Medical software vendors

In addition to selecting the MPM 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.

Training and support
Training and installation is critical. Switching MPM systems is an inconvenience even in the best case: ask how the vendor plans to minimize disruption during installation. The vendor you choose should be able to import data from your current system to avoid re-entering all your basic patient data.

The vendor should also provide training for everyone who will be using the system. 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. However it is accomplished, the training should take users through the basics of setting up, operating, and troubleshooting the system.

As with any software, you are 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 support policies: do they have live support staff on the phone during business hours? Is there a guaranteed response time?

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?

Some MPM software vendors use dealer networks to sell their software. The buying process will be basically the same – you can apply the same tests described here to resellers. However if buying from a dealer or value added reseller (VAR), make sure you understand who is responsible for each aspects of the deal: installation, support, and upgrades. In some cases, the dealer will only get you set up and trained and the software developer will handle ongoing support; in other cases the VAR handles all of the ongoing support.