In healthcare, making an administrative choice to use a piece of software in a clinical setting or not isn’t quite the same decision as making a choice to operate on someone or not. However, that software could affect the decision to operate on someone, and should not be discounted.

As with deciding on how to treat a patient, a variety of information and factors should be considered when looking for a software solution that is right for you.

What do you need? You probably generally know what solution you need….scheduling, reference, communication, document sharing, EHR. But what do you really want it to do? If your goal is to save time as an administrator, you probably want something that has a great desktop interface.

If your residents are going to interact with it on the run all of the time, you might want to take a long look at the performance on a mobile device. Perhaps you could take a survey of your front line users to really get a feel for what would best help them in their jobs. What are their concerns and priorities in the field?

You can rule out some candidates just by reviewing the features listed on their websites. They are likely to put the strengths of their product at the top of the main landing page. FAQ’s and use cases are usually good places to explore, if available, to get to the next level of finding your fit.

Most everyone offers a demo to show you the inner workings and finer details. If you gathered input from others on your team, get those questions answered, too. That may help you evaluate from all perspectives.

Don’t forget to get a good idea of how their support system works. Some are accessible immediately in a chat window on their site. Some require you to submit a support ticket and wait. Either way, good training and intuitive design should help you avoid having to rely on support at all.

Most importantly, ask around. Those who are in the trenches using the solutions can give you an honest picture of how each piece of software is going to affect your team.