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You may opt
for any level of service from cost analysis to implementation and any service
in between: Cost Analysis (a free service): We provide
you with an ROI (Return On Investment) analysis to determine if you can afford
an EHR. This includes an estimate on when you might see your return on
investment. This is a free service and
we can do it over the telephone or by email. All that you need to do is to contact us to
schedule a short telephone conference and we will discuss this in more detail. EHR Preparation: Most clinics
are not adequately preparing today for their future EHR implementation. Even if you plan on buying a system a few
years from now, there are several things you can and should do immediately that
will be hugely beneficial at your future “Go Live” phase. Some of these preparations will be of minimal
or no cost to you at all. On-site Demonstrations: As previous EHR vendor employees, we have performed
hundreds of live EHR demonstrations to almost every type of out-patient
clinic around the nation. In almost
every case, the clinic’s EHR committees made the same mistakes during the demonstrations
-- they did not ask necessary, detailed questions. For example, a group looking at our program would invariably ask us, “Can you scan in outside documents?” They would then move on to the next question about another feature. However, there are a number of very important follow-up questions about scanning which we always had to explain to the group and teach them to ask at the next demonstration. Most clinics are not requesting vendors to be prepared to actually demonstrate some key elements of the EHR. Clinics are simply assuming that when the sales representative answers "yes" to their question of whether their system can or cannot perform a certain task, that this also means "yes, and it's easy". Faxing Rx's and scanning in outside documents are two very common problems. We know of at least four different concepts to scan in an outside document, and that means that three of them are less efficient than the other. These types
of oversights are costing clinics a lot of money and causing them a lot of
frustration once they start to bring the system live. A poorly designed system can actually cause
a portion of your providers to reject the EHR altogether and there is nothing worse than having only six of your seven providers using the system (now you are running dual systems!). Problems like these can be avoided if you
incorporate our level of experience in your search. Live Site Visits: Just like our
live demonstrations, in our previous jobs, we took countless people to visit
live EHR clinics. For the most part,
these visits go well. They can be very interesting and really demonstrate which features are typically used (or not used). However,
if we at EHRInsider are touring a live site, there are a number of
questions we know to ask that the average person would never even consider, and
the vendor probably won't offer to discuss. We go with you to the
site visits and will provide your group with a helpful site visit agenda. We have a
friend who has sold cars his entire life. When he buys a used car, he goes straight to
the sales manager and informs him that he himself works in the car business. He offers to pay $500 (for example) over the dealer’s
invoice, right now, and it’s a done deal. No haggling, no time spent on it -- it’s done.
In five minutes of time, the sales rep
gets his commission and the dealership is happy. However, you
and I don’t know the inside methods
of how car dealerships really work. Our
friend does so he has the knowledge and the nerve to buy cars that way. This is the kind of person that you want to
take with you to buy that used car. Unlike our
friend, most physicians and clinic administrators don’t know the intricacies of
EHR purchase negotiations because they have never been inside the
industry. But ex-EHR sales representatives like us do! We understand the inside concepts and goals that software sales organizations
strive toward. We can manage your
purchase process and will likely achieve a higher price discount than you could
ever get by yourself. Implementation Management: There is a
lot of truth to the fact that you can buy a very good piece of software and
completely mess it up. Why do you think
so many EHR vendors have excellent reference sites but also have some sites
that are about ready to burst? Poor system
configuration, inadequate user training, unrealistic timetables, too little
testing and over-zealous expectations can all lead to some very
disappointing “Go Live” phases. We have been
involved with and have managed countless EHR implementations while working inside at the vendor level. EHRs are not “plug and play” systems and we
know that. The fact of
the matter is that you probably are working a very full day with all of the
time-consuming projects that you can handle. Then, someone drops a $50,000 - $500,000 EHR
project on your desk and says, “We’ll need lab, hospital, registration and
order entry interfaces. We’ll need fax
software, scanners, PC’s, tablets and servers installed. Don’t forget the Citrix software. Schedule the installation and training, get
the EHR configured, and make sure no one wants a vacation until it’s done. By the way, we’re going live in three months!” Your software
vendor will supply a project plan, but you still have to manage and implement
it. We can supply the needed resources
and experience to assist you in turning your valuable system purchase into a
valuable working system.
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