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(EMAILWIRE.COM, August 11, 2011 ) Dallas, TX --
Element 1: Understand Your CompanyÂ’s Needs
While this seems very obvious, this element is often completed at the end of the decision making process instead of at the beginning. A “needs” assessment and analysis is a critical step in the process. All stakeholders should be involved in determining the needs of the company as it relates to their role and expertise. The needs of the company once identified, will serve as a guide for evaluating various home care software applications.
Element 2: Identifying Software Vendors
Due to federal mandates for the implementation of electronic medical record systems across the healthcare continuum, it is no surprise that there has been an increase in the number of home health software vendors on the market. As with other products and services, it is important to assess a companyÂ’s overall viability and sustainability to ensure the potential longevity of a vendor. The second item to evaluate when reviewing a company is determining whether or not home health care is their market niche. A software vendorÂ’s understanding of the homecare industry is critical in providing ongoing support, compliance and development of the software application.
Element 3: Cost
For many agencies, cost is the single most important determining factor when selecting a software application. Although cost and budget are significant and should be taken into account, a comprehensive review of the true cost and benefits of features should be considered. For instance, some home health care software vendors allow customers to purchase and own the software. This option requires a significant upfront investment. Other vendors allow customers to pay a low monthly subscription fee and provide ongoing support for the complete home health software. For this second option, some vendors charge for different modules of the software while others allow customers to pay a flat fee for access to the entire software application. Additional cost factors include the number of licenses, set-up fees, how many users can access the software, a point-of-care feature, software upgrades and several other pricing options depending on the vendor. Like most things in life, you get what you pay for; therefore agencies must carefully review the “true” costs of the software before making a choice and be willing to pay for quality and dependability versus an inexpensive solution.
Element 4: Implementation
Implementation of the home care software application should also be assessed. Software implementation is often overlooked due to the more immediate concerns of pricing for company executives. The ease of implementation should be researched to determine how long and how difficult the implementation phase will be. Involving the potential users of the home care software in the selection process will help prepare and open up their minds to the potential challenges that will be faced after the eventual choice of the software. Agencies must ask the software vendor how much help they will receive in the implementation of the software. It is very helpful to have representatives of the software company available to answer questions and offer guidance during the implementation phase of the software. Needless to say, agencies should not select a software vendor that is unwilling to actively engage in and support their business during the initial implementation and training on how to use the software.
Element 5: References & Recommendations
To get a clearer picture of the vendor and product, you should request references and recommendations. References should consist of current clients who are actively using the software who you can speak to and ask questions. Recommendations should also be obtained from their active client base and anyone who has used the home health care software application. By actively engaging current users, you can gain insight into their own successes and challenges with using the software.
Element 6: Trial Period
Request a trial period to conduct a “test drive” of the application; this is where you can get some level of detail on the actual evaluation of the product. Go through the various scenarios that you encounter on a day to day basis at your agency and assess how the features and work-flow assist in this process. Trial periods should be discussed and if offered, agencies should take advantage of them to obtain a better sense of how the home health software will fit into your agency operations.
Element 7: Training & Support
Although at the bottom of the list, this element is a vital key in the success of your agencies implementation of a home health care software application. Initial and on-going training needs should be addressed prior to the selection of a specific vendor. Questions that should be asked are:
1) How many hours and how is the initial training provided? Via webinar, On-site, etc. Is there a fee?
2) Is on-going training available? If so is there a fee?
Technical and customer support are also extremely important when evaluating software vendors. With the initial implementation, it is expected there will be questions and a need to contact someone that can assist you with these issues. As with training, the lack of technical/customer support can often lead to poor results when implementing a new home health software application. It is important that issues both real and potential are addressed to ensure that a sufficient amount of support and training will be provided to staff for a successful implementation.
Axxess Technology Solutions Inc
Mark Williams
2145757711
niyi@axxessconsult.com 
Source: EmailWire.com
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