Posted By Fuller Harvey On April 5, 2018
Not all EHR Vendors are Created Equal
Not all EHR vendors are created equal. In the land of equality, we also have freedom: freedom to do as little or as much as we please. Freedom to excel – and freedom to “get by”. When it comes to meeting the needs of your agency, does your electronic health records vendor excel or merely “get by”?
Questions to consider when seeking an EHR Vendor
- Does your current system readily and easily create the precise reports you need? Or are you cutting and pasting data into your own spreadsheet in a monotonous, tedious process, which must be repeated yearly, or worse quarterly, or even worse, monthly?
- Are you confident that the system pre-checks every field prior to submitting an insurance claim so that your denial rate is as low as possible? Or are you constantly having to resubmit, or anxiously proofing and reproofing claims before pressing “submit”?
- Does your EHR vendor make live support available to you during working hours? Or are you only able to submit tickets via email or leaving voice messages which will be returned “in the order in which they were received”?
- Does your vendor’s support staff make you feel heard, seen, and not alone? Are they able to log in to your system immediately to view the record or the section of the system in which you are working? Or are you left to explain your scenario to someone who is essentially blind to the specific details of your issue?
- Is your EHR vendor working constantly to upgrade and update your system, both for Meaningful Use Certification and for greater ease of interaction for you as the user? Or do you feel as if you and your staff are needing to learn computer coding in order to have the EHR system do the job you need it to do?
Take a hard look at what you value and what would be hallmarks of excellence for your organization: precise reports, initially-accepted claims, encouraging and responsive live support, Meaningful Use compliance, and make them happen – thus, starting with yourself as a key component to choosing excellence as an organization and not merely accepting the status quo.