Questions to Ask Your Potential EHR

You have done your due diligence and narrowed down your search to a handful of EHR companies. Selecting the right EHR system for your practice is vital, but just as important is selecting the right vendor who will partner with you and help optimize your operations and practice long term.

To make sure you find the right fit, you need to ask the right questions.

HOW TO APPROACH YOUR CONVERSATION

Here are three tricks you may want to use when interviewing EHR companies:

• Make sure your initial questions are open-ended.

  This allows you to give the respondent room to answer the question beyond “yes” or “no”. Listen to the answer given and ask additional more pointed questions based on their answers.

• Be Open-Minded.

  Software is just one part of the equation. While the features and benefits of an EHR may be central to your decision making, be receptive to consultative solutions that could make a difference in your practice’s long-term success.

• Avoid Tight Time-Restraints.

  If you are rushed or distracted by other things, you may not be giving yourself the allotted time needed to fully understand the capabilities and services a company has to offer.

EXAMPLES OF QUESTIONS TO ASK AN EHR

Here are a few key questions you should consider asking EHR vendors and the purpose behind them.

1. How much experience do you have in my specialty?
   Why: Find out how extensive their knowledge is when it comes to clinical and billing needs in your specialty.
   
   
2. How can your EHR reduce the amount of time I spend entering data?
   Why: Gives insight on how the EHR looks at practice workflows and how it can alleviate the technology burden placed on physicians.
   
   
3. How will my account be handled once I am past the sales stage?
   Why: Allows you to understand how implementation and training will be handled as well as how responsive they may be to your needs after the implementation phase.
   
   
4. Describe how your EHR can help manage the patient experience.
   Why: Helps you get a feeling of what your patients will experience from the time they schedule an appointment to when they receive a statement.
   
   
5. What workflows are in place to ensure my practice is paid promptly, correctly and completely?
   Why: Learn how the EHR can help you systematically remove the conditions and root causes as to why the above goals do not consistently and reliably occur in your medical practice.
   
   
6. What workflows are in place to relieve front desk bottlenecks
   Why: Find out if the EHR offers ways to automate and systematize improvement in front desk operations.