HealthMEDX

5 Points to Consider when Shopping for Long Term EHR or Home Care EHR

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Healthcare has made significant strides over the last decade in the move to electronic health records.  This relatively quick shift to the electronic charting of patient information is just now beginning to take a real hold in the long-term care and home care market space.  With the shift to this space, there are several lessons the acute care and physician practices learned from the “school of hard knocks” on how to properly shop for an EHR. 

When looking for an electronic health record, there are 5 key factors that address preparation, research, and selection of an EHR. 

#1:  Long-term Care EHR and Home Care EHR Shopping Starts with the End User

The very staff that will be utilizing the solution on a daily basis should be involved in outlining the list of needs for any organization.  While this sounds like a daunting task, it is not as complicated as it first appears.  This process does not need to involve every specific user but should take on the feel of a round-table or focus group type discussion.  Representatives from each major department or area on the facility or agency should meet to run through the care cycle for the patient or resident. 

Guide this group through the care cycle from the moment a referral is passed to the organization to the eventual discharge of the patient or resident.  As you step through the process, the group should discuss what is needed or wanted from a system.  Any required or critical items should be noted as well during this process.

#2:  Consider the Applied Usage of the Information You’re Going to Capture

In reviewing the needs of your organization and the software application itself, always consider the question “How will we use the information we are looking to capture in the system?”  This simple question will help uncover analytic tools, reports, and processes the organization will use within the EHR software.  While reviewing solutions, if data is captured in the system that is believed to be critical but it is not usable to analyze care, this could be a potential area for concern.  One of the main benefits to an EHR solution is the ability to proactively care for patients or residents.  If you are simply documenting data in electronic format with no way of analyzing the information you are missing out on a very critical benefit.

#3:  Time Your Dollars and Cents 

Often times shopping for an EHR solution involves significant investigation of solutions to establish what budget is necessary to make the purchase.  The key to keeping your implementation goals for EHR on-track is keeping your budgetary expectations in line with those goals.  If you need to be implemented within the year, set expectations with appropriate financial parties in your organization regarding this event.  Nothing can hold up implementation goals more than having a solution chosen without a budget approved until the next fiscal year.  Getting financial parties involved in the search process will help get these expectations set ahead of time.

#4:  Watch Out for Apples and Oranges

In the world of electronic health records, not all solutions you review are created equal.  The list of needed capabilities for your organization will help eliminate any solutions that don’t fit your specific description of an “appropriate solution” for your organization.  If you’re looking for a red fruit that works great as a pie filling, you don’t need to be talking to the orange vendor.   If your organization requires a solution that can handle multiple care settings and incorporate all aspects of patient or resident care into a single record, you don’t want to spend time looking at any solution that won’t fit this need.

#5:  Challenge Your Vendor

This may come as a surprise that a vendor would tell you to ask the tough questions, but it is a key element to obtaining a proper solution.  Ask for statistics from the vendor’s clients on real savings and benefits.  Ask your vendor to help you analyze hosting the solution yourself versus having the solution hosted by the vendor.  Your vendor should have experience with various other providers and scenarios that will help you in your decision making process.  If you need an answer to a tough question, whether it is to sell the purchase to management or simply to plan for hardware/infrastructure needs, ask your vendor first.