3 alternative EHR selection strategies to RFPs

The EHR selection process usually involves practices seeking information through RFPs, comparing options, and narrowing down a large pool of candidates.

The issues with the RFP process are well known, leading to it being called the “request for problems” by frustrated selection teams. The main problem with RFPs is the lack of quality information they gather from bidders, and the fact that practices often spend considerable time and money on RFPs to move forward in the selection process. The following strategies offer alternatives to using RFPs in this process.

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Hands-on software trials

Tim Edlund, CEO of Softworks Group, offers the following caveat about relying heavily on RFPs as a software selection tool. He states,

“RFP responses are a lot like statistics—they are easily manipulated to support whatever point their publishers want to make.”

Edlund suggests using hands-on software demos to “quickly separate truth from the claim.” Just like other consumer software, EHR vendors can offer potential customers a hands-on demo that allows a practice to test a product firsthand.

Hands-on EHR demos allow a practice to collect valuable information themselves and create a shortlist from their own experiences, rather than relying on an RFP’s written claims. Using a hands-on software trial also avoids the often misleading vendor sales team demonstration and eliminates the ambiguity of the RFP process.

A large quantity of brief demos

Demonstrations typically happen in the final stages of the selection process. However, a practice can bypass the RFP process by doing preliminary research on vendors based on a requirements list.

Then, all vendors whose products meet the requirements can be invited to do brief demos. During these demos, the selection team should develop benchmark criteria to narrow down to a shortlist of vendors. Those vendors would then be invited to provide more detailed and in-depth demonstrations.

Paid in-depth evaluations

Instead of requesting a large pool of vendors to submit free proposals (which can yield unreliable information), practices can directly select one or two vendors for paid, in-depth evaluations. This shifts funds from RFPs to vendors incentivised to offer suitable solutions.

RFPS are often used because practices wrongly see them as essential, but they are just one way to gather information. The alternatives above enable direct, hands-on vendor evaluation without RFPS.