Have you asked your EMR software provider about what happens if you decide to leave? Depending on your choice of software vendor, you might not like their answer. All of the data that you enter into their system can potentially belong to them. They may tell you that your data belongs to you, or that it’s saved on your account, but do you truly own it?

 

“You may get to keep your data if you leave, but in what format?” Steve asked. “Is it raw data? Or something only a programmer can read?”

 

If you decide to leave an EMR software providers, and you ask for your data, they’re liable to send it to you in a series of Excel spreadsheets, or at worst, a MySQL file that’s incomprehensible to most human beings. When you’re given your data in this format, it’s very costly to extract the operational information that you need to run your practice.

 

When it comes to sensitive client, payor, and financial information, you simply cannot afford to lose access to this data—just imagine what would happen if you were ever audited. So, the next time you’re being courted by an EMR software provider, remember to ask them about who owns your data.  Ensure that if you ever leave them, the data will be given to you in a meaningful file format, and your business will not grind to a halt.

 

To learn more about more about what happens to your data if you leave, check out the video below:

 

---