EHR Policy Summary

First thing first! Do you make an assessment of what you need to be done in your practice in order for you to come to a decision to convert to electronic health records? Do competition in the business pushed you to make further steps to upgrade your system from paper records to advance electronic health records in order to provide best possible care to your patients? Do you have enough budget or manpower to create changes in your practice or some kind of readiness for the ongoing transition? So, if you’re ready and willing to continue for complete overhaul of your system and face the continuing growth in technology and healthcare practice, now it’s time to do the research and look for the right vendor that will bring advancement and efficiency

But before you look for the right vendor to assist your needs, you need to assess your EHR needs, identify your priority needs, and what EHR basic features that can meet those needs. You need to know what’s the “meaningful use” of your desired EHR and the practice goals. If possible, you can use the “SMART goal process – Specific/ Measurable/ Attainable / Relevant/ Time-bound” (HealthIT.gov, 2014) for you to make your key decisions.

Make Key Decisions

Then make a list of potential deal-breakers, research vendor websites and find information about them, speak to colleagues and/or local centers about their EHR experiences, contact any medical societies wherein you are a member and ask for some EHR evaluation tools and resources they can share. Making key decisions up-front will enable your practice to effectively narrow your field of selections. Request For

Compare The Vendors From five selections trimmed down to three selections, and from three make them two, and from that two, and before you decide which one really can bring you to make a final selection, try using some of these tools: To rate basic functionalities: you can use Evaluation Matrix Tool To rate the meaningful use capabilities: use the Vendor Meaningful Use Compare tool To compare the cost of different EHR: use The Vendor Pricing Template

Using these tools will help you narrow the field further before you conduct a demonstration for the one you have chosen (HealthIT.gov, 2014)

The Final Decision

After establishing EHR implementation objectives, planning how EHRs will affect the workflow, and conducting a vendor assessment to collect details on several vendors and narrow the field of potential vendors, you will be ready to select a vendor and enter the contracting