Ten questions to ask CCHIT Certified product vendors

CCHIT Certified status is the first thing for which to look when you’re selecting an EHR. But it’s also important to remember that it’s only the first step in the selection process.

Here are some other important questions to ask EHR vendors when you’re in the midst of selecting a product for your practice:

1. Tell me about your company. How long have you been in business? How many employees do you have doing development and offering technical service?
2. How many physician practices do you serve? What size are they? May I speak with a few of them?
3. How do you license your product—for a term or perpetually, by physician or user?
4. What are your maintenance or support fees? Do they cover product upgrades?
5. What are your service policies and guarantees?
6. In addition to what I can expect from CCHIT Certified interoperability, what will I pay for other desired interfaces to products or sources of information?
7. Are there third-party costs for modules or components bundled with your product? Will I need to buy some third-party products independently to make your product perform as demonstrated?
8. Tell me about your implementation and training services. What do they cost? How long will it take until my practice is successfully up and running using your product?
9. Are you willing to put these terms in a sales agreement?
10. What are your plans for staying up-to-date with CCHIT’s certification requirements?

With the launch of the CCHIT Certified 08 products, vendors were given the option to publish answers to some of these questions on their certified product pages. For more information, see CCHIT Certified 08 products for Ambulatory, Inpatient, and Emergency Department.