Implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHR) has been top of to-do list of physicians for quite some time.
With the EHR deadline gone and fear of penalties mounting, physicians are
rushing to buy a system for their practices. However, cost of EHR adoption and
implementation is a major concern for physicians.
Before selecting EHR system, conduct a
thorough research of the HIT vendors to make the right decision for your
practice. While making the EHR vendor comparison, ensure that you inquire about
vendor pricing policies including EHR software price, implementation cost, payment
methods, hardware cost and any other hidden costs.
Practitioners of small and medium sized
practices are mostly concerned about software and hardware costs. According to
a survey conducted by CDW Healthcare, 66% of physicians reported that spending
huge sum of money on hardware and software hinders EHR adoption rate.
Buying hardware is a one-time cost that
practices have to bear. In another survey, researchers found out that in a
small practice of five physicians, approximately $7,000 are spent on hardware
by each physician. The best way to cut down on this cost is to buy cloud-based
EHR, so that practitioners can save money on developing servers. Also, talk to
you vendor in detail and make a list of hardware needed to install before EHR
adoption. This will help to avoid wasting money on buying unnecessary material.
