A complete EHR RFP guide and template

A successful EHR selection process depends on obtaining a quality pool of vendor applicants. The caliber of these vendors will significantly impact the overall EHR experience and its long-term value to your practice. A poorly executed process will inevitably lead to a subpar system.

A crucial part of this selection process is issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) to invite vendors to compete for your EHR contract. An effective EHR RFP process ensures you receive the best candidates. In this guide, we’ll walk through the steps of conducting a successful RFP process, including how to gather your EHR requirements, draft the RFP and evaluate vendor responses.

By following these steps, your practice will have a much higher chance of selecting an EHR that adds real value to your operations.

• Understanding key acronyms: RFIs vs RFPs vs RFQs
• Gathering your requirements for new EHR software
• How to prepare an effective RFP for EHR software (including customizable template)
• Evaluating RFP responses
• Next steps: respondinng to RFPs and the demo phase

1. Understand which requirements document you need: RFIs vs. RFPs vs. RFQs

Before you begin the selection process, it’s essential to know the role of different documentation types in gathering vendor information.

Request for Information (RFI)

The RFI will often be sent to several vendors before narrowing down the pool of candidates. It serves as an initial step, allowing your practice to gather high-level information about various EHR vendors and their offerings. The RFI helps break the ice by communicating your EHR requirements and signaling that you're serious about upgrading or replacing your system.

The purpose of the RFI is to ask broad questions that will help you eliminate vendors who don’t align with your needs while saving more specific questions for the RFP phase. This step streamlines your process by enabling you to focus on a smaller pool of serious contenders, thus saving time.

What is an RFP in Healthcare?

An RFP in healthcare is a formal document used by healthcare organizations to solicit proposals from vendors for goods or services, such as EHR systems. The purpose of an RFP is to gather detailed information from vendors about how their products or services can meet the organization's specific needs. By sending out an RFP, a healthcare practice ensures that it receives competitive proposals, helping them to make an informed choice when selecting a vendor.

An RFP typically includes detailed requirements, project timelines, and evaluation criteria, making it a comprehensive tool for comparison. In healthcare, this is crucial due to the complexity of EHR systems and other healthcare technology. 

Request for Proposals (RFP)

Once you’ve reviewed RFI responses, you can move forward with issuing an EHR RFP to the most promising vendors. Crafting a thorough and customized RFP will not only help you attract the best applicants but also reduce the risk of selecting a poor-fitting EHR system.

Our EHR RFP whitepaper offers advice, materials, and templates to help construct the perfect requirements document 

One of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of error and make the process proceed smoothly is to create sample RFP templates to be used by the selection committee. An RFP for healthcare provides a standard framework for issuing uniform requests to vendors, allowing quick engagement for EHR services. It can also be adapted for RFP consultants or IT contractors involved in implementation.

Request for Quotes (RFQ)

Once you’ve reviewed vendor responses to the RFP, you’ll further narrow down your list of candidates. The RFQ phase is used to formalize discussions around the specific costs, maintenance agreements and support levels provided by each vendor. This helps ensure that the final vendor chosen fits within your budget and other technical limitations.

2. Gather your EHR requirements to construct your RFP

Before drafting your EHR RFP, it's crucial to conduct a thorough requirements-gathering process. This step ensures that you clearly define the features and functionality your practice needs from an EHR system.

The requirements gathering should reflect the practice’s strategic goals, For example, a practice whose strategic goal is to reduce wait times would tailor their requirements-gathering process to finding EHR products whose features could help reduce wait times, such as a practice management system. Without this foundational step, your RFP (and by extension, the selection process) will likely suffer, leading to the selection of an ill-fitting EHR.

3. Put together your EHR RFP using this template

The strength of an EHR RFP lies in its attention to detail. It helps to create clear distinctions between the vendors by highlighting their respective strengths and weaknesses. When creating your RFP, ensure that you include the following key sections:

• Project overview and timeline
• Requirements
• Other vendor qualifications
• Proposal evaluation criteria

Here’s a more detailed RFP template that you can customize to your own practice’s needs:

4. Evaluate your RFP responses

Once you receive vendor responses, you need a systematic way to evaluate them. The evaluation should focus on how well each EHR system aligns with your practice’s specific requirements. 

Some considerations when evaluating EHR RFP responses may include:

• Budgetary constraints
• Is there a timeline the vendor must meet?
• How much vendor support will your practice require?
• Is data conversion or migration required?
• Can the EHR be customized to meet your practice’s specific needs?

A vendor scorecard that assigns a numerical value to each function on a scale of 1 to 5. with 1 representing the lowest priority and 5 representing the highest priority can be a useful tool for evaluating responses and creating a comprehensive evaluation tool.

Here's our EHR RFP response evaluation template - feel free to modify this to your needs or create your own.

5. Next steps: responding to RFPs and the demo phase

Once you’ve scored all your responses, you’ll want to invite your top three to five vendors to present live demos. Keep in mind that while the numerical scores can guide you, they shouldn’t be the only factor in deciding which vendors to demo. There are other considerations, such as whether a vendor falls within your budget or has the necessary support infrastructure.

Read more about EHR demos in our extended guide to mastering EHR demos and making the right selection decision. 

What should we do with RFP responses once evaluation is complete?

For larger practices or other organizations, an RFP database can serve as a useful tool for reducing the time needed to find vendors. For example, a hospital may keep a hospital RFP database so that if a vendor is needed for a particular service or product, a potential client within the organization can refer to the RFP database and find potential candidates more quickly.