Community Health Center/FQHC EMR Software Buyers Guide
Last updated: June 07, 2023
FQHC Health EMR Software - A Complete Guide to Help You Make the Right Choice
Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) or more commonly referred to as Community Health Centers (CHC) are designed to help patients that have low income, are underinsured, or even uninsured. The mission of FQHC is to provide healthcare services to those who have limited access to it. After all, everybody should have the right to medicine.
FQHC EHR Software is used to help practitioners simplify non-medical tasks such as electronic medical records, scheduling appointments, e-prescriptions, and practice management, etc. However, what makes FQHC EHR software unique is that they are inexpensive, yet effective enough to cover all the services required.
Important Features in an EMR Software
Before purchasing any EMR software, there are a few considerations that you need to make prior to making your decision. These aspects help differentiate a ‘good’ quality EMR software from a ‘bad’ quality one.
User-friendly Navigation and Experience: A user-friendly interface can help you simplify tasks and actions for your staff and help them in increasing their productivity.
Integration: You should easily be able to integrate the EMR solution you select with your existing system, irrespective of the device you are working on.
24/7 Access: You should also be able to access patient information, write e-prescriptions, check patient charts, etc. 24/7 from anywhere in the world. One of the biggest benefits of having a cloud-based EHR system is to not have to be restricted to your server for patient information.
Always Available for Support: When you are implementing a new digital solution, it is completely normal to run into problems. However, if you have strong support from your EMR software provider, you can easily overcome any problem you encounter during this process and afterward as well.
Before making any final decisions, it is always better to ask your provider for an FQHC Health EHR Software Demo. This will allow you to make sure if this software you’re choosing is the right one for your practice or not.
Features of FQHC EMR Software
Now it’s time to talk about FQHC EMR software specifically. Before making any final decisions, make sure your FQHC EMR software contains the following features:
Templates: Community Health Clinics are expected to provide for the general lack of healthcare services. So they usually cover various specialties, rather than only focusing on one. Usually, FQHC EHR vendors supply up to 30+ customizable specialties in the SOAP note template to cater to various specialties.
Care Coordination: Oftentimes community clinics have to refer patients to specialists or other practices. An FQHC EMR Software will help you with care coordination, and exchanging patient information with other practitioners and clinics in a secure manner.
Billing and Coding: A FQHC EMR solution should also provide coding to verify CPT and ICD-10 codes associated with the diagnosis. This also helps create a direct connection with the billing software and results in faster payments.
E-prescribing: FQHC EHR Software also provides e-prescribing to create, prescribe, change, and renew prescriptions with ease.
Patient Scheduling: The FQHC EHR Softwares allows patients to schedule and change their appointments without any hassle. It also gives the option of enabling daily reminders and electronic booking.
Real-time Dashboard: A Bariatric EHR solution must offer an interactive dashboard that provides practitioners to view all patient information in a single place.
How to Select an FQHC EHR Vendor?
Now that you know what kind of features you need to look for, it’s time to discuss what type of FQHC EHR software vendor you should select for your medical practice.
Vendor and Practice Size – Firstly, you need to understand which size of companies your vendor typically aims for. After that, you need to analyze the size of your practice as well. If you have a large facility, you wouldn’t want to select an EHR vendor that only deals with small practices. Typically, the vendors that cater to larger facilities have a high-cost FQHC EMR solution.
Vendor Certification – This is probably the most important aspect before selecting an EMR vendor for your practice. You need to make sure your vendor is ONC-authorized testing and certification body (ONC-ATCB). Selecting a non-certified vendor will only bring you trouble and a nuisance to your practice.
System Design – This will probably depend on whether you want to install an FQHC EMR software on-site in your server, or use a cloud-based one. Although you’ll get more advantages with a cloud-based solution, it probably boils down to your personal preference. Whatever you choose, you’ll need to find an EMR vendor that provides the service you are looking for.
Even after making a final decision, you should use an FQHC EMR software demo to make sure it is exactly what you’re expecting.
What’s the Final Step?
After understanding the features and deciding upon a few potential vendors, you should compare the pricing of the FQHC EMR software. After you reach the vendor with all the services, features, support, and cost plans you are looking for, you can finally make the last step and move towards its implementation.
