The healthcare landscape is rapidly evolving, with services moving beyond traditional brick-and-mortar settings, especially in a post-COVID world. As technology plays a pivotal role in connecting patients and providers, it becomes crucial for health systems like the University of Michigan to ensure robust quality assurance strategies. Regardless of advanced healthcare technologies, well-educated doctors, or digitally literate patients, progress can only be achieved if software testing is given due importance.
Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems lie at the heart of healthcare infrastructure, guiding patients through various medical interventions. These systems can handle complex tasks such as managing and sharing patient data while adhering to strict regulations like HIPAA. Accurate and readily accessible medical histories are crucial for patient safety and outcomes.
However, the 2020 U.S. study revealed that EMR systems failed to detect up to 33% of drug interactions and medication errors, posing potential threats. Inaccurate EMR data can lead to workflow inefficiencies, delays, and patient frustration, underscoring the need for comprehensive testing across functionality, performance, integration, and usability. The insights from the Vital Signs survey by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and Keysight shed light on some concerning issues regarding software testing in North American healthcare.
This also makes it even more important than ever for both emergency and non emergency supplies to be delivered in a timely manner. Ensuring that non-emergency medical transportation software is run on a robust platform is critical. Otherwise there could be several hiccups that can cause delays and delay patient care.
Current Healthcare Software Testing Practices and Challenges
Despite ambitious digital health innovations, the survey highlights a stark reality: 38% of providers still rely on manual testing, and 44% use in-house testing solutions. These traditional methods often fall short in meeting the increasing demands of healthcare software testing.
Manual testing struggles to keep pace with the intricate, customized, and interconnected nature of EMR systems. Only 33% of manual testers express satisfaction with their organization’s scalability of testing capabilities. Access to actionable testing analytics and achieving comprehensive test coverage across various platforms and browsers prove to be significant hurdles, with satisfaction rates reported by only 38% of manual testers.
The DIY testing approach, embraced by over 40% of respondents in the survey, presents its own set of inefficiencies. One major impediment is the scarcity of technical expertise required for developing and maintaining in-house testing solutions. The complexity of healthcare applications, unreliable automation frameworks, and diverse programming languages necessitates specialized skill sets. As a result, only 38% of respondents utilizing DIY methods express satisfaction with their organization’s ability to enhance QA team satisfaction and productivity.
The Crucial Role of Automation in Patient Care
However, there is a silver lining: projections indicate that 75% of healthcare providers plan to adopt automated testing within the next five years.
Automation emerges as a crucial solution to overcome the deficit of skilled testers and scalability challenges. It allows for faster and more comprehensive testing, enabling organizations to keep up with rapid system upgrades and achieve greater test coverage. For example, with the help of test automation, the University of Michigan’s QA teams slashed time from 10 minutes to 1.5 minutes in creating single new patient registration. They also automated the repetitive steps of placing orders which helped to fulfill the CPOE bulk testing requirements
Moreover, it provides actionable insights and analytics to enhance QA team satisfaction and productivity. With the dawn of AI, machine learning, and the evolution of non-invasive testing platforms that synergize with secure DevOps CI/CD pipelines, there lies the potential to cater to the escalated demands of healthcare software testing without cutting corners. Early adopters are already reaping the benefits, with 80% expressing satisfaction with their organization’s ability to scale testing to meet emerging requirements.
In the end, it is important to remember that testing is not merely an end in itself, but a critical component in delivering tangible business value. In healthcare, this translates into enhanced patient outcomes, increased safety, and improved patient experiences. Demonstrating clear links between EMR software quality and patient outcomes, and EMR software quality and automated testing solutions will be a game-changer, especially if the forecast of 75% of providers utilizing automated software testing in five years is to be realized.
To gain a deeper understanding of key trends and challenges in healthcare software testing, we encourage you to review the comprehensive findings of the Vital Signs study. These insights can be instrumental in bolstering your testing strategies and contributing to safeguarding patient lives.
This article was provided by Emily Yan
