The Regional Centers provided vendor selection services to care providers throughout the State of South Carolina with an emphasis on vendors supporting small practices, rural providers and providers that care for underserved populations. A Vendor Selection & Group Purchasing Committee was formed for the purpose of bringing the best value and lowest total cost of owning an EHR system to SC primary-care practitioners with the goal of helping them achieve meaningful use. The committee consisted of priority primary-care providers, expert EHR users, experts in EHR implementation, experts in EHR transactions, and related instruction and education. The committee also included experts in Health Information Exchange (HIE), Health Information Technology (HIT) interoperability, and EHR systems auditability. The committee ensured that the EHR recommendation and selection was an open, fair, and competitive process that could be audited and would benefit from the prior experience of the committee and the open literature base.
The Vendor Selection & Group Purchasing Committee selected 9 vendors for recommendation to SC primary-care practitioners. Final agreements with these vendors were negotiated with the final round of EHR systems vendors. These agreements were finalized and in place in a timely manner. The Committee also assisted providers in holding vendors accountable for adhering to service level agreements.
