A polished demo is a sales tool, not an evaluation. Left to the vendor, a demo showcases the system's best features with clean sample data and a practiced presenter. To make a demo genuinely useful, you have to take control of the agenda and insist that the software prove itself against your real work.
Prepare before the call
Send the vendor your demo scenarios in advance. Pick three or four encounters that represent your actual day, for example a complex chronic-care visit, a new-patient intake, a refill request, and a telehealth follow-up. Ask the vendor to walk through each one end to end rather than clicking around a feature menu.
Bring the right people
The clinicians who will document in the system, the front-desk staff who will schedule and check in, and the billing team who will work claims should all attend and all get a turn to ask questions. A system that delights physicians but frustrates the front office is still a bad buy.
Time the workflows
Use a stopwatch. Count clicks and screens for a routine encounter. Documentation burden is one of the most cited sources of clinician dissatisfaction and burnout, so a few extra clicks per visit compound into hours per week across a practice.
Questions that expose weaknesses
- "Show me what happens when a patient has 12 active problems and 9 medications."
- "Walk me through correcting a note after it's been signed."
- "How do lab results flow in, and what does an abnormal result look like in my inbox?"
- "Demonstrate sending a prescription, including a controlled substance."
- "Show the exact steps a front-desk user takes to check in a patient and collect a copay."
Run a second, hands-on session
The most revealing demos are the ones where your team drives. Ask for a sandbox or a guided session where your clinicians and staff click through the workflows themselves. What feels intuitive to a trained presenter can feel maddening to a first-time user.
Document everything
| Capture during the demo | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Click counts per workflow | Predicts daily documentation burden |
| Unanswered questions | Surfaces gaps the vendor avoided |
| Staff reactions by role | Reveals who will struggle after go-live |
| "We can customize that" claims | Flags work and cost you'll inherit |
Beware scripted scenarios
Vendors are skilled at steering demos toward strengths and away from weaknesses. If a presenter consistently redirects your questions, demonstrates only happy-path scenarios, or answers "we can configure that" without showing it, treat those as signals to dig deeper. Insist on seeing the messy realities: a patient with a long medication list, an abnormal result that needs follow-up, a correction to a signed note, a same-day add-on appointment. The way a system handles the awkward cases tells you far more than how it handles the clean ones.
After the demo
Debrief with everyone who attended while impressions are fresh, and score the system against your checklist. Be especially skeptical of anything the vendor promised to "customize" or "configure later", that's often where timelines and budgets slip. Capture every such promise in writing and ask what it would cost and how long it would take. A disciplined demo process won't tell you everything, but it filters out systems that look good only on a slide and gives you concrete, comparable evidence to weigh against each finalist's price and references.