Six practice employees you need on your EHR demo team

The EHR demo is a critical component for EHR vendor selection. The demo allows the practice to see how a system might truly fit into the practice and hopefully improve patient care and operations. Therefore, it is critical to have several key members of the practice on the EHR demo team. This ensures that all EHR stakeholder needs are considered during this phase of the selection process.

Important employees to include in the EHR demo and evaluation process include:

1. Clinicians

Depending on the type of practice, you should include several different clinicians. If your practice has physicians, nurses, and therapists, then plan to include one employee from each discipline. During the EHR demo, a clinician will provide the most useful analysis and feedback regarding the practicality of using the proposed system in your practice.

These employees are the ones who must translate patient encounters into documented and billable notes. Therefore, allowing clinicians to see a demonstration of hands-on use is essential. They will be able to analyze efficiency, ease of use and practicality in patient treatment.

2. Clinical director

A clinician with a supervisory role should be included in the evaluation team. This employee will look at the operational role of the EHR. They will be able to evaluate whether the system will help improve efficiency and productivity of the clinicians and practice as a whole.

Get more out of vendor presentations using this step-by-step guide to making the most out of your EHR demos

3. Front office staff

The front office staff plays a critical role in utilization of a new system.  During an EHR demo, they should evaluate the ease of use for inputting patient demographics and insurance information, as well as the scheduling portal. The front office plays a key role in how smooth the practice operates and for first impressions at patient encounters. A quality EHR system will help to streamline these tasks.

4. IT department

An employee from the IT department should be included in the EHR demonstration to determine the technology, equipment and network requirements of the proposed vendors. The IT department can also analyze the security of each EHR system to ensure patient privacy. The IT department will help determine the cost for integration of the system and establishment of workstations.

5. Administration

An administrative personnel should be included to analyze the cost of implementation and integration of a proposed system. Additionally, they will be able to analyze how productivity and operational tasks can be improved during the demonstration.

6. Billing department

The practice cannot sustain itself without reimbursement. Therefore, streamlined billing processes are critical for billing operations. An employee in the accounts receivable department should evaluate the process for sending claims and processing payments.