Finding the Right EMR System

If you’re serious about implementing an EMR system in your standalone practice, the following steps can help you, or your staff liaison, effectively compare offers from competing vendors while ensuring that you find the best system for your practice’s specific needs.

Step 1. Prepare your Request for Proposal.
A Request for Proposal (RP) is a document that you can give to EMR vendors to help you compare systems. It lets each vendor know exactly what you want—the basics of the system—and asks for detailed costs in writing. The following information and questions should be included in your RP:

• Type of practice: specialty, number of practitioners who will be using the system

• Any existing hardware and software you would like to integrate

• Number of existing records that you will need to convert

• List of nonnegotiable functions the system must provide, i.e., before and after reports and images, scheduling software interface, HL7 custom interfaces, inventory management, automatic backup, information safety features, etc.

When you submit your RP to vendors, be sure to include the following questions:

1. Will your software application(s) provide all of the functions listed above? List any functions that it will not provide:

2. Are there additional modules available with the system that will provide the functions listed above?

3. Do you have an EMR system specifically designed for medical aesthetics? If not, what specialty was your system originally designed for? Is the software preloaded with templates for my specialty?

4. What kind of hardware will I need to purchase to run this EMR system in the practice described above?

5. What additional software purchases, if any, will I need to make in order to implement the required functions?

6. When was the last version of your EMR software released? When is the next version scheduled for release? Is software updated on a regular schedule?

7. How long has your company been offering EMR software?

8. How much training is provided with the purchase of your EMR system? Can you provide a typical timeline from delivery of the system to a go-live date?

9. Can you suggest a plan for converting existing records to the system? What timeframe would you consider realistic?

10. When we have problems with the system, what types of support are available?

11. Can you provide a breakdown of the costs for purchase, installation, training and support of the EMR software you would suggest for our practice:

Initial software purchase________

Annual licensing fee_________

Updates_______________

Installation costs_____________

Training as described above__________

Support as described above____________

Cost of adding users/stations within the next year__________

Step 2: Request a Demonstration and References
Once you’ve narrowed your choices to two or three likely vendors, system demonstrations and references can help you make the final decision. Be sure to ask the following questions before finalizing the sale.

1. Is the software being demonstrated exactly the same as the system you recommend based on my RP? If not, how does it differ?

2. Ask for a demonstration of a typical patient appointment and then throw in some “what if” scenarios. What if the patient decides to add an additional procedure that would be provided by another practitioner? What if the patient has a bad reaction to the procedure?

3. Who will provide the training? What is the person’s background? Ask if you can speak with him/her in advance. A good trainer can save you hours or days.

4. If I have a problem with the system, who will my main contact be?

5. Can you provide a list of three to five practices similar to mine that are currently using this EMR system?

Once you have the list of references, call at least two to three of the practices and ask to speak with their main point person about the software and any problems they’ve encountered.