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HOME ► Physician Office Quality ► Health Information Technology ► Electronic Health Records (EHR) ► Process of EHR Adoption ► Vendor Selection ► Vendor Relationships
Vendor Relationships
As you negotiate the contract, you will be establishing a relationship with the vendor. An attorney familiar with software contracts is a valuable resource. This document has some tips to consider when negotiating a contract with a vendor. Your HealthInsight facilitator can help you access other resources to represent your interests when negotiating a contract.
| Consider: |
- Are up-dates included as part of the contract?
- What about periodic training with up-dates?
- Are there additional costs for technical assistance, training, up-dates, or interoperability of the system with outside organizations?
- Customers who are willing to pay for changes will drive evolution of the system. Stay on top of the forces at work in the healthcare environment that will affect these changes.
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| The relationship with the vendor does not end once you have implemented the EHR. On-going support is critical for successful implementation and use of an EHR. |
- Maintain a single point of contact in your office to interact with the contact person for the vendor.
- During implementation, hold progress meetings on a regular basis with the vendor point of contact, even if the meeting is short. This helps keep implementation on track.
- After implementation is completed, continue meeting on a less frequent basis to discuss concerns, challenges with the system, planned up-dates, or other important topics.
- Current point of contact information needs to be maintained on both sides (practice and vendor).
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