Selecting the Right EHR
Choosing the right certified EHR system is a key step in getting started down the path towards successful implementation and reaching meaningful use. Listed below are general considerations on selecting the right certified EHR system for a practice.
Basic EHR Criteria
- ONC‐ATCB certification (six certifying bodies)
- HIPAA privacy and security compliant
- Meaningful use reporting
- Ability to generate county, state, and federal reports
- Support HL7 messaging standard
- Support Secure Sockets (SSL) digital certificate
- Audit trail capabilities
Step 1: Decision Point
- ASP/SaaS hosted or client/server on‐premise
- List the capabilities you want in an ideal EHR system
- Prioritize the list into “must haves” and “nice‐to-haves”
Step 2: EHR Demonstrations
- Determine which EHR system meets your high‐level requirements
- Identify ways that EHR software will make your office more efficient
- Determine which EHR system falls within your budget
- Rank the vendors based on perceived ease‐of‐use
Step 3: Reference Check
- Ask for two or three reference that share your specialty
- Ask each reference what they don’t like about the system
- Ask reference how the vendor responded to any problems
- Assess the vendor’s financial and strategic viability
Pricing Tips
- Software license fees
- Include all modules (ePrescribing, Lab and HIE interface, EDI)
- Hosting fee
- Implementation and training
- Hourly vs. fixed fee
- Templates customization cost
- Include software upgrades
- No charge for after hour upgrades
- Access to date schema
Hidden Costs
- Interfaces (device, lab, imaging, portal, HIE, PM)
- Third party software
- Claims processing
- Web portal
- Template customization
- Report customization
Contract Discussions
- Arrange milestone-based payments
- Decide on a start date that works best for your practice
- Mutually agree to a project plan
- 60‐90 days go‐live from signing the contract is a reasonable timeframe
- Data screw clause must be specific
- Data must be human readable