Before signing the contract with a new EHR vendor, think about the immediate and future implications on your healthcare organization, end users, workflow, business operations and the patient community. Be willing to consider the following questions when approaching this daunting IT decision:
1.What is the main goal we are trying to achieve?
Don’t buy or opt in for additional or added features when you don’t need them for your practice. Additional functionality and available modules can always be negotiated from a pricing standpoint (which you should be able to be lock in for at least two years) as an option exercised at a later date if the scope of the practice changes and there is a need for the additional product. Another thing to remember is, just like cars and furniture, software is always on sale. The level of discount you are able to achieve will depend on a number of factors, including success of the vendor, timing in the quarter or fiscal year and length of agreement you are willing to enter into.
2.What’s the best way to achieve win-win outcomes in the negotiation with a new EHR vendor?
Remember that the best executed software agreement is one that both the customer and the vendor feel good about. The goal is for the agreement to be a win-win result. It should provide a quality and supportable product for the medical practice in an agreement that the vendor feels good about to provide the appropriate support. With a win-win agreement, the vendor is much more likely to go the extra mile in assisting the customer when issues arise outside of the normal support process.
There doesn’t necessarily need to be a bad guy in the negotiating scenario if open and honest communication is on the table during the negotiation process. Both the customer and the vendor are going to having non-negotiable items that they cannot concede on for various reasons. These should be communicated at the appropriate time during the process. Good representation from the right individuals from both a financial and clinical perspective will help to ensure that expectations are communicated for what is required and what the vendor is offering to meet the needs.
3.What else should you consider when working with a new EHR vendor?
Reference checks are the key to making this very important decision for your practice. Ask for a minimum of three references and at least one of those references should be a “bad” reference provided by the vendor. Although it may not have necessarily completely been the vendors’ fault for the bad references, it will provide you, the potential customer, with some insight on why that reference failed with the implementation or has not been able to fully utilize the capabilities the vendor is proposing to your healthcare organization. Good references are just that, but take the time to learn as much as possible from them about how they feel they successfully implemented the product. What was their staffing model? How long did the implementation take? Did it stay within the budget parameters? What would they have done differently to make it an even better implementation? Exchange contact information with the good references in hopes of communicating with them further in the future.
Best of luck in your negotiations,
Sheri Stoltenberg, CEO, Stoltenberg Consulting, Inc.