During the past few years, the number of EMR vendors in the market has augmented. EMR vendors know that incorporating unique value adding features in their Electronic Medical Records (EMR) is a good strategy. However, that is not the only reason that could help them convince medical practitioners to implement EMRs and increase their clientele.
Many healthcare providers and health IT consultants believe that customer support system is one of the major factors that could help EMR vendors not only earn recognition, but also improve their future prospects. Physicians consider EMRs as a long term investment and they certainly require good support from the other end. Unfortunately, when it comes to support, there are few EMR vendors who have failed to satisfy their clients.
It is important for EMR vendors to understand that while outsourcing their customer support systems is helping them experience reduced costs on one hand, on the other hand, it is placing their reputation and product image at risk.
’What most EMR vendors fail to understand is that outsourcing the support system to a company operating in some foreign country is not the right choice. Since English is not their first language, the communication gap and difficulty to interact with clients would certainly persist’, says a Washington based health IT consultant.
Other than the language barriers there are various other issues why outsourcing might cost EMR vendors a hefty price. Let’s shed light on some of them. Limited or no product knowledge is another crucial concern that requires attention. There are numerous instances where a lack of trained professionals has provided unsatisfactory services to the providers ’ failing to effectively resolve their problems.
’This is ridiculous, you have to spend countless hours explaining the support guy what your problems are. Worst of all, even after doing all that, you fail to get the answers for your questions. Instead, they keep on referring you to the next person’, says an annoyed physician.
Physicians often complain that, almost all the times, they have to wait for a long time for the support team to answer their queries. This is because of the inadequate number of available resources. Moreover, operating in a different time zone, the availability of the support team is another major problem that physicians face.
However, with the passage of time, established EMR vendors have come to realize the problems with outsourcing. They understand that in order to keep their clients loyal, taking care of potential inefficiencies is the utmost requirement.
By Frank Quinn
Over the past twenty years Frank Quinn has contributed significantly on standardizing, interconnecting and institutionalizing care delivery through health IT, helping eliminate barriers to access, quality and adoption. EMR, practice management, eRx, patient portal, revenue cycle management, compliance, privacy and security are his areas of expertise. For more information, contact Frank Quinn at frank.quin@curemd.comVisit website | More posts by Author
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