More than 130,000 doctors and nurse practitioners and 850,000 medical professionals around the world leverage eClinicalWorks (eCW) for practice management solutions, such as electronic health records (EHR), revenue cycle management and patient engagement.
However, implementing and administering a robust system like eCW is complex. Keeping up with IT upgrades, system maintenance, optimization and ongoing support requires a great deal of resources. To keep costs down and productivity up, it’s imperative to have an efficient and effective help desk with the means to facilitate change, improve functionality and fix issues as soon as they arise.
That’s why many healthcare delivery organizations turn to a strategic partner to handle their eClinicalWorks support desk. Finding the right provider that suits your exact needs, however, can be difficult. No matter how specific your organization’s needs may be, there are three important qualities every managed IT services for healthcare provider should have in their help desk offering.
Vast Product Knowledge
From assisting individual users to handling the change management process for a system-wide upgrade, the help desk provides critical support that helps organizations drive positive health outcomes. With that said, if you want to receive truly effective eCW technical support, you need an eCW support desk with unparalleled eCW product knowledge.
Look for a partner that has vast system and end-user support experience with patient portals, document management, EMR, referral management and the bevy of other eCW products and services. You’ll also want a partner who has the strategic insight to know which new services may work best for you, and the knowledge to successfully implement those services. A support partner that understands your organization’s strategy and unique eCW needs will be able to adjust quickly to your organization’s needs as they evolve.
Interoperability is a vital feature of your eCW system, so your support partner should also be an expert in working with the Carequality Interoperability Framework and the CommonWell Health Alliance® nationwide network.
Proven eClinicalWorks Support Desk Experience
There are a lot of qualified, experienced eCW support and solution providers out there, and it’s hard to know which one has an advantage over the other. Fortunately, there are honest and impartial resources you can use to research providers and make the best decision possible.
Since 1996, KLAS Research has sought to give providers and payers the insight and data they need to make informed healthcare IT decisions. KLAS works with thousands of healthcare professionals and clinicians to gather data and insights on software, services and medical equipment, then uses this valuable data to create reports and statistical overviews. There are currently around 900 different solutions in the KLAS database, and the KLAS research team publishes more than 50 reports a year.
One of those reports, the annual Best in KLAS report, showcases the highest-rated medical software and services companies for the year. When it comes to learning more about IT helpdesk outsourcing for hospitals and eCW technical support, this report is a great place to start.
An Emphasis on Process
The third pillar of a successful and efficient eCW support desk is process.
When evaluating a partner for IT help desk outsourcing, you’ll want to make sure their processes are meticulously documented. Whether it’s an individual desktop update or implementation of a new service, the entire process needs to be captured. Thorough documentation helps improve workflows, increase help desk productivity and improves the deployment of system upgrades and integrations.
Review the vendor’s change management process to ensure any item requiring a change, including system upgrades, bug fixes and incident response, is documented in a ticket. The data and information that you accumulate through the ticketing system is invaluable. Not only will it help you make informed decisions that will improve the performance of your eCW system, but your strategic partner will use that data to create detailed reports, and hopefully alleviate some of the burden that comes with reporting requirements.
Finding an eCW Support Desk partner with the right product knowledge, experience and dedication to process will help you get the most out of your eCW investment. But more importantly, choosing the right strategic partner will help you focus on what’s most important: providing quality patient care.