Establish an Application Selection Team

Select key employees from every critical area of the organization by  function—Intake, Patient Accounting, Utilization Review, Clinical Services, Finance, etc—to participate in a customized needs assessment for each department.

Each team will define and rank the features needed and wanted for their function from the list of Behavioral Health RFP requirements included in the ON-LINE CONSULTANT. In addition, team members can add as many customized requirements features as needed in the Request For Proposal.

The goal is to rank the issues that are most important to each department and provide "ownership"  for all staff involved in the selection process.

Develop a System Selection Committee

Chose one Application Selection Team member from each functional area to represent the entire group. The resulting System Selection Committee will rank the importance of each application to the overall facility, as well as review final, standardized vendor proposals, view vendor demonstrations, attend site visits (if needed), handle reference checks, and recommend the final selection.

A specific individual, such as the CFO, should have ultimate ownership of the behavioral health software selection RFP process. This person will also manage the relationship with the vendors and the negotiation and legal review of the final vendor contract.

This easy-to-use RFP software tool will provide the framework for the Application Selection Team to note the most desirable system features significant to their area. The pre-loaded question set can be modified with additions or deletions specific to your organization. 

Surveys include ADT and Census, Outpatient Registration, Eligibility, Authorizations, Scheduling, Patient Database, Assessment, Care Plans, Documentation, Medications, Order Communication, Quality Assurance, Risk Management, Utilization Review, Medical Records, Managed Care Contracts, Managed Care Tracking, Referral Development, Billing, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Budgeting, Payroll, Human Resources and General Ledger.

The System Selection Committee will conduct a needs assessment for each Application Selection Team. Following completion of all team meetings, the System Selection Committee will assess the factors critical to the organization’s near- and long-term success, and then rank the critical importance of each application feature to the entire organization. 

The System Selection Coordinator will report the final summary ranking to the CEO and/or Board.

From the specific features and weights selected by each Application Selection Team, a customized RFP (Request for Proposal) will be developed.

The ON-LINE CONSULTANT for Behavioral Healthcare will automatically create an electronic RFP formatted for automated response. Your customized RFP can be automatically emailed to the vendors of your choice (you can even include your current system for comparative purposes). The vendors’ responses will be uploaded into the ON-LINE CONSULTANT for Behavioral Healthcare database customized with your weights.

Once all vendor responses have been uploaded into the ON-LINE CONSULTANT for Behavioral Healthcare database, the Selection Project Manager can run numerous analytical reports denoting: