EHR Vendor Selection - Essay Example

"EHR Vendor Selection" is a well-written example of a paper on the health system.
The vendor selection process for the purchase of an electronic health record system is a critical process. The ability to narrow down to the most appropriate vendor from the list of alternatives is vital. A mistake done during the process can be very costly to the firm (SCHNEIDER, 2005). To ensure that a sound decision is made on the appropriate vendor, the following strategies should be practiced.

The first thing to think about, when choosing a vendor for an EHR system is the requirements. A proper exploration of what the system should do must be done. This helps in identifying a vendor with a system that can accomplish all the requirements. After the requirements are identified, the next step is to decide on how to obtain the EHR (Hrsa.gov, 2015). After these primary steps are done, the next step is to identify the potential vendors.

The choice of the appropriate vendor can be a challenging task. To achieve the best results, (Hrsa.gov, 2015) recommends that one should develop a manageable list of suppliers. To arrive at a significant list, it is advisable to visit online databases of certified vendors. A good example of such sources is the Certified Health IT Products list, which provides lists of the certified vendors in Ambulatory and inpatient EHR systems. From the list obtained from the database, the decision-maker should narrow it down to a manageable list, by looking at factors such as the interface of the EHR, user rating of the systems, just to mention a few. The shortlisted vendors to submit proposals and any other necessary information needed. At this step, the appropriate vendor is identified and invited to demonstrate the functionality of the system. Once the system is found to meet the requirements, negotiations of the contract should be done, after which implementation and launch are planned.