Key Features to Have in Custom EMR Software in 2026

EMR systems have become epicenter for care delivery for healthcare practices in some way or the other. From clinical care delivery and filling up administrative forms, EMRs have become the point of reference for almost all the day-to-day activities in your clinic, right?

Now, that EMR systems have become such an integral part of healthcare software systems, you must guess that most of the users are quite satisfied with using an EMR system right? Well, this stat might change your mind. You see, in a 2024 survey of 2067 family physicians, EMR-based alerts had the lowest usability ratings, and that’s just one of the EMR features.

Originally, the EMR systems were designed to meet the billing regulatory requirements of a practice, rather than addressing the clinical workflows and care delivery. And that is the reason why 58% of physicians were dissatisfied with their EMR system’s impact on their patient realtionship.

However, recognizing the potential and advancing as per the physicians need, EMR have become what they are today. And still most of the readily available EMR system are not satisfying the growing needs of healthcare providers and this is what has encouraged providers to look for EMR system development to meet their pratice’s unique needs both clinically and administratively.

But there is a problem is that as well. You see, providers want to develop a custom EMR software for their practice but, ‘What features should custom EMR software include?’ is that one question that can be the reason for the failure of their custom EMR software development venture.

Knowing the right feature, before starting the development is crucially important. And after encountering this question from many of our clients, this is the reason why I decided to pen this blog.

On that note, let’s discuss the key EMR functionalities needed by medical practices and let this blog, be your guide to decide the key features of EMR and for scanning provide you with a EMR feature list.

So, without further ado, let’s get started!

Core Clinical Features

Covering the clinical aspects of your custom EMR software, here are some of the core clinical features that you must not compromise on.

• Patient Demographics and Medical History: This is the core feature of EMR and can even be argued to be the sole purpose of electronic medical records. In short, your custom EMR software should be able to securely store and manage patient demographics, medical history, current or ongoing medications, allergies, and even immunizations. Along with that, it should also allow easy access to patient data to providers so that care is delivered effectively and effortlessly. Furthermore, your EMR system should also be integrated with other health information systems so that data exchange is smooth and complete.

• Electronic Prescribing (ePrescribing): While you’ll be considering the custom EMR software as a reference for care delivery, with the feature of electronic prescribing, you can even use the same software for prescriptions. It will not only streamline the medication process but also reduce medication errors, if not eliminated. Moreover, integrating this system with pharmacies can further ensure timely and accurate medication delivery. This way, you increase patient safety and improve medication adherence.

• Appointment Scheduling and Reminders: Another clinical feature that you should consider for EMR development for solo practitioners is appointment scheduling and reminders. This feature integrates your software with the calendar and enables easy scheduling with effective patient appointment management. Furthermore, to reduce no-shows and appointment misses, you can include the automated appointment reminder features. This way, your custom EMR software will send personalized reminders to patients via email or text messages.

• Clinical Decision Support (CDS) Tools: This is one of those EMR features that you must have in your EMR software. It not only helps you in making better decisions but also enables you in imbibing evidence-based practices. Some of the core functionalities of this feature include drug interaction alerts, allergy warnings and clinical guidelines. Futhermore, with advancements real-time suggestions can also be included to support clinical decision making at the point of care.

Practice Management Features

All the key features of custom EMR for clinical needs are covered. But you will also be using the EMR software for practice management, right? On that note, here are some additional features that you must consider during custom EMR development for your unique needs:

• Billing and Coding: Billing makes up most of the administrative tasks for your clinic. With automated billing and coding features, you can streamline and automate the billing and coding processes, which include claims submission and insurance verification. The automation processes will help you generate accurate and timely invoices, which will directly or indirectly contribute to improving your revenue cycle. Moreover, it will take the burden off your staff and contribute to improving practice profitability and financial performance. The functionality that will help you in this is automated code suggestions and claim scrubbing.

• Reporting and Analytics: Another key feature for your practice management can be customized reporting and analytics. Since reporting is an essential part of care delivery, this feature will allow you to generate customized reports on patient demographics, appointment scheduling, billing patterns, and other key performance indicators. These reporting and analytics features will help you gain valuable insights into where your practice is lacking and take action to improve in those areas. Furthermore, with reporting and analytics, you will have data-driven decision-making support, which can be crucial for not only delivering better care but also improving the practice’s outcomes.

• Workflow Automation: With AI dictating the future trends in healthcare software system, it can be a great tool for your practice and leave the routine tasks to automation. For instance, with automated task routing and form filling, tasks can be automatically routed to the necessary departments and form fillings will be automated with synchronization. These functionalities will reduce manual processes and speed up documentation immensely.

Patient Engagement Features

While the key features in custom EMR, consisting of clinical and practice management, are enough for you to make a smooth transition to virtual care practices. However, if you are thinking about starting virtual care delivery—which you are—then considering these patient engagement features can literally help you start and streamline your virtual care delivery processes.

• Patient Portal: In customizable EMR applications, the patient portal will be the point of contact for your patients during their care journey. Secure online access to their medical records, appointments, and communications will empower them to participate proactively in their care journey. Furthermore, it can set the stage for patient education and self-management, directly or indirectly contributing to achieving the desired patient health outcomes.

• Telehealth Integration: While most of the patient care journey will be covered in other features, it can bridge the care access gaps, like telehealth. With telehealth integration, you can provide remote patient consultation via video conferencing, audio calls, etc. This will improve access to care services in remote locations while making care services convenient. These features in EMR development for solo practitioners can literally create the roadmap for their practices.

• Secure Bidirectional Messaging: Most of the EMR system that are feature-focused only provide one way messaging. This way, the empowerment of patient is often missing and it again increases the load on providers and patients. A quick fix to this is bidirectional messaging functionality. And this fetaure sould support quick provider-patient communication, that too from your EMR system.

Integration and Interoperability

One of the major benefits of custom EMR development over off-the-shelf solutions is its integration and interoperability abilities. By integrating your custom EMR software with other healthcare systems, such as labs, imaging centers, and pharmacy networks, data flow is streamlined and seamless.

Moreover, by ensuring seamless data exchanges, you also ensure there is seamless coordination in care delivery and no leaf is left unturned. Here are some functionalities that you need to know:

• Seamless System Integration: Your practice needs to exchange data with other healthcare systems to deliver care and smoothly run administration, right? That is why you need to establish seamless integration with disparate systems like labs, imaging systems, pharmacy networks, and RPM devices.

• FHIR-Based Interoperability: For establishing this seamless integration, you need to achieved interoperability first and FHIR-based interoperability is one of the standardized data exchanges that is used across systems. With this you can reduce the chances of duplicated tests and results.

• Unified Patient Records: One of the most ket features of EMR in this sense is creation of unified patient records. With this you centralize all the data from providers and care settings, this way you can ensure everyone involved in care delivery and your administrative staff is one the same page.

Note: Now that you know the essential features that you require for your custom EMR software, let’s go a mile ahead and have a look at the advanced features that can help you transform your practice. Read this custom EMR software feature guide.

Data Security & Privacy

The inclusion of digital technologies in the healthcare landscape has made it prone to cyber attacks and cyber threats. And given the sensitive nature of data stored in custom EMR software, it can be a gold mine for cyberattackers. That is why robust data security and privacy measures must be taken.

Some of the best practices for data security and privacy in the healthcare industry include data encryption, role-based access controls, and conducting regular security audits. While data encryptions make it hard to decrypt, access control measures allow only authorized users to access these data.

However, HIPAA compliance for custom EMR solutions must not be ignored as it can act as a guide for implementing robust data security and privacy measures. Along with that, the security audits you conduct will help you in identifying and addressing gaps in your security.

This way, you protect not only your patient data from unauthorized access but also from external cyber threats.

Advanced & Specialty-Specific Features

If you’re a speciality focused healthcare practice then you need customization more than any other practice. Here are some things that you need to know:

• Custom Templates: Specialty practices have unique workflows and with that their clinical and administrative needs changes. But majorly they consists of clinical workflows and data capturing methods. To address you need a custom templates and it becomes one of the key features of your custom EMR.

• Configurable Workflows: As discussed just now, specialty practices have unique needs, one of them is documentation requirements as well. To address this you need to curate workflows with respect to that so that your software aligns with your clinical, administrative and documentation needs effectively and efficiently.

• Reporting & Forms: Reporting and forms of speciality practices are also unique. And when developing or designing the features of your custom EMR you need to understand thoses and address its specific requirements, so that data capturing and reporting becomes easier for your staff and care is delivered uninterrupted.

Frequently Asked Questions