PREP: Healthcare software modernization

PREP stands for Portable Response Emergency Plan. HAPevolve, based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, serves healthcare organizations and is a subsidiary of The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania.

PREP gives organizations a digital way to make emergency plans and facility-specific information available to staff. Our work concerned the software supporting that access. HAPevolve brings the healthcare preparedness expertise and the relationship with the organizations using the product.

The existing applications needed modernization while customers continued to use them. The wider MERP/PREP system had security weaknesses and technical constraints that made improvements harder to deliver.

For PREP, the work had to consider the experience of staff reaching plans, contacts and procedures across web and mobile. It also had to preserve organization permissions, documents and existing information through the migration.

We addressed keyboard navigation, screen-reader behavior, focus and contrast alongside the application rebuild. These details affect whether someone can move through the product and reach the information they need.

The delivery combined frontend, mobile and backend development with QA. Treating them as one scope allowed us to consider the user’s path through the application together with the services and data behind it.

The shared MERP/PREP engineering scope included SSO infrastructure and configuration guidance for identity providers such as Microsoft Azure and Okta. Documented setup and self-service configuration for supported providers reduced the need for repeated development intervention.

This work supports the product’s ongoing operation as well as the initial release. Integration setup, documentation and further development remain connected through product care.

PREP shares infrastructure with MERP. Modernizing that setup reduced the combined infrastructure and service bill from approximately $800 to $80 per month — around 90% lower for the two products together.

The supported integration setup and self-service improvements also belong to this shared platform, connecting PREP’s continued development with the wider engineering work.

Perspective Unity handled DevOps, data migration and cutover as part of the engagement. The delivery team reports that the transition to the rebuilt applications completed without service interruption or crashes, with many users continuing their work without noticing the rewrite.

Our work continues through product care. Client feedback informs further features, fixes and improvements, and the project team reports faster delivery of changes.

PREP was modernized alongside Safeguard Risk Solutions’ MERP. The shared delivery work is relevant to both products, while HAPevolve’s case concerns the healthcare setting and its customers.

Read the MERP case for Safeguard Risk Solutions.

Start with the users, access requirements and workflows that must survive the change. We can help define a delivery scope across the applications, integrations, migration and ongoing support.

Explore our healthcare software development work or discuss your current product.