Benchmark EHR
By Benchmark Solutions
Initial Consultation and Planning: Implementation begins with a structured kickoff involving Benchmark's onboarding and support teams, setting project goals and milestones in coordination with key practice stakeholders.
Data Migration and System Setup
Patient and practice data are securely migrated from previous systems, ensuring full compliance and continuity of care during the transition.
System configuration is customized to fit the practice’s workflows, specialties, and user preferences—including customizable templates, quick phrases, and order sets.
Staff Training
Benchmark provides comprehensive, often onsite or remote, training sessions tailored to specific user roles. Training covers core EHR functions such as patient charts, scheduling, billing, and use of the patient portal.
Additional resources like documentation and ongoing support help staff acclimate and master the system.
Testing and Validation
Complete functionality testing is performed, including user logins, workflow checks, and validation of migrated data and practice-specific settings.
Issues identified during testing are addressed before the official go-live.
Go-Live and Support
Once validated, the EHR system goes live for daily operations.
Benchmark EHR is designed with extensive customization features, empowering healthcare organizations to adapt the platform to their specific clinical workflows, specialties, and documentation needs. Here are the primary ways Benchmark EHR can be tailored to fit unique business requirements:
Templates Adapted to Specialty: Benchmark EHR offers customizable templates for progress notes, patient charts, order sets, and encounter forms. Practices can use pre-built templates tailored to various specialties (cardiology, dermatology, family medicine, urgent care, etc.) or build new ones from scratch to match their exact documentation preferences.
Form and Dashboard Configuration: Medical practices can adjust dashboards and forms to highlight information most relevant to their workflow, minimizing navigation and supporting efficient documentation.
Configurable Order Sets and Quick Phrases: Frequently used orders, phrases, and documentation blocks can be saved and reused to accelerate encounter completion and reduce repetitive data entry.
Workflow Management: Benchmark EHR allows configuration of workflows for charting, coding, billing, and scheduling. Practices can automate routine tasks, streamline approvals, set notifications, and adapt workflows to reflect their team’s real-world processes.
Role-Based Access and Permissions: Administrators can define user roles with customized access levels, ensuring staff interact only with modules and data relevant to their responsibilities.
Progress Note Customization: Templates for progress notes can be edited to include specialty-specific sections, integrated speech recognition, and dynamic fields, streamlining charting while capturing precise clinical data.
Custom Report Generation: Practices can create customized reports for operations, billing, compliance, and analytics. These reports are easily tailored to spotlight the metrics and indicators most critical to organizational goals.
Dashboard Personalization: Users can personalize activity dashboards to display insights on revenue, patient engagement, provider performance, and other relevant benchmarks.
Custom Patient Portal Experience: Benchmark EHR supports customization of patient portal functions. Providers can enable or tailor features for secure messaging, form completion, appointment scheduling, patient education resources, and lab result access.
Forms and Intake Workflow: Patient intake forms and other digital documentation can be modified or created anew for different visit types or clinical requirements.
Specialty-Specific Customization: The EHR is built to support practices of all sizes and specialties, from small clinics to multi-location organizations. Each implementation can be tuned for the nuances of specific healthcare domains.
Configurable Coding and Billing Modules: Coding templates, fee schedules, insurance payer lists, and billing workflows are all adaptable to align with practice-specific, payer, or regulatory requirements.
Custom Implementation: Benchmark EHR’s support and implementation teams assist organizations in tailoring the system during onboarding, ensuring configurations match operational needs and staff preferences.
Structured Onboarding: Benchmark EHR delivers a structured implementation and training program that typically spans about six weeks for the average client. This includes initial planning, data migration, system setup, and configuration tailored to practice needs. During this period, staff members are paired with Benchmark’s implementation specialists who guide them through each phase, ensuring a smooth transition and minimal disruption to daily operations.
Comprehensive Training: Training is provided for all core EHR functions, such as patient charting, scheduling, billing, and utilizing the patient portal. Sessions are often delivered onsite or remotely, and are tailored to user roles to ensure relevance and effectiveness. Additional resources, including documentation and self-paced learning options, are available to help staff become proficient with the system.
In-House Customer Support: Benchmark is renowned for its responsive, US-based customer support. Issues are typically resolved promptly, often within an hour. Support is accessible via phone, email, help desk, and a knowledge base, giving users multiple avenues for assistance regardless of the issue’s size or complexity.
Ongoing Assistance: After go-live, ongoing support is part of the customer experience. Benchmark offers ongoing troubleshooting, product updates, and system enhancements. The dedicated support and IT teams can be contacted for technical assistance, configuration adjustments, and further training, reinforcing long-term user confidence and productivity.
Streamlined Updates and Communication: Benchmark EHR ensures practices stay current with system enhancements and new features, and communicates product updates clearly to users. This proactive approach helps users make the most of new capabilities with minimal need for additional downtime or retraining.
Knowledge Base and Self-Help: New users have access to an extensive online knowledge base, user guides, and helpful resources that cover both routine tasks and troubleshooting tips.
Benchmark EHR implements a comprehensive suite of security controls and protocols to protect sensitive patient data and ensure the privacy, integrity, and availability of information managed within its electronic health records solution.
HIPAA Compliance: Benchmark EHR is designed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the latest certification standards. This ensures that all protected health information (PHI) is managed securely and that the platform aligns with regulatory requirements vital for U.S. healthcare organizations.
SOC 1, 2, and 3 Compliant Hosting: Data is hosted in U.S.-based, SOC (Service Organization Control) compliant facilities, providing verified controls over security, availability, confidentiality, and privacy.
Data Encryption: All patient and practice data within Benchmark EHR are encrypted both in transit and at rest. This prevents unauthorized access during the transmission of information between systems and while stored on servers, safeguarding data from interception or breaches.
Secure Communication: The internal messaging system and interoperability modules use secure protocols to exchange information between providers, pharmacies, labs, and referring physicians, ensuring end-to-end data protection.
Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC): Benchmark EHR provides administrators with tools to manage permissions and access based on job roles. Only authorized users can view, edit, or share sensitive data, minimizing insider risk.
Audit Trails: The system maintains detailed logs of all user activities—tracking access, edits, and transmissions of patient records—to support monitoring, compliance, and forensic investigations in the event of suspicious activity.
Data Center Security: Benchmark’s hosting partners employ strict physical security controls, including surveillance, access logs, and on-site personnel to protect physical infrastructure.
Automatic Backups & Redundancy: Regular, automated backups are performed, and data is stored redundantly to ensure availability and rapid recovery in case of hardware failure or other disasters.
Ongoing Security Updates: Benchmark Solutions regularly maintains and updates all core software files, keeping the system in step with evolving security threats and compliance mandates. This includes the latest medical codes, drug databases, and industry security standards.
Continuous Enhancements: Benchmark EHR maintains an ongoing update cycle, with software enhancements and regulatory-driven changes released as they become available. There is no strict fixed schedule (e.g., monthly or quarterly); instead, updates are distributed in response to new healthcare regulations, industry standards, feature improvements, and client feedback.
Recent Example: Updates, such as those addressing new Evaluation & Management (E&M) coding guidelines, were released to ensure compliance with the latest rules and industry practices. Users are notified directly whenever new updates or enhancements are ready for deployment.
Cloud-Based Delivery: As a web-based platform, Benchmark EHR applies most updates centrally via the cloud. This approach eliminates the need for local installations, ensuring practices always have access to the latest version automatically and with minimal disruption to daily workflows.
Direct Client Communication: When updates become available, details are sent to each client. Benchmark communicates changes, new features, or compliance requirements, and the customer service team is available to guide practices through the update process, ensuring understanding and a smooth transition.
In-House Support for Upgrades: The dedicated in-house support team assists clients through each upgrade, answering questions and providing hands-on guidance so users can fully leverage new capabilities.
Comprehensive Documentation: Communication of updates is often supported by detailed documentation and walkthroughs, enhancing user confidence in adopting the new functionalities.
Practice Ownership of Data: Benchmark EHR is designed to ensure that healthcare organizations retain control over their clinical and administrative data. This means all patient records, clinical notes, billing information, and other data entered into Benchmark EHR by a practice are considered the property of that healthcare organization. Providers have administrative privileges to manage, access, and control usage of this data within the platform.
Compliance and Security: All data within Benchmark EHR is managed under strict HIPAA and SOC compliance standards, ensuring that ownership is not just practical but also meets regulatory and legal requirements for privacy and responsibility regarding patient information.
Full Data Access: Practices can access their records securely at any time, from any device, via Benchmark’s cloud platform. This open access supports both daily operational needs and full-scale data migration, such as when switching systems or preserving records for compliance.
Data Export and Migration: Benchmark EHR supports the export of structured clinical data, patient records, and administrative information, allowing practices to migrate their data to a new EHR or for backup and business continuity. During onboarding and implementation, Benchmark’s team manages secure data migration from previous systems, demonstrating their commitment to data portability not only at intake but also if a provider wishes to leave the platform.
Structured Backups: Automated and regular system backups ensure that practices can restore their data or arrange for export on demand, minimizing the risk of data loss and facilitating portability.
Benchmark EHR is built as a fully cloud-based, modular solution designed to flexibly accommodate changes in organizational size and needs. Its terms for scaling up or down are centered on ease of expansion, streamlined licensing, and technical flexibility, helping practices manage growth or downsizing without major disruptions.
Modular, Cloud-Based Architecture
Benchmark EHR offers a centralized cloud platform, allowing practices to add or remove modules (EHR, Practice Management, Revenue Cycle Management) seamlessly as their requirements change.
This approach supports organizations from small single-site clinics to large, multi-location groups, enabling cost-effective scaling without investing in new hardware or local IT infrastructure.
User and Location Flexibility
Practices can add new users (providers, nurses, admin staff) or deactivate accounts as teams grow or contract.
Additional practice locations or departments can be brought online by extending system access and licenses, with centralized management and secure, role-based permissions.
Licensing and Cost Adjustments
Licenses are typically managed on a per-provider or per-site basis and can be increased or decreased in coordination with the Benchmark support team, who guide organizations through the required steps.
Costs reflect the number of users or sites, with no need for complete system migration when scaling up or down—costs and subscriptions are adjusted accordingly.
Custom Configuration
As organizations add or remove specialties, departments, or clinical services, the EHR’s customizable templates and dashboards can be modified to match new workflows, forms, or roles, ensuring operational efficiency during transitions.
Scaling down does not affect existing data. All patient records and historical data remain accessible regardless of organizational size, and data can be securely exported or archived during downsizing or restructuring.
Initial Term and Renewal
Benchmark EHR agreements are typically for an initial one-year term.
After the first year, contracts automatically renew for subsequent periods, unless advance written notice is provided to terminate before the renewal date.
Notice Period
To opt out of automatic renewal, the client must submit a written notice at least 60 days before the renewal date.
This notice window allows both parties adequate time to review and negotiate any amendments or to terminate the relationship.
Fee Structure and Support
Ongoing use of the software is conditional upon timely payment of agreed licensing and support fees. Failure to pay these fees can result in suspension of support services and grounds for contract termination.
Renewal periods may involve adjustment of license fees; new pricing or terms are typically communicated in advance.
Upgrades and Licensing:
If the client upgrades from an earlier version of the software, only the most current version is permitted for use under the renewed agreement. All prior versions should be destroyed or uninstalled, unless otherwise agreed upon.
Voluntary Termination
Clients may terminate their contract at any time by providing written notice.
Benchmark may also terminate the agreement with one month’s written notice.
The company reserves the right to terminate the contract immediately for non-compliance, such as failure to pay fees, breach of contract terms, bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar insolvency events.
Post-Termination Requirements
Upon termination (whether voluntary or for cause), clients must immediately cease all use of the software and destroy or return all copies and related documentation.
Continued use after termination is strictly prohibited.
No Refund or Limitation of Liability
There is generally no refund for unused portions of the license or support fee upon early termination.
Benchmark limits liability for damages (including direct or consequential loss) resulting from contract termination to the total amount paid for the software and support. Exclusions for death or personal injury due to negligence are not applied.
Benchmark EHR is engineered to support regulatory requirements and industry best practices for healthcare data privacy, security, and clinical integrity. Here are the primary compliance standards the software meets:
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA):
Benchmark EHR is designed and maintained in full alignment with HIPAA regulations, safeguarding protected health information (PHI) through technical, administrative, and physical safeguards.
Key features include encrypted data storage and transmission, detailed audit trails, and strict access controls to protect patient privacy.
Service Organization Controls (SOC):
The platform is hosted in U.S.-based, SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3 compliant data centers.
This ensures that information security, system availability, confidentiality, and privacy are independently verified according to industry standards.
Data Encryption:
Data within Benchmark EHR is encrypted both in transit and at rest, protecting patient and practice information from unauthorized access or breaches.
Secure communication protocols are used for messaging and interoperability with labs, pharmacies, and external providers.
Role-Based Access & Audit Logging:
The system enforces user authentication and granular, role-based permissions to ensure data is accessed only by authorized staff.
Comprehensive audit logs record user activities, supporting regulatory audits and internal security monitoring.
Interoperability and HL7 Support: Benchmark EHR supports HL7 interoperability standards for secure data exchange with laboratories, pharmacies, and other healthcare systems, critical for regulatory compliance and coordinated care.
Compliance Updates: The software is updated regularly to comply with evolving healthcare regulations, coding changes, and clinical standards, ensuring practices remain compliant with national mandates.
