Choosing an EHR system is one of the most high-stakes decisions a healthcare organization will make. The right platform can streamline operations, support clinical excellence, and drive long-term financial performance. The wrong one can create years of inefficiencies, frustrated staff, and costly workarounds. Because the stakes are so high, an unbiased, structured EHR selection process isn’t optional; it’s essential. Below, we outline a practical six-step framework healthcare organizations use to get it right.
1. The Hidden Complexity of Choosing an EHR
Although choosing an EHR brand involves numerous technical considerations, its selection goes significantly beyond being a tech-only decision. Healthcare organizations also need to consider multiple long-term operational, financial, and clinical aspects of their choice (rather than focusing solely on existing workload). The chosen system must bring sustainable, interoperable value to the organization, reducing friction for clinical, administrative, and patient users while enabling innovation.
Making this decision requires targeted skill sets that include financial modeling to determine breakeven points, estimate the pace of ROI return, and identify potential new revenue sources, among other financial modeling benefits. Choosing the best EHR also involves clinical workflow analysis, tracing the flow of patient record information throughout the system, identifying interactions and bottlenecks, and determining how the system would support an organization’s workflows.
For the best results, EHR selection experts should possess deep vendor negotiation experience, be well-versed in negotiation preparation, and be fully cognizant of your organization’s requirements and the degree of available latitude and flexibility.
Although application demos can provide useful insights, choosing your EHR based on that approach alone can cause organizations to make less than ideal EHR selections. With EHR demos, as one example, leaders can see the application’s features but not how they mesh with end-user workflows. Other considerations not addressed through a demo-only approach include integrations with other technologies, long-term costs and benefits, and the application’s scalability.
2. Why Many EHR Selections Go Wrong
Whether relying solely upon a demo or a more significant presentation by the vendor, the in-house people demonstrating the application are:
- Naturally biased towards its capabilities
- Motivated to sell your healthcare organization the software
- Likely to try to upsell your organization on their services
Sometimes, a particular application may fit clinical needs but not the IT or administrative needs of a healthcare organization. This misalignment is another common way that EHR selections can go wrong. Or, perhaps a large hospital system with multiple specialties benefits well from a particular vendor brand. In contrast, a small, nimble emergency care system would benefit from an entirely different selection pathway.
Moreover, it’s easy to underestimate workflow disruption when switching to a new EHR system. When realistically projected, your healthcare system can proactively create a backup plan to address reduced efficiency periods, such as during data migration time periods. It can also be easy to underestimate the amount of change management needed as you choose and implement a new EHR system. When getting insights about those factors solely from representatives of an EHR brand, they may be inclined to downplay those complexities.
There is, however, another approach: working with an unbiased EHR selection partner.
3. The Value of an Unbiased EHR Selection Partner
What matters to an unbiased partner: gaining a deep understanding of your organization and its requirements before finding the right EHR platform for your healthcare organization. With a strategic vendor-agnostic approach, your healthcare organization can receive information and recommendations based on your organization-specific needs. More specifically, unbiased EHR selection partners can objectively and logically evaluate systems and compare their features and benefits to your organizational needs, goals, and workflows.
From a financial standpoint, a presenter representing an EHR brand will naturally position their platform to be the most cost-effective option, while a neutral partner will take your budget into account as one of several factors when developing a shortlist of application vendors to consider. Making the right choice the first time respects your financial situation and protects your organization from costly re-implementation expenses.
EHR consulting experts in the HealthTECH Resources network engage with all major platforms, including the following, but not limited to:
Our primary selection focus is always to guide you to a system that works well for you.
4. How HealthTECH Supports EHR Selection
After gathering inputs from key stakeholders, our EHR experts will translate your organizational goals into the technical requirements used to gather vendor proposals. During the discovery and assessment phase of the project, we deploy a senior EHR analyst to your organization who will create and deliver a prioritized requirements matrix, which illuminates the importance of each of your requirements and the amount of impact it should have on the total decision. This matrix guides decision-making by ranking which items should receive more attention and resources.
Our senior EHR analyst will also create a readiness assessment of your current infrastructure. This process spotlights any potential challenges, ones that can proactively be addressed to avoid any surprises and unnecessary expenses. This process also prepares your organization for the new system and can serve as the foundation of change management initiatives.
During the selection management phase, a dedicated selection project manager will oversee the RFP process and then shortlist systems based on their fit rather than brand recognition. Our unbiased project manager will openly share both the benefits and potential challenges of each choice, giving your organization objective information so that you can make the most informed choice.
Our EHR expert will then coordinate software demos, collect feedback, and aggregate scoring data from your stakeholders—providing your healthcare organization with quantitative and qualitative insights alike. Throughout the process, we will support stakeholder alignment across teams and guide the decision-making process without undue vendor pressure.
When the decision moment arrives, either a strategic advisor or an interim CIO from HealthTECH Resources will guide the final TCO presentation to the board while also providing technical advisory services during contract negotiations to ensure favorable terms.
5. What Healthcare Leaders Should Look for in an EHR Selection Process
During the EHR selection process, healthcare leaders should look for clear governance and real-world workflow validation in their EHR systems while focusing on long-term scalability considerations and implementation readiness.
Clear Governance
The clear governance process involves establishing steering committees, strategically choosing members across departments, and logically assigning roles and responsibilities. Receiving inputs and feedback across this committee throughout the EHR selection process will help to ensure the best choice for overall organizational needs.
Creating data privacy and cybersecurity policies will allow your organization to comply with HIPAA and other regulations while effectively managing overall risk. That said, navigating federal and state regulations takes up-to-date knowledge that EHR selection experts need to possess. Fortunately, the EHR experts in our network take privacy and compliance seriously.
During the EHR selection and implementation process, once established, clear governance fights against scope creep and helps to keep the project on time, on budget, and in compliance. Plus, communication systems are established to engage stakeholders, keep them informed, and maximize decision-making.
Real-World Workflow Validation
After identifying and analyzing organizational processes and procedures across end-user roles, our EHR experts create application simulations to test workflow ease and target inefficiencies. By continuously refining these workflows, organizations can achieve greater efficiency and smoother operations. The same approach, using EHR simulations, can serve as a useful training tool, post-selection, with Safety Science showing how virtual reality skills training of clinicians resulted in 40% fewer medical errors.
Long-Term Scalability
EHR selection experts focus on choosing a system that continues to operate well as workloads increase. Times when scalability matters include when more end users and/or more patient records are added to the healthcare system, or when additional departments, specialties, or facilities are added.
Implementation Readiness
Our EHR experts will conduct an implementation readiness assessment to ensure that all tasks are fully completed and end-users are prepared. This involves pilot tests, training sessions, and go-live planning.
6. Making a Confident, Future-Ready EHR Decision
The best EHR system will vary by healthcare organization, with the organizational size, number of facilities, types of specialties, growth plans, and more playing key roles.
Independent guidance through vendor-agnostic EHR experts leads to better outcomes because the needs of your healthcare system—not the features of the EHR software—serve as the central point of reference. Bias is a natural attribute to have when someone represents a specific brand, but this bias can impact how they present their application’s benefits to your healthcare organization. In other words, emotion can enter into their presentation of their EHR software.
With vendor-agnostic EHR experts, your organization will receive a data-driven set of recommendations so that you can pick the right software for your specific needs and goals. This includes how well it integrates with current technology, meets compliance requirements, comes with the ability to scale alongside your organization, and dovetails with your budget. Once a selection is made, you can relax as EHR selection experts negotiate the best deal for your healthcare organization.
EHR Selection Experts at HealthTECH Resources
Discover how HealthTECH’s EHR selection services provide unbiased guidance and help you choose the right system for your organization. Ready to explore solutions tailored to your unique needs? Contact us today to get started.
PRESIDENT/CEO AT HEALTHTECH RESOURCES
Larry has specialized in building strategic healthcare relationships for over 25 years, helping the nation’s top payors and providers solve some of their most pressing business challenges through an intelligent mix of staffing services, training, and consulting.