What Modernizing Healthcare Applications Really Entails – An Application Modernization Case Study

A lot of application modernization projects start out because a legacy application that is critical to the business is no longer supported or is underperforming. Oftentimes this can be a hair on fire situation to fix and can lead to some bad decisions and high costs. Ideally, companies recognize the need for updating legacy apps and start the application modernization project before the business starts to suffer.

Whether an application modernization project starts out as an emergency, or a well-planned effort, most projects go through three main phases: update, cloud migration, and new features. We’ll cover these three phases and provide an example of a Home Healthcare Group’s application modernization project.

#1 – Updating Legacy Code and Improving Performance

An important decision needs to be made at the start of an application modernization project. Namely, to improve the existing software or start new. A good development partner will likely have a solution where they can bring your existing functionality onto a new platform and updated code. This is critical to healthcare applications where it's not an option to go without patient data for any amount of time. Doing a lift and shift allows you to secure existing operations while starting to build out a new system on a modern platform.

#2 – Making Applications Accessible from Anywhere

The second step in application modernization projects is typically cloud migration. One of the biggest complaints in legacy applications is lack of accessibility across regions. This is often because data is hosted in on-premise servers where performance and availability is not optimal. Working with a technology partner who can securely move your data to the cloud is an important part of application modernization. Supporting cloud migration for healthcare applications means working with a development firm that is certified in platforms like Microsoft Azure or AWS and that has experience handling PHI (Patient Health Information) data—both for security and HIPAA compliance.

#3 – Adding New Features

The next phase is typically the longest, yet highest impact if done well. That is starting to add new features or modules to the healthcare application. A solid development partner will work with you to find manual processes that can be easily automated with outcomes that will be noticed by clinicians and patients. Rolling out one feature or module at a time will continue to prove value and make it easier to get user adoption. In case you are wondering which features are the biggest impact in healthcare, here are the most popular features that clinicians want in healthcare applications  and the most popular features patients want in healthcare applications.

A Home Healthcare Group - Application Modernization Case Study

There are many manual workflows in healthcare today that companies can automate to gain efficiencies and improve patient care. The Graham Healthcare Group, providers of homecare and hospice, recognized this opportunity and did amazing things with their application modernization project. They started with updating and migrating their legacy systems, then went on to build a new mobile app for patients and a progressive web app for clinicians.

Their efforts quickly paid off. After just six months of use they saw a reduction in costs from eliminating printed materials and improving clinician effectiveness. More importantly they saw patient care go up, getting an average 4.9/5 patient rating for services. They also saw an increase in referrals, clinician satisfaction and overall revenue. You can read their story and hear from their VP of Marketing and Innovation on their clinician app and their patient app.