Posted By Monique Dever On January 24, 2017
Three Steps to Make the Most of EHR Vendor Demos
Vendor demos are the tipping point in the selection process of finding a new Electronic Health Records system. Being prepared will help make the most of this process and make the decision clear. Comparing apples to apples will de-clutter the facts, and prevent the sales guy from selling the system based on one aspect alone. The clinical users, billing staff and registration will all use the system daily, but they will all have different needs. For best outcomes of each vendor demo follow the best practices listed.
- Write up a specific scenario for each department. An example could be to set up an Immunization appointment, new patient, self-pay. Write up a brief summary of this patient, including medical history, demographics and phone discussions. Write up two additional synopsis to demonstrate the clinical and billing side of this patient.
- Use these exact same three scenarios during all vendor demos, to compare apples to apples. Have as many users as possible come prepared to participate in the demos and ask as many questions as they have, focusing on the must-haves.
- Use a scoring matrix to rank each vendor against your most important EHR needs. This matrix should be broken into the three areas: clerical, clinical and billing. Once the initial demos have all been provided, alternate scenario demos can be requested to provide additional functionality of the top ranked vendor.