For any practice looking to adopt an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, selecting the right vendor from hundreds of options is an intimidating task. Frequently used approaches by clinics, hospitals and other practices include detailed EHR vendor comparisons which can be sub-divided into EHR cost comparisons, software comparisons and hardware comparisons. While direct costs are of immense importance, sometimes providers focus solely on these costs when selecting a vendor. Consequently, the EHR software comparison component of the selection process is neglected and they end up buying a solution that costs them substantially more in the long run. If your practice needs an EHR which doesn’t bear any hidden costs, and saves you money in the long run, here’s what you must keep in mind when making that all important EHR vendor comparison.
Make sure your vendor offers an integrated, cloud-based solution even if you don’t initially purchase the integrated solution. You might currently be a small practice who only needs an EHR solution right now. However, the integrated solution comes into play when your practice decides to buy a practice management solution or outsources its billing service to the vendor.
- If the vendor doesn’t have an integrated system, you’ll require another vendor for your practice management solution and accessing your data on both systems will be an inconvenience, as will be coordinating with different vendors. Higher costs are inherent in the nature of such scenarios so avoid them to begin with.
Select a vendor which offers a Cloud-based system or the costs of a dedicated server room and IT staff will keep on accumulating. Moreover, the maintenance of a server room and all the computers and hardware in operation in that room is another significantly high expenditure.
Make sure that the vendor you’re selecting is one that facilitates government incentive programs and standards. Look up their past record and visit EHR review sites to see if existing users are satisfied with their service. This is because if the Meaningful Use program and ICD-10 readiness, for example, are not prioritized by your vendor, you will incur higher costs in the form of government penalties and losses in incentives.
