How to Make the Case for Embedded Workflow Apps to Your IT Committee
You've seen the demo. You understand the value. Your care coordinators are drowning in phone calls and fax-based workflows, and you know that embedding patient logistics directly into your EHR would save hours per day. But none of that matters if your IT committee says no. This is the reality for hundreds of healthcare operations leaders right now. The clinical case for EHR-embedded workflow applications is clear — the internal approval process is where deals stall. IT committees have legitimate concerns about security, maintenance burden, Epic compatibility, and vendor longevity. This guide is designed to fix that.
Before you walk into that meeting, understand the four objections you'll face. First: "Will this compromise our EHR environment?" SMART on FHIR applications run within a sandboxed framework governed by HL7 standards — they don't modify your EHR's core codebase and access data through standardized APIs with OAuth 2.0 authentication. Second: "Who maintains this long-term?" With SoFaaS (SMART on FHIR as a Service), compliance, security patching, and API maintenance are handled by the platform provider, not your internal IT team. Third: "Is this Epic-approved?" SMART on FHIR is an open standard that Epic actively supports, and VectorCare's platform is already live in Epic environments. Fourth: "What happens if the vendor goes away?" Because SMART on FHIR is standards-based, data flows aren't proprietary — evaluate your vendor's track record instead. VectorCare serves 2,500+ facilities and has operated for 14 years.
IT committees respond to business problems, not technology pitches. Frame your request around what's broken today: care coordinators spending 31 minutes per logistics call, bed-hours lost to discharge delays, and workflows requiring toggling between 4-6 systems per discharge. Then connect the solution: an EHR-embedded workflow application eliminates system-toggling, automates vendor selection, and gives the team real-time visibility into transport, DME, and post-acute status from within Epic.
Your IT committee needs a structured request they can evaluate. Include these elements: a problem statement describing the operational pain in measurable terms, the proposed solution and how it works within the SMART on FHIR framework, your security and compliance posture including SOC 2 certification and HIPAA compliance, an implementation timeline showing deployment in weeks rather than months, a total cost of ownership comparison against both the status quo and building internally, and success metrics like scheduling time per request, discharge-to-departure time, and coordinator hours reclaimed.
A few things that help when you walk into that room. Bring a clinical ally — having a physician or nurse champion alongside your operational case adds clinical legitimacy. Don't oversell — IT committees respect honesty about limitations, so acknowledge that any new application requires configuration, training, and change management. Offer a pilot — propose a 60-90 day pilot on a single unit or service line to reduce the committee's perceived risk and give you data for the enterprise case. And reference peer institutions — if other health systems in your region are already using SMART on FHIR embedded applications, name them. IT committees are influenced by what their peers are doing.
The health systems moving fastest on EHR-embedded workflow applications aren't the ones with the biggest IT budgets — they're the ones with champions who know how to navigate internal approval. The technology is ready. The standards are mature. The operational case is clear. Now it's about making that case in the language your IT committee speaks.
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