Select an Electronic Health Record
A best-fit solution balances patient and practitioner needs, cost, and capability.
- You have been tasked with selecting an electronic health record (EHR) for your institution. It will also be your job to determine which operational processes will be affected by the new application.
- It is life and death.
- EHR is not a typical customer information system. EHR data is extremely sensitive. A data breach is not only financially threatening for health care providers, but also it can be life threatening for patients.
- Limited control.
- IT is held accountable for the risks associated with siloed health data, but IT has limited ability to control the actions of the health care professionals that created the data.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Establish a definition for EHR.
- EHR is defined differently across geographies and health practices. Get all teams speaking the same language for the selection process.
- Buy the best for you.
- Examine all options before buying best of breed. Keep the budget intact with a selection approach rooted in your institution’s unique requirements, not on the vendor’s overall performance.
- EHR initiatives are about changing the DNA of the organization. Improve your processes to adhere to the EHR and not the other way around.
Impact and Result
- Leverage Info-Tech’s comprehensive three-phase approach to EHR selection projects: assess your organization’s preparedness to go into the selection stage. Our knowledgebase is derived from thousands of hours advising with health care institutions across the globe.
- Selection of the right tool is a critical step in delivering a safer, faster, and more meaningful experience for all players in the health care environment.
- Enable IT to be a trusted partner in EHR selection, while health care professionals will own the requirements and be involved from the beginning.
- Understand where the EHR market is going. Avoid paving the cow path with Info-Tech’s vendor feature-set-based approach to understanding the art of the possible for EHR.
- Take advantage of traceable and auditable selection tools to run an effective evaluation and selection process. Be prepared to answer the retroactive question “Why this EHR?” with documentation of your selection process and outputs.