This month I'll share our trials, tribulations and lessons learned as we proceeded to contract negotiations for our new electronic document management system (EDMS). Specifically, we learned the ramifications of under-estimating hardware requirements, the dos and do nots of contract language, and the importance of communication.

Dear diary, our team finally agreed on a vendor for our new EDMS implementation (SDS® - Smart Document Solutions) and their product, HealthPort®. Now it's time to proceed with a contract! We started by fully understanding our internal processes for contracting with vendors.

Every hospital is different, so it was imperative that our team understood and complied with each step. And because a presentation to our Board of Directors was necessary for final approval, we had to find out dates, times and locations for upcoming meetings. At North Valley Hospital, the contracting process is as follows:

Step One: Finalize proposal, configuration and pricing with vendor and IT department.

Step Two: Insert proposal into contract.

Step Three: Submit contract for review by the director of materials management.

Step Four: Negotiate terms and conditions between director of materials management, vendor and legal counsel if necessary.

Step Five: Chief financial officer and CEO review, sign and final contract is presented to hospital Board of Directors.

Before beginning the process, it's a good idea to communicate and solidify the vendor-of-choice decision with everyone involved in the evaluation process. This includes evaluation team members who were involved in the initial process, but were not privy to the final decision. Getting everyone back together and on the same page helped make contract approvals easier and streamlined our process. With everyone informed and on board, we were ready to proceed! Let's review each step.

Finalizing the Proposal
While SDS was on site for demonstrations, they performed a "walk through" to better understand our specific requirements. So we were fairly confident about which hardware, software and services we wanted for our new EDMS. We had also provided SDS with all estimated volumes so they could configure the proper equipment for us.

From there, SDS provided a proposal listing all available applications, services and options with associated fees. It was fairly simple for our evaluation team to work with SDS via conference calls and e-mails to finalize the proposal. Our IT department was involved in every call and every decision! The finalized proposal was then incorporated into a contract.

Hard Lessons About Hardware
One lesson we learned through this process was the importance of a precise (and perhaps even over-sized) hardware configuration. This was particularly important as it related to personal computers (PCs), monitors and scanners.

While the scanner in HIM was correctly configured based on our volumes in the original hardware configuration, we did not include a PC to accompany the device. Also, we failed to include a second scanner and PC for the other departments (business office, human resources, etc.). In the end, we "rearranged" to get a PC and large monitor for the HIM scanning station. We negotiated with SDS for a second scanner and PC (for other departments) then re-approached the Board of Directors for additional funding. This not only caused a delay in our process but was, quite frankly, embarrassing.

Even if a department (e.g., human resources) will not use the system until year 2, I suggest that you budget for all equipment in the initial contract. We also learned that because our volumes are low, some departments could share a scanning station. Ask your vendor if this is an option for you.