Challenges and Opportunities in Implementing Agile-Based Software Quality Assurance Frameworks for Electronic Health Records in U.S. Hospitals – Volume 12 Issue 5

The introduction of electronic health records (EHRs) into American hospitals has fundamentally changed the way healthcare is provided, yet remains prone to numerous issues concerning usability, interoperability, compliance and patient safety. Conventional software quality assurance (QA) methods are frequently unable to keep up with the complexity and dynamism of healthcare IT settings. Other frameworks based on agile QA have been proposed, which focus on a more iterative method to testing, collaboration between clinicians and developers, and constant improvement. This paper examines the issues and opportunities of applying the agile QA practices to the EHR systems of the U.S. hospitals. The systematic review of recent publications in the years 2020-2023 allows synthesizing the findings about the challenges, including regulatory restrictions, resource constraints, and cultural resistance, and opportunities, including increased adaptability, greater user feedback integration, and shorter deployment timeframes. As the analysis shows, agile QA has potential to resolve the long-term challenges in EHR quality and safety, but its implementation needs to be in line with the needs and requirements of the U.S. healthcare environment, organizational culture, and patient safety. The paper emphasizes with a conclusion and recommendations to support the introduction of the agile-based QA in hospitals by the healthcare provider, policymakers, and researchers.

This paper has discussed the issues and opportunities of implementing agile-based software quality assurance (SQA) model on electronic health record (EHR) systems at U.S. hospitals. The results reveal the two-sided reality of healthcare organizations, where regulatory complexity, organizational resistance, financial pressures, and burnout of clinicians are both a major challenge, but agile approaches may also provide potent instruments to enhance patient safety, optimize collaboration, and permit technological innovation. Agile models offer agility and flexibility uncommon in traditional linear models. With our recurring focus on developing the product through iterative development, feedback, and collaboration, the stakeholder, agile-based SQA can assist U.S. hospitals to be more responsive to the changing needs of healthcare IT. Notably, the combination of agile practices is consistent with more general objectives of patient-centered care, enhanced usability of EHR systems, and the formation of a more robust patient safety culture (Azyabi et al., 2021; Huang et al., 2022). The consequences to healthcare organizations are obvious: the implementation of agile SQA needs not only technical changes but also organizational and cultural change. The hospitals should establish a culture of inclusion of clinicians, make investments in training, and align with the regulatory demands. On the policy level, regulators and funding agencies must promote the idea of innovation by considering agile frameworks as a legitimate and compliant practice and providing resource-constrained hospitals with the encouragement to adopt agile frameworks. Going ahead, additional empirical studies are required to validate the effectiveness of agile SQA in the real world in terms of reducing costs, enhancing patient safety outcomes, and enhancing clinician satisfaction. A combination of agile flexibility and regulatory rigor could be a possible way forward in hybrid models. Moreover, agile SQA can be used to introduce the emerging technologies in EHR introductions, as artificial intelligence, IoT, and blockchain are exciting innovations with their potential (Lee et al., 2024; Niu et al., 2024).

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