Do you match? Choosing the best digital health vendor for your organization

Stage 1: Identify your goals and deal breakers

Before you Google a handful of vendors to request more information and schedule calls, do some research and reach out to key stakeholders and end users to determine your implementation objectives. A detailed overview of needs and disqualifiers will make it easier to eliminate or elevate new vendors later.

Some things to consider: 

• Your clinical objectives. Your digital health partner should offer solutions that align with your clinical goals and facilitate more efficient care delivery. 

• Patient accessibility. Patient-facing technologies should be accessible to the end user, which means prioritizing elements like multiple language options or senior-friendly design. 

• Care team workflows and workload. Do clinicians in your health system need solutions to offset their workload with automated tasks and third-party clinical support? Do they need solutions that embed in the EHR or can be customized to fit existing workflows? 

• Expected return on investment. Consider how new solutions should fit with your organization’s financial priorities, such as whether you want to increase reimbursements or reduce denials and rejections. 

• What won’t work for you. Search AVIA Marketplace company and product pages, visit vendor websites, speak to colleagues and check out professional association resources to get an idea of the types of solutions and vendors that aren’t compatible with your goals.

Stage 2: Create and narrow down your vendor list

• Does the vendor have experience serving clients like you? Check the verified clients on each vendor’s AVIA Marketplace profile. AVIA Marketplace members can also review each vendor’s match score, which indicates the experience each vendor has with hospital and health systems similar to yours. 

• Are their solutions well-reviewed by peers? AVIA Marketplace’s Ratings and Reviews feature provides honest feedback from verified clients, with scores assigned to features, customer support, ease of use and IT integrations. 

• Does the pricing model meet your needs and expectations? In addition to purchasing costs, check for additional fees for upgrades, training, and support. 

• Will the vendor’s solutions fit with your IT infrastructure and digital transformation strategy? Consider potential hardware purchases and additional workload for IT staff, EHR integrations, potential security issues and long-term organizational goals.

Stage 3: Conduct vendor assessment and make your final decision

Prior to committing to a vendor and signing a contract, you’ll want to conduct in-depth assessments of each finalist with some established criteria. The vendor assessment stage should include the following steps: 

1. Submit a request for information (RFI) from each finalist. Ask for specifics about implementation and training resources, support, total cost of ownership and anything else you weren’t able to locate during your initial research. 

2. Contact vendors for demonstrations. Include clinical end users and ask for their feedback about interface and core functionalities. Ask for demonstrations of clinical scenarios relevant to your health system’s needs. 

3. Choose a vendor. Check references, schedule site visits (if applicable) and get buy-in from stakeholders prior to notifying the vendor or negotiating a contract.

Finding a digital health vendor to meet specific organizational and clinical needs for providers of any size can be an enormous task. Digital health solutions aren’t one-off purchases and shouldn’t be approached that way–they’re investments to improve care delivery and outcomes, balance clinician workloads, protect patient privacy and safeguard the financial health of hospitals, health systems and private practices. When buyers enter the selection process with clear priorities, arm themselves with third-party information and evaluation tools, and get buy-in from key stakeholders, those investments are dramatically more likely to pay off.