With the constantly growing and changing landscape of technology in the broader healthcare industry, it can be difficult to understand what tools and systems are right for you and your organization. Qualifacts recently partnered with Open Minds to help organizations like yours navigate the complicated technological landscape.
This leads to a daunting question: What technology infrastructure do you need for success in this evolving market?
When you know you need to make a change to your current technology, the process can be very time consuming and sometimes very expensive. However, there are ways to mitigate the stress that comes with such a decision through a better understanding of what your organization’s needs are.
Questions to Ask Before You Start Searching for an EHR Solution
There are a few key questions you’ll need to ask to help understand your needs as an organization. Here are some examples.
- What pain points do you have with your current technology system?
- What tools are your staff currently lacking to do their job efficiently?
- What are your evaluation metrics and KPIs?
- What KPIs do you want to improve?
- How do your clients want to interact with your practice?
- Can you self-host the technology or do you need a SaaS model?
- What type of system will be most beneficial? A cloud-based system for remote access or something in-house only?
With answers to these questions, you can better understand what tools you might need and benefit from the most. Talking to your staff and other partners about the struggles they currently face and what changes they need to better perform their work can also help add to your checklist and better tailor your search to their needs.
Determine if the Root Cause of Challenges Are Technology-Based
Once you’ve gathered your organization’s needs and pain points, it is important to understand if those issues will be solved through technology alone or if it might require a process or staffing solution.
You may have the technology in place, but you don’t have the right processes to use that technology to its highest potential. Maybe you already have the tools you need to measure key performance indicators, but you aren’t acting on them as well as you should. In those cases, you might have to focus on adjusting your staff’s processes or providing further training for the technology you already have. Technology is a vital tool to an organization’s growth and function, but if it isn’t being utilized well, then even the best-rated systems in the world won’t make much difference in the office.
On the other hand, maybe your challenge is that your technology only offers you some of what you need. It might only measure data, but it doesn’t give any insights or trend information that you can act on, or it only tracks a few pieces of data, sending you down technical rabbit holes to find the rest of the data you need. Some tools can give you insights into your organization that simple data collection and numbers reporting couldn’t, potentially limiting your ability to improve your patient experience and better enhance the care you can offer. If your technology is lacking the functionality your organization needs, consider one of the award-winning EHR solutions from Qualifacts.
Always Keep Your Organization’s Goals at the Forefront of Your Mind
When looking for EHR software or any technology to assist staff in the performance of their duties, remember that the software you use should be able to provide you with the information and tools you need to help make educated decisions, not just for your organization, but also for the patients you serve.
The technology that you use is designed to help facilitate growth and increase cost savings for your organization to allow you to streamline workflows, allowing your clinicians to dedicate more time and energy to their patients instead of the technology. Your goal is to find a tool to better engage with patients along their healthcare journey and provide the best service possible.
As you think about searching for a new technology solution and the lengthy process that goes with that search, consider a methodical approach to evaluate the impact it will have on your staff and their patients. You may find out that multiple technologies are required to meet the complex needs of your organization, or you might find that an all-in-one solution would be better suited for your team’s processes.
Once you have a full understanding of your current challenges, a list of requirements that your organization has when it comes to an EHR system, and your staff’s workflow, you will have a strong idea of what you need to keep an eye out for when reviewing competing EHR software systems or other technology. The journey of finding and onboarding new technology can be a daunting one, but with the right tools and guides, you can find a strong partner to strengthen your organization.
Follow our blog closely as we’ll talk more in-depth about how to choose key performance indicators and make them quantifiable to help in the search process.
Interested in learning more about choosing the right EHR solution to help your team maximize practice efficiency? Click here to download the webinar this blog post was created from.
