Introduction
The words ‘future of healthcare’ may throw up images of hi-tech, futuristic, state-of-the art facilities in hospitals of the future. But it doesn’t have to be just that. As aging populations in the U.S. grow, chronic conditions rise, and patients seek comfort and convenience, at-home care is becoming central to modern healthcare delivery.
The data says that the U.S. home healthcare market size is expected to reach USD 253.4 billion by 2030 (an expansion at a CAGR of 7.48%), as per a report by Grand View Research Inc.
At the heart of this shift is technology and how it is elevating home care with innovations like remote monitoring, virtual consultations, mobile-first healthcare IT platforms and more. The shift towards home care can be evidenced in how leading healthcare vendors are modernizing their tools to support field clinicians and caregivers.
The COVID-19 pandemic also provided a significant push to the adoption and growth of home care in the U.S., creating a strong impetus for change across healthcare delivery.
Many temporary flexibilities for healthcare regulations were introduced during the pandemic. While the landscape for permanent regulatory changes is still evolving, in some key areas temporary relaxations have been made permanent or significantly extended, particularly for Medicare (E.g.: Behavioral/Mental Health Telehealth).
Technical Advancements Enabling Home Care
Several advancements are reshaping how care is delivered outside traditional settings:
- Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM): Connected devices enable continuous tracking of vitals and symptoms, creating seamless care delivery systems.
- Telehealth Platforms: Virtual visits increase access, reduce travel burdens, and ensure timely intervention.
- Mobile Applications: Field staff can update patient records, follow care plans, and sync data on the go.
- AI & Predictive Analytics: Providers can identify risks early, personalize care, and reduce readmissions.
- Interoperability & Secure Data Exchange: Care teams can access real-time patient information, ensuring continuity and safety.
Case in Point: How HealthAsyst Modernized Home Care for a Leading EHR Vendor
Achieving digital transformation in Home Care is as much about adopting the latest tools as it is about making tech work for real-world caregivers. At HealthAsyst, we understand the unique challenges faced by caregivers and design technology that helps them do their jobs better.
The Challenge
Back in 2014, a leading U.S.-based EHR vendor approached HealthAsyst to modernize their home care application. The app, designed for physiotherapists, nurses, and housekeeping staff, was a thick-client desktop solution. It required installation on individual laptops. During patient home visits, caregivers collected data offline and later synchronized it manually at care centers. While the system was functional, it was cumbersome, mobility-limited, and out of step with modern care delivery.
- Built using Delphi, a popular tool in the early 2000s, the app had grown complex over time.
- The thick-client architecture made deployment and updates difficult.
- Business logic was deeply embedded in the backend, with no formal documentation.
The vendor wanted to migrate the solution to iPads, maintain offline capabilities, and enhance usability for field staff. As part of the move from Delphi to iOS, the customer also wanted to optimize the Scheduling and Visit Frequency modules, keeping them lightweight. The overall vision was to rearchitect these modules to function smoothly within the new mobile-first, offline-capable environment.
Challenges faced in rearchitecting Scheduling and Visit Frequency modules:
- The Scheduling Module had to balance rules governing patient care plans, clinician availability and skills, geography, and compliance. However, many of these rules were hardcoded in legacy Delphi code.
- The Visit Frequency Module tightly integrated with scheduling, was critical for regulatory compliance (e.g., CMS audits) and had to handle a variety of care plan patterns, overrides, and exception workflows.
- Lack of documentation around these modules made it difficult to identify how frequency-driven constraints were enforced within scheduling logic.
- The interdependency between modules added to the complexity. Any scheduling change could impact compliance tracking, and vice versa.
- Migrating these capabilities to a modern, mobile-first platform required maintaining accuracy and reliability in high-stakes clinical environments.
Our Solution: A Web-First Hybrid Approach
Our team devised a solution that facilitated the migration to iPads with a web-first hybrid model, without sacrificing offline capabilities. The migration work included:
- Reverse-engineering undocumented Delphi logic. This helped in understanding the dependencies and workflows.
- Rebuilding the original app’s core functionality as web content instead as opposed to rewriting the application in a native mobile language. This approach allowed rapid iteration during development.
- Once the web version of the app was ready, the team created an iOS container app that emdebbed the web app via an iFrame.
- Since field staff using the app might not always have internet access, the system had to work offline and then synchronize data securely when connectivity returned. To accomplish the same, the team developed mechanisms to handle errors and version conflicts and recovery in case of network failures.
- We helped rebuild a clinician scheduling engine that managed and optimized visit assignments while ensuring compliance with care plans and regulatory needs. The key functionalities included patient-centric scheduling view, visit assignment, real-time clinician availability and matching, and more.
- We helped implement a robust frequency management engine that ensured that visits aligned with prescribed care plans and CMS regulations. Key functionalities included frequency plan definition, pattern templates, frequency validation & alerts, and more.
The Outcome
The final iPad solution was a seamless, hybrid application that enabled mobility, reducing operational inefficiencies. It ensured reliable data transmission without errors. The approach proved to be successful, giving the customer a balance between modernization and stability. It reduced technical debt, while enhancing usability for field staff.
Conclusion
As healthcare moves closer to where patients are, technology is the bridge enabling that shift. Through thoughtful design and deep domain expertise, HealthAsyst helps providers, intermediaries and software vendors transition with success.
To discuss your product engineering or digital transformation needs, please write to us at itservices@healthasyst.com.
