Support

Overview

A huge advantage of open source software is the ability to choose whom will provide you support.

You are NOT locked into one vendor when you choose OpenEMR, and if you don't like your current model of support or vendor, then it is very easy to change.

Depending on your comfort level, the options for support include:

1. Doing it yourself (ie. Free Support).
2. Hiring a third party(or employee(s)) to support you.
3. Somewhere in between.

1. Free Support

The mechanisms of free support by the community include the documentation found on this website

especially the wiki and the active forums

Average per day of of about 30 posts, monitored by several hundred developers and users for this site only.

There are clinics that have gone this route successfully (However this does require: IT knowledge to ensure security, reliability and adequate backing up of OpenEMR)

2. Professional Support

A huge advantage of OpenEMR is that you are NOT locked into one vendor. You can choose your vendor, and you are always free to hire (and fire) whomever you want to support your OpenEMR software.

• For example, if you do not like the rates or customer service of your current vendor, then you can simply fire them and hire another vendor to support your current OpenEMR installation; the OpenEMR software does NOT change. As a consumer, this gives you a huge amount of leverage when working with your vendor.

How do I choose a vendor? There are several things to consider when choosing a vendor/developer to support OpenEMR.

• Ensure the vendor/developer has experience with OpenEMR. We maintain a list of vendors/developers that specifically support OpenEMR.
• If you are planning to customize the software (which is very common and another huge advantage of open source software), then recommend ensuring the vendor/developer has demonstrated competence in developing code for OpenEMR. We maintain a list of vendors/developers that are 'Certified OpenEMR Contributors', whom have demonstrated an ongoing competence in OpenEMR development.

3. Somewhere in between

Obvious,

You make your own mix of Free and Professional advisors.