From the August 2016 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
This is often easier said than done, but you should at least try. The vast majority of times, vendors will take the Henry Ford approach to service contracts: “You can have it in any color you want as long as it’s black.” But you may find a vendor who sees the wisdom in your providing first and even second-line support, and will reduce service costs accordingly. Just reducing the SA price from 15 percent to 12 percent represents a 20 percent cost savings. This can be significant, especially in a larger institution, so do whatever you can to get the price where you can live with it.

Understand the terms and conditions of the contract before you sign
Every contract a hospital enters into is reviewed by its legal department. While legal may understand the technical contractual aspects, they really have no understanding of the criticality of systems and their components, nor are they expected to. It is up to the individual department heads to make sure the system design and operation is clearly defined and included in the SA, and properly covered from a service standpoint as well. Things like response times and the escalation process also need to be very clearly identified and defined. Preserving the investments made in any clinical system is crucial, and is nearly as important as keeping clinicians who use the system happy. Whether you do it yourself, or use an SA to help in the process, how the system is maintained often defines the difference between it merely working, and working well.

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