When choosing an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, health departments must start with the basics. Features like billing, telehealth, and practice management tools are foundational for running day-to-day operations smoothly. These components help streamline administrative tasks, improve patient access to care, and ensure financial sustainability. However, while many EHRs offer these generic capabilities, not all are created with public health in mind.
Public health departments have unique workflows and responsibilities that go beyond standard clinical care. From managing communicable disease surveillance and immunization tracking to conducting contact tracing, community outreach, and education, public health professionals need tools tailored to these specific workflows.
That’s where public health EHRs come in. These systems are designed to support the full scope of public health programs, making it easier for staff to document clinical services, analyze community health data, and meet specific reporting requirements. Investing in an EHR built for public health doesn’t just make your job easier; it helps your team deliver more effective, coordinated patient care.
Clinical Program Support
Immunizations
EHRs are vital tools for public health departments and community clinics to efficiently manage high-volume immunization events, like those seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. An EHR designed for public health can simplify patient registration, streamline data entry, track vaccine inventory, sync with state immunization registries, and even support mobile off-site clinics.
These capabilities help reduce manual work, minimize errors, and ensure clinics can quickly and accurately administer vaccines to large populations. By choosing an EHR with mass vaccination features, barcode scanning, and inventory management, public health agencies can be better prepared for future mass immunizations, improving community health and safety while easing staff workload.
Tuberculosis
Public health departments can fight Tuberculosis (TB) with their EHR by improving case tracking, treatment management, and patient education. EHRs allow providers to securely document and monitor TB testing results, track patient histories, record lab and diagnostic data like sputum collections, and conduct detailed contact tracing to identify sources and potential exposures in the community.
They also support tailored treatment plans, medication management, and progress monitoring through features like Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) tracking. Additionally, EHRs make it easier to transfer records and deliver educational materials to patients, raising awareness about TB transmission and symptoms. By streamlining these processes, EHRs empower public health agencies to slow the spread of TB, deliver coordinated care, and ultimately improve community health outcomes.
Diabetes Programs
Diabetes management programs can utilize EHRs by helping providers document family history, track lab results, and monitor patients’ conditions over time to inform better treatment decisions. EHRs also generate patient lists for targeted outreach, prompt clinicians about needed screenings or immunizations, and send automated messages to educate patients on managing their diabetes.
With these capabilities, health care agencies can create summaries and reports to help patients coordinate their diets, medications, and overall care plans, ultimately improving health outcomes.
Maternal Child Health
Maternal and child health program workers use EHRs to efficiently track prenatal visits, monitor infant development, and document health milestones for both mother and child. EHRs streamline the management of screenings, immunizations, lab results, and risk assessments, helping providers deliver timely, coordinated care.
Integrated reporting tools, like FPAR and FPAR 2.0, support compliance with funding requirements while improving communication among care teams. By centralizing health data, EHRs enhance early intervention, reduce gaps in care, and promote healthier outcomes for families.
HIV Case Management
Specialized HIV case management features can include testing, assessments, and ongoing care. These tools include built-in forms and templates focused on client-centered treatment and state-specific requirements. Key functionalities include comprehensive case management (testing, assessments, care planning, and treatment adherence), secure access controls with digital signatures, centralized referral tracking, and coordination of services to ensure continuity of care.
Family Planning and Reproductive Health
Family Planning, sometimes called Reproductive Health, is a core program in many public health departments. Clinics providing family planning services have unique needs that a generic EHR cannot meet.
This includes:
- Clinical charting
- Title X State Reporting
- 240b Program support
- Contraception (current and at exit) support
- Outbound referral management
- Sliding fee scales
Health Education and Communication
Drug Overdose Prevention
The fentanyl crisis is fueling a sharp rise in drug overdoses, disproportionately affecting vulnerable communities, and public health departments play a critical role in addressing it. EHRs can help public health providers combat fentanyl overdoses by enabling thorough patient screenings, documenting behavioral health risks, and coordinating care through integrated records and referrals.
EHRs with integrated behavioral health tools like evaluation scales, progress notes, and telehealth services help track patients’ needs, support treatment plans, and make care more accessible, especially for those facing barriers like transportation or economic hardship. By streamlining collaboration, communication, and follow-up, EHRs empower public health departments to deliver more effective prevention, education, and intervention services.
Smoking Cessation
For smoking cessation programs, robust EHR systems can prompt providers to screen for and record patients’ tobacco use, refer individuals to quit lines, and deliver automated reminders with tips and encouragement to help patients quit smoking. EHRs also track each patient’s progress, monitor what interventions are working, and generate reports to support larger population health strategies.
Nutrition
Public health nutrition education programs can benefit from a centralized platform to track patient dietary habits, health metrics, and progress over time. Through EHRs, health educators and dietitians can document nutrition assessments, set personalized goals, and monitor outcomes such as BMI, blood pressure, and lab results.
EHRs also facilitate better communication and coordination among care teams, allowing for tailored nutrition interventions that address specific community health needs. Additionally, integrated reporting tools help public health departments evaluate the effectiveness of nutrition programs and identify populations at risk, leading to more targeted and impactful education efforts.
Emergency Preparedness and Response
Public health departments are responsible for managing contact tracing during infectious disease outbreaks like COVID-19 or measles. Built-in contact tracing tools help staff efficiently identify and track individuals exposed to communicable diseases. These systems streamline the tracing process, reduce the spread of infection, and improve the ability to act quickly and effectively.
Epidemiology
Health Information technology, like EHRs, play a critical role in supporting public health epidemiology programs by enabling real-time EHR data collection, surveillance, and analysis of disease patterns across populations. With structured data on diagnoses, lab results, immunizations, and patient demographics, EHRs help epidemiologists identify outbreaks, track the spread of infectious diseases, and monitor chronic disease trends.
Integrated alerts and reporting features allow for rapid response to emerging health threats, while interoperability with Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) enhances data sharing across agencies and regions.
Public Health Practice Management
E-Prescribe
EHRs with integrated e-prescription and Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) capabilities play an important role in public health’s response to the opioid crisis and prescription safety. By digitizing prescriptions, EHRs help public health agencies and providers reduce medication errors, prevent dangerous drug interactions, and comply with federal and state regulations like the DEA’s Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS).
EHRs also streamline the mandatory reporting of controlled substance prescriptions to state PDMPs, ensuring timely tracking and accountability. These systems provide clinics with tools for clinical assessments, prescription limit alerts, and patient education to improve patient outcomes, supporting safer prescribing practices and community outreach efforts. Ultimately, EHRs help public health professionals combat opioid misuse and overdose risks while improving efficiency, compliance, and patient safety.
ID Scanning
Local health departments often face challenges identifying patients due to cultural differences in naming conventions and language barriers. This can lead to duplicate records and potential care errors. One effective solution is an EHR that has an integrated ID scanner tool. According to the SAFER guides from the ONC, including patient photos improves identification accuracy and reduces mistakes.
Scanning IDs with a patient photo at check-in is a low-barrier, high-impact step that can improve patient safety, reduce wait times, and streamline workflows. Public health leaders should assess their EHR capabilities and adopt a system that supports these safety-enhancing practices.
Choosing the right EHR can significantly affect a public health department's effectiveness. While basic systems may support general practice needs, EHRs tailored specifically for public health offer deeper functionality and smarter workflows that align with your team’s mission.
Whether it's tracking immunizations, managing chronic conditions, responding to disease outbreaks, or running community education programs, an EHR built for public health helps staff work more efficiently, comply with reporting standards, and deliver more coordinated, effective care. Investing in the right system ultimately strengthens your department’s ability to protect and improve community health.
