Group Purchasing
Small practices don’t always have the resources to comprehensively research EHR features, nor the power to negotiate substantial vendor discounts. But when individual practices work together on a group purchase, that dynamic changes.
WIREC has formed stakeholder panels to help us select EHR vendors who would offer the best feature set, service level agreements, and pricing structure for WIREC-facilitated group purchasing in Washington and Idaho.
Updates regarding the panels’ progress will be regularly posted to this page and described in our quarterly newsletter. Join the e-mail list.
If you have further questions about this work, please contact us.
Activity Summary
5/5/11
Seven EHR vendor finalists announced. Read the media release.
February 2011
Group purchase discussions, including discounted pricing and service level agreements for enrolled providers, continue with the finalist vendors. It is anticipated that agreements will be in place very soon.
November 2010
Panel members offered guidance related to vendor selection. WIREC is reaching out to vendor finalists regarding next steps. Pending negotiations, product demos may occur in January and February as an opportunity for providers to view vendor systems.
10/14/10, 10/22/20, and 10/29/10
The panel met several times in October to discuss their reviews of the proposals and compare ratings. View a recap of these meetings.
9/22/10 - 10/14/10
Committee members individually reviewed 23 RFPs, evaluating clinical and practice management functions, vendor business profiles, support and maintenance, implementation and training, and technology platform and framework.
9/22/10
The panel members met to discuss the next steps in the RFP review process. (A total of 23 RFPs were received). View the meeting minutes, including a list of the vendors who submitted proposals.
8/23/2010
Today is the deadline for vendors to submit proposals.
8/6/2010
The RFP was sent to EHR vendors, with a response deadline of August 23, 2010.
6/30/10
The stakeholder panel met to finalize the screening criteria for use in the RFP. The criteria will be available publicly in early August, at the time that the RFP is released.
6/9/10
The stakeholder panel held its kick-off meeting. View the meeting minutes. At that meeting, the panelists developed a draft of the initial screening criteria for determining which vendors would be eligible to compete in the RFP process. A schedule of project milestones was also drafted.
Spring 2010
WIREC solicited volunteers throughout Washington and Idaho to serve on the stakeholder panels. (View a list of the panel members.) While we are no longer accepting additional panelists, observers are welcome to attend the meetings. Contact us to be advised when the meeting schedule is finalized.
