Answer

Evaluate an EHR vendor by analyzing key criteria that would be used to develop a request for information (RFI). You will choose an acute care or ambulatory setting and an EHR vendor to determine if the EHR vendor meets the needs of the setting.

In a 800-1000 word essay, describe the considerations that need to be addressed during the EHR vendor evaluation process using the key criteria below. Evaluate your selected EHR vendor based on the research you have done on the key criteria. Include the following:

How the EHR supports technological needs (cloud-based vs. client-server, database configurations, etc.).
Applicability to the health care practice setting and workflow support.
How the vendor provides education implementation and support.
How the EHR supports administrative needs.
How the EHR supports clinical research.

ANSWER

Request for Information for Electronic Health Records (EHR) Vendor

Electronic Health Records (HER) forms an essential component of operations in the modern clinical environments contributing to better health care by improving aspects of patient care such as safety, effectiveness, communication, education, efficiency, timeliness, and patient-centeredness. However, the imperatives of adopting capable EHR in clinical settings lies in how healthcare organizations carry out vendor selection. Requests for information (RFI) allow organizations to measure a vendor’s expertise, product offering, and experience. The areas of significance in the development of RFI may include assessing a vendor’s certification, future development plans, growth potential, and how it harnesses research and development (R&) to ensure continuous efficacy through updates and upgrades (Jason, 2020). This paper evaluates the critical criteria used to develop an RFI for GE Centricity (EHR Vendor) in acute care settings.

Technological Needs

Implementation of Electronic Health Records in acute care settings must reflect consistency with technological advances. Therefore, a vendor must demonstrate the capacity to meet the technological needs of the EHR system (Jason, 2020). The criterion for evaluation here entails an assessment of the vendor’s ability to offer services that optimize on the rapid advancement of technology, provision of EHR prior tools that can update and adapt to keep with the evolution of technology, something that GE Centricity provides. One of the areas of significant importance in vendor assessment criterion focuses on cloud computing and how the vendor incorporates cloud services to optimize usability, interoperability, and documentation (Jason, 2020).

The EHR system’s fundamental capacity should be able to harness cloud-based services as part of reducing IT costs; reduce the cost of managing and maintaining the system. Cloud-based services are critical, ensuring operational efficiency, the flexibility of clinical practices, and access to automatic updates, unlike client servers, which are prone to failure and expensive to maintain. The vendor must have the capacity to offer data configuration frameworks that allow support, resilience, and audit in deployment (Jason, 2020).

Applicability to Practice Setting

Applicability of an Electronic Health Records (HER) in a clinical practice setting is vital in enhancing the essence of adoption, such as the need to improve accessibility to information, flexibility in practice and increase efficiency care outcomes. GE Centricity’s EHR system demonstrates applicability to the acute care setting. It means reflecting features of decision support, patient support, improve electronic communication and connectivity, result management, and health information and data capabilities (DeVoe & Sears, 2013). Applicability in decision support, for instance, should highlight the use of reminders and computerized decision support systems that enhances compliance with best clinical practices, evident aspects of GE Centricity. Electronic communication and connectivity components must be efficient, safe, and readily accessible among patients and care providers (Schopf et al., 2019).

Education, Implementation, and Support

This reflects the need for a vendor to provide efficient customer service. In this case, GE Centricity’s support of education and implementation looks beyond the scope of troubleshooting. GE Centricity demonstrates a commitment to form a partnership for the EHR system’s success through continued education of its software and services. The firm considers education as key in allowing access to the best tools and resources.  Continuous education on software developments, industry updates, and availability in the event of failure is essential in support, education, and implementation.

Administrative Needs

Administration roles in the clinical environment play critical roles in ensuring the overall efficiency of care outcomes. The implementation of Electronic Health Records must provide support for administrative needs as part of fostering secure, effective, and efficient practices in the acute care environment. The requisites in the evaluating GE Centricity’s capabilities through the lens of administrative indicates the use of computerized administrative tools such as scheduling systems to improve efficiency, provide reminders, prompts and alerts and computerized decision-support system (Schopf et al., 2019).

Clinical Research

Full implementation of an Electronic Health Records system plays a crucial role in supporting clinical research. Acute care environments rely on evidence-based practice to achieve optimized healthcare outcomes, and electronic health records form the centrality of evidence-based practice. The criterion for vendor evaluation concerning clinical research will consider several capabilities of the system, including the ability to reduce redundant data capture and provide a better understanding of real patient populations. It also should check the feasibility of clinical trials and supporting the test of hypothesis in patient-related research (Schopf et al., 2019). GE Centricity’s EHR system provides evidence to support clinical functionalities that can advance research such as system stability, reliability, multiple logins, and clinical workflow support such as planning and overview.

Organizational Process

Following a proper organizational process in vendor selection contributes to the overall efficacy of adopting and implementing EHR systems in hospitals. The elements of the organizational process in selection include assembling a selection committee of key staff to take charge of the process, monitor schedules and budgets. Assessment of EHR goals, such as the need to improve care and to collate a prioritized list of functionalities, is critical to ensure efficacy (Murphy, 2012). Further processes include the development of RFP, vendor shortlisting, vendor demonstration arrangement, vendor rating, scheduling of site visits, and selecting the vendor that meets the criterion. The final organizational process entails the negotiation of contracts.

Summary

Selecting the right vendor for an Electronic Health Records system is a complex process. Still, an organization needs to stick on the script that evaluates and compares the vendor’s capability and organization needs. It is crucial that an acute healthcare setting focus implementation of the EHR system on improving care practices within the scope of budget and goals. Considering the position setting of most acute care environments and the capabilities of GE Centricity, it is clear that the vendor offers immense leverage. GE Centricity meets the threshold for selection in the setting.