Choosing between using on outside vendor to do mapping versus doing it yourself

Any advice on when to consider using an outside consultant to do the LOINC mapping for you?

Hi Samuel,
Once you have a good handle on the actual scope (number of terms; orders and results?; departments, etc), the benefactors internally (who will become your enablers if there are barriers), the projects competing for your resources and the desired timeline, it’s probably a good time to start a vendor search. Be sure and know your company’s contracting process, because that time needs to be included, as well as search time. 3M Health Information has stored on the Documents section of the LOINC website a sample project plan (internal or external). I have recently updated it, if you’d like a copy email me.
Hope this helps,
Pam Banning

[Moderator’s note: the file to which Pam refers is available for download.]