What do you do when you are evaluating and selecting a new electronic health record – or any software – system? If you’re like most providers, your answer centers around the features and functions of the software solution: “How will this EHR handle these specific scenarios in my agency?”
Functionality comparisons are a fine place to start, but with EHR implementation failure rates estimated between 20- and 50-percent, it is advisable to peer deeply into vendor implementation methodologies as well. Ask them, “How will you ensure we successfully implement the EHR?”
According to a recent article published in Behavioral Healthcare, the key to success is to root out problems and errors during the implementation phase through a series of use-case tests, developed by the vendor and provider, that certify system elements and processes – people, training, forms, data, software, databases – are all working together smoothly, with appropriate and accurate outputs from one process feeding into others.
As Qualifacts president and CEO David Klements says in the story, “If you test carefully before you go live, then the expectation is success. The go-live should be a non-event.”
After all, the best functionality in the world won’t do you a bit of good if you never get to use it.
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