How an advisory partner helps you consider the magnitude of your decisions
When you select an EHR system, you essentially buy a million tiny Lego pieces. It’s up to your health system to navigate the burden of choice and to connect those pieces for the most optimal care journey. The EHR system you select gives you a suggested best-practice build, but you will still make endless decisions along the way. What’s best for your organization? What other ancillary applications must you consider? And so much more. The impact of those decisions intensify as you continue your build or optimization.
Feel overwhelmed? Psychologist Frederick Muench writes: “we are constantly bombarded with options and choices we believe will make us happier at every turn, and then after we make a decision, we are told that better choices exist.” Muench’s statement is in the context of the volume of choices a human makes on any given day.
Decision-making is a significant burden on our psychology, even when the stakes are low. Consider how many choices you have when selecting an apple at the grocery store. Oftentimes, too many. The same can be true of your EHR system and the ancillary options for additional healthcare tech. Sometimes there are too many choices. Put this in the larger context of building a hospital system, when the stakes literally mean life and death, and the burden of choice easily becomes paralyzing.
Additionally, the journey to choosing an electronic health record and implementing it within a hospital system is long. (Too bad it wasn’t as easy as buying an apple!) It typically takes a hospital system 18-24 months and includes multiple stakeholders. As pictured in the infographic above, the path is not linear. Oftentimes, your desired future-state vision will change, too.
One common misconception that we hear from health systems is their desire to reach a state of completion. This is false. Your EHR journey will never stop. Between upgrades, optimizations, emerging tech, and new regulations, the healthcare IT journey is cyclical.
Ultimately, this is great news. It means we are constantly advancing the safety and efficiency of our care models. But how do you manage the burden of choice for your people and organization? All great and significant leaders have wise counsel behind them. Do you have wise counsel?
Now more than ever, you require a strategic partner with holistic healthcare IT capabilities. At Optimum, our team of subject matter experts is available to all our clients. They provide insight and consultation – from cybersecurity, ServiceNow, managed services, talent acquisition, and so much more – on decisions that may seem small but indeed have wide-ranging effects.
The EHR journey is winding. It changes course. At times the road ahead will seem unclear. The decision to go left or right may not make sense. An advisory services partner with a good road map and people to help you will certainly make it an easier path.
Visit our page Advisory Services page, speak to your sales rep, or Contact Us to learn how our expert team can help you navigate the burden of choice along the EHR Journey.
