In addition to selecting the electronic medical records software, you are choosing a new partner for your practice. The application you choose will be part of your operations for years to come, so it is important that you go with a vendor who will be around to support it.

One way to help assess the stability of your provider is to choose a product with a large installed base. This ensures that the vendor will continue to upgrade and improve the product, and demonstrates that the company has an ongoing revenue stream to keep them in business.

Electronic medical records training and support
Training and installation is critical. Getting started with a new electronic medical records system is an inconvenience even in the best case, so ask how the vendor plans to minimize disruption during installation.

The vendor should also provide training for everyone who will be using the system. Ask if the vendor provides different types of training for doctors and support staff — and find out how long it takes to get training set up once you sign a contract.

Many practices prefer having a trainer come to their office, but that is not always possible: web-based training can also be effective, if done properly. Regardless of the type of training, it should take users through the basics of setting up, operating, and troubleshooting the system.

As with any software, you should expect occasional problems or outages. While "guaranteed 99.5% uptime" and other vendor assurances are fine, more important is how they react when something does go wrong.

Inquire about their support policies: do they have live support staff on the phone during business hours only or? Do they guarantee a specific response time? Depending on the specific needs of your practice, the answers to these questions can make or break an electronic medical records decision.

Do a site visit
You can learn a lot by visiting one of the vendor’s current customers. Ask to be put in touch with a local practice similar to yours so you can bring your team for a visit. If you can set up a visit with the other practice by yourself, all the better — you are more likely to get honest answers without a vendor representative looking over your shoulder. During your visit, have these questions ready:

• How responsive is the vendor when you have problems?
• Does the software do everything they said it would do?
• Did the vendor provide adequate training?
• How much downtime have you experienced in the last year?
• If you were starting over, would you work with the same vendor again?
• What do you like least about the program?