Choosing the right EMR consulting firm for your organization must be a casual decision. Making the right choice will determine whether you have a successful EMR project or join the list of failed EMR implementation projects. Given the high cost of deploying a new EMR/EHR, you must ask the right questions before signing a contract with an EMR vendor.
1. Does the Company Show Strong Interest in Your Organization?
During your initial discussion, your EMR consultant must show signs of commitment to a long-term business relationship. You can observe this commitment by the effort they make to study and understand your business.
Do they provide a detailed questionnaire that will help them understand what you want to achieve with your new EMR project? Your prospective EMR consultant needs to work with you to lower operational costs, improve cybersecurity, and migrate all data in legacy applications to your new EMR database.
They must also help you reduce physician workload and make full medical historical patient data accessible to clinicians and patients on demand.
2. How Long Have They Been In Business?
Experience is indispensable when selecting an EMR or health data consultant. That’s why you should choose a consulting firm that has handled various EMR projects over a reasonably long time. Such projects should include:
- Data migration
- Data conversion
- Data archiving
- Selection of suitable EMRs
- EMR interface development
- Customization of EMRs
Your consultant must be able to deliver the type of service you need within your budget.
3. Have They Worked With a Practice Like Yours?
Healthcare providers and medical practices are available in various specialties and sizes, from small practices with a few family physicians to large organizations with regional coverage.
Each type of practice needs its own EMR solution. While the large organizations will require a more robust solution to accommodate the needs of hundreds of simultaneous clinician requests and data processing transactions, the small practices need a solution that caters to a few dozen patients a day.
4. How Many Vendors Do They Partner With?
Working with a firm that has a relationship with many vendors puts you at an advantage. This is important when you need to migrate from one EMR solution to another. The migration process will proceed without undue delay because your consultant will have access to technical documentation, database structures, and interface implementation details.
Ultimately, your practice will benefit from the smooth migration and successfully retire the legacy application. You can also save the cost of maintaining multiple applications and avoid the security risks involved.
5. Can They Provide Custom Solutions?
Reputable EMR consultants should have the expertise to provide custom solutions to meet your unique needs. Every practice will have some unique workflow or administrative demands. Your consultant should understand this and recommend custom solutions to meet them.
As your practice grows, you will also need to increase your capacity to connect to labs, radiology departments, and health information exchanges. To achieve this, you need a firm that can develop and deploy interoperability interface solutions.
Connect With a Reliable EMR Consultant Today
Call Lifepoint Informatics at 877.522.8378 today to find out more about selecting and implementing a new EMR/EHR in your organization. You can also fill out our contact form to tell us more about your needs.