox is the modern API for healthcare, enabling cloud applications to integrate and sync with health system EHRs, lab systems, registries, payors, and more. We believe healthcare needs innovation, and that enabling easier access to data sharing is a key part of improving patient care. We work with application vendors from all over the world who have identified areas needing improvement and have built truly amazing solutions that address real-life problems. Together, we can deliver technology that augments the functionality of EHRs and expands both the scope and quality of healthcare. Visit us to learn more at