EHR Practice Goals List

This tool is meant to help clinics outline the goals that will guide them in selecting an EHR vendor. The goals are separated into four categories that represent four aspects of EHR: functionality, usability, practicality, and reputation. You should be able to combine results from your Personal Goals Lists completed by different staff to fill in the first column. The grey columns will be completed throughout your vendor evaluation process. HealthInsight can help you obtain some of this information, and other information may require a vendor demonstration to obtain.

Functionality and Usability: Include rationale for features at left and additional goals and features. For usability, include goals about: tasks often done that must be done fast, peculiarities of the practice such as computer literacy, and desired input method that impact usability.

Practice goals that relate to functionality and usability: / Functions that relate to these goals: / Vendors with these features:

On the following page, summarize and prioritize the functions from the Personal Goals List that are needed to meet practice goals.

Charting/Documentation
(Health Data) / Structured Templates
Voice Recognition
Digital Dictation
Importing of scanned or electronic documents
Patient Summary
Automated Referrals
E&M Coding recommend
e-Prescribing / Digital send of Rx
Electronic fax send of Rx
Drug-Drug Interaction Checking
Drug-Allergy Interaction Checking
Drug-Diagnosis Checking
Lab and Results Management / Interface with laboratory (LabCorp)
Interface with laboratory (Sonora Quest)
Other laboratory interface
Decision Support / Linked to external evidence source
Prompts for visits/health maintenance events
Evidence support for Rx writing
Evidence support for lab ordering
Evidence based order sets
Patient Support / Patient education materials
Patient portal for self-scheduling
Personal Health Record
Care Management / Generate Patient Lists
Produce Care Reminders
Basic reporting available
Possible to do complex queries by multiple criteria
Other / Internal Messaging
Electronic Tasking
Wireless option
Remote connectivity
Practice Management / PMS included and integrated with EMR
Ability to interface existing PMS with EMR

Company and Service: This list should include, but is not limited to goals about: how established the vendor needs to be (level of risk adversity), what sort of relationship you would like to have with the company (you’re not just buying software, you’re forming a relationship with a company whose software will change over time), internal resources needed to customize and maintain the database, overall support needs, etc.

Practice goals that relate to company and service: / Criteria that relate to these goals: / Vendors with these criteria:

Price and pricing flexibility: This list should include pricing needs, and whether an ASP (Application Service Provider) option is desired.

Practice goals that relate to price and pricing flexibility: / Criteria that relate to these goals: / Vendors with these criteria:

HealthInsight prepared this material under a contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The contents presented do not necessarily reflect CMS policy. PUB# 8SOW-OM-TN-06

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