EHRs still don’t talk to each other — and clinicians are stuck in the middle.

It’s been a requirement since 2004 — and still, most electronic health records struggle to share data across systems.

That’s why EHR integration keeps coming up — most often, it’s not built-in, and clinicians have to sort it out themselves.

What is EHR integration?

EHR integration links EHRs with other healthcare software so data moves smoothly between systems. It saves clinicians from manually entering data into multiple tools and keeps workflows running smoothly without constantly switching between systems.

In other words, this is how you make different EHRs and other systems in your tech stack talk to each other.

The great purpose of EHR integrations

EHRs were an upgrade from paper records in the 1990s. Thirty years later, there’s room for improvement.

Historically, EHR systems were built as digital filing cabinets rather than truly interconnected platforms. Each hospital or healthcare network adopted its own system, often without considering how it would communicate with others.

This is how we've ended up with a fragmented, siloed healthcare experience where patient data is locked away in isolated systems.

Clinicians still send healthcare records through faxes — in 2025.

And this is where the question of EHR integrations comes in. They should not only help us get rid of never-ending faxing, but also: 

• Prevent serious mistakes — with integrated systems, healthcare providers have real-time access to complete medical records. When everyone’s on the same system, care gets safer.
• Reduce manual data entry — clinicians shouldn’t have to waste hours copying and pasting patient details between systems. Integrations automate this process.
• Ensure continuity of care — when providers have access to complete patient records, they can make better-informed decisions and avoid unnecessary tests or treatments.
• Improve patient experience — patients shouldn’t have to repeat their medical history at every appointment. Integrated systems make sure their records follow them wherever they go.
• Support data-driven healthcare — with properly integrated EHRs, healthcare organizations can analyze trends, identify gaps in care, and improve patient outcomes.

Can’t you just connect your tech stack?

Infamous EHR interoperability. Only 44% of surveyed clinicians agree their EHR provides expected integration with outside organizations.

So why is it still so hard to sync data between Health IT (HIT) systems without jumping through hoops?

There are several reasons behind it:

1. Lack of standardization 

Different HIT systems use different data formats, making it challenging to transfer information smoothly. Without universal standards, you end up with a patchwork of systems that don’t always “speak” the same language.

2. Patient identification challenges

One of the major barriers to EHR interoperability is the lack of a national patient identifier (NPID), a code that would uniquely identify patients across healthcare systems. Due to privacy concerns, the idea was scrapped by Congress, and the issue remains until today. Without a universal identifier, healthcare providers struggle to match patient records correctly up to 50% of the time.

3. Data privacy concerns

Patient data is sensitive and comes with strict privacy rules, like HIPAA.

Sharing data securely and in compliance with these rules is a big challenge for software vendors, which makes it harder for systems to communicate while keeping privacy intact.

4. Vendor lock-in

As hospitals merge and health networks expand, they often end up using EHR systems from different vendors. The problem is, many of these vendors implement proprietary communication and language protocols that don’t allow for seamless communication with other EHRs.

5. When IT doesn’t speak clinical

Lastly, most IT professionals designing HIT systems have never been in the trenches of healthcare. And without firsthand experience in clinical settings, it’s understandable that some systems don’t fully align with what clinicians actually need.

We talked to Andrew M. Harrison, MD, PhD, and he says the lack of cross-disciplinary training is a key factor:

“When people have attempted to look at factors of success in Nobel Prize winners, one factor that stood out was training in more than one discipline.

HIT people live in their own IT world and speak their own IT language. They have no real knowledge of healthcare; it is an abstract concept located in some other distant building.”

Some organizations try to bridge the gap by hiring former nurses or healthcare professionals. But is that enough?

“Sometimes HIT hires people like former nurses to try to combat this, but not MD, PhD, or MD-PhD level clinical informatics. People who deeply understand the relationship between healthcare practice and IT,” Dr. Harrison explains.

The real challenge is communication. Should IT professionals simply do a "healthcare rotation," or should real clinical exposure be embedded in their training?

Dr. Harrison adds: “This issue is largely increasingly difficult communication between approximately two worlds, healthcare and IT. Lower the threshold of communication barriers and you will begin to access many more disconnects, leading to the initial question, healthcare on a purely data level.”

This is why finding an EHR system that naturally integrates with all of your HIT tech stack is mission impossible. 

Fortunately, there are ways to fix this.

Types of EHR integration solutions

How do you connect your EHR to a different EHR system, your practice management solution, AI scribe, or other tools in your workflow?

Built-in integration features

Check what your existing software already offers. Some HIT solutions provide multiple levels of integration, from basic browser extensions to fully customized solutions. 

For example: 

1. Freed (AI scribe) offers multiple levels of integration — from quick-start Chrome extensions to deeper EHR connections. Once your note is written, it’s in the chart. No extra clicks.

Once Freed has transcribed and written a note, direct EHR integration plugs it right into your EHR software. As simple as that.

2. Medicai (medical imaging software) enables healthcare teams to seamlessly transfer, access, and analyze medical images across systems.

3. Healee (telehealth software) offers telehealth integration with major EHR systems and other HIT software.

EHR integration tools

If you can’t find the integration you need, third-party EHR integration platforms can help bridge the gaps. These solutions work as plug-ins helping different HIT systems communicate — even when vendors use proprietary formats.

Since EHR interoperability is a major issue, there are many solutions out there that facilitate EHR integration. Here are just a few:

1. Redox acts as a middleware layer between healthcare applications and EHRs. Supports HL7, FHIR, and API-based integrations.

2. Particle Health provides real-time access to patient data across multiple EHRs, allowing healthcare providers to pull clinical histories, lab results, and medication records from nationwide networks.

Accessing FHIR-based APIs

FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is a set of standards designed to make it easier for different healthcare systems to communicate with each other. It uses APIs to allow systems to exchange data in a standardized way. 

Many EHR systems support FHIR, but it might need to be turned on or customized for full use. In some cases, integration specialists can help get everything connected properly.

FHIR integration is typically handled by IT professionals, health IT specialists, or integration developers. 

Custom EHR integration development

If your setup is complex or requires unique integrations, custom development might be your best option. You'll work with integration specialists who design and implement custom integrations for your clinic or healthcare organization.

It’s an expensive route to take, but you’ll end up with exactly what you need.

Improving the EHR experience

Even with integrations, it’s not always seamless.

Practices still rely on workarounds, third-party platforms, or expensive custom development to make systems talk to each other. 

So... can we actually make all our healthcare tools play nice?

For an answer, we reached out to a healthcare strategist Scott Jacobson. He says there’s hope — but, there’s always a “but:”

“I believe it’s possible, but it minimally requires a seismic policy shift for it to be anytime soon. And remains imperfect even with that shift. 

Jacobson claims that the real challenge is unifying all the different sources of a person’s health records in a way that works across stakeholders, systems, and data formats:

“What serves as the source of truth and guides the data to one individual point of contact without exception?

The tools that integrate bi-directional data across disparate platforms are great, but they remain time-consuming, limited, and costly to implement, and there are competitors taking pieces of the business all across the industry. Thus it remains fragmented for patients/consumers who may or may not be engaged themselves.”

Jacobson also points out that every entity — from hospitals to insurers — has its own way of organizing data, billing, and clinical records. This adds yet another challenge to building a truly connected healthcare system.

Smarter systems for connected care

EHR integration isn’t just a technical challenge — it’s a clinical one.

Real integration should feel invisible: no extra tabs, no manual uploads, no double documentation. Just smooth, secure data sharing that supports clinical decision-making, not slows it down.

We may not be at a fully connected future yet — but the path there starts with tools that actually work for clinicians, not against them.

And if your EHR still doesn’t play nice with the rest of your tech stack? It might be time to work with tools that do.

Freed is an AI scribe with deep EHR integrations. Learn more about how to connect Freed to your EHR!