Before you buy a car, you ask friends about their experiences, don’t you? That’s a perfectly reasonable approach: You learn from other trusted sources about their satisfaction with a purchase and how effectively it meets their needs.
The same approach can serve you well when you’re deciding on an EHR. It only makes sense to talk to your colleagues and find out how their EHR experience went and what you can learn from it.
Unfortunately, too often the discussion isn’t in-depth enough. It’s useful to know about the types of problems the practice faced, what they’d do differently in the future, and how your practice can avoid problems with your installation.
With that in mind, here is a checklist of questions you can use to gather the information you need before making your EHR decision and beginning implementation:
- What were your goals, and how well did you achieve them?
- How complete was your implementation plan, and what would you change about it?
- How responsive was your EHR vendor, and what kind of training did they provide?
- How did the EHR affect provider productivity and workflow, and was it more or less than you expected?
- Do you think your expectations going into the installation were realistic? If not, what would you change?
- Did you use pilot testing in your installation; that is, testing the EHR in certain areas first? If so, would you recommend it?
- Did you see any impact on cash flow, and if so, how did you handle that?
- How did you train your staff? Your providers? What would you do differently with training?
- Did your EHR have customizable templates, and if so, how useful did you find them?
- What would you do differently if you had the chance to do it over?
Of course, you need an experience that’s directly comparable to what you’re considering, so you want to find a practice that has installed the EHR you’re evaluating. That way, the information will be directly applicable. And if you can find a practice in your same specialty, that’s ideal.
Often it’s easier said than done to find a practice with this type of experience, and especially one that has time to talk with you—and that’s why we are inviting you to attend our upcoming complimentary webinar.
This live webinar gives you the chance to hear firsthand how a practice implemented their EHR, the challenges they faced and how they overcame them, and what their recommendations are for other practices just starting on this journey.
You’ll have plenty of opportunities to ask your questions and get the answers you need—live during the webinar.
Kathy McCoy, MBA, has written on practice management and revenue cycle management for more than 5 years for leading medical software, medical marketing and medical billing companies. She has more than 17 years of experience in continuing medical education, developing programs with respected educational institutions including Columbia University, Johns Hopkins, and Cleveland Clinic.
Do you know what you need when setting up a new medical practice?