Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | B | Behavioral Healthcare

Securing the board's buy-in: five tips to ensure the board approves your EMR purchase.

Article Excerpt
Imagine you've spent months, maybe years, investigating electronic medical record (EMR) systems. Your team has chosen a vendor which offers an exceptional package, and the project is in your budget. Everything is in place. Yet when you get to the final presentation before the board, there's a stalemate.

Since the first modern behavioral health information technologies were created more than two decades ago, boards have been denying EMR purchases that they initially authorized. In the 1990s, many software offerings were insufficient to fully computerize patient records. Some systems lacked adequate integration, and others were offered by vendors with limited expertise working with human service agencies. In a few cases, truly premature software offerings (so-called "vaporware") caused havoc. So back then, maybe some of these board denials were a blessing.

Organizations that remain paper based today, however, are scrambling to catch up--and trying to do so in an economy in which every penny counts and every purchase must demonstrate return on investment (ROI). Thankfully, comprehensive EMR solutions now are available from highly capable vendors, and many providers are significantly cutting costs and improving treatment and management practices by implementing EMR systems. Specialized offerings exist for different market segments, and deployments generally are well managed. Yet its widely recognized that the majority of providers don't...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!