A Pre-Judgement Problem – Why Most Practices Select Wrong EMR/EHR

For most companies, businesses, medical practices included, success depends a lot on the team that you have recruited. It goes without saying that picking a winning team is crucial. The problem is we are very bad at it.

SAT is a bad indicator of college performance and even life performance. Yet colleges have to use it anyway. Somehow we keep on pushing our kids along the same path.

Professional sports spend billions of dollars every year to recruit what they think are the best players. Yet scouts continue to pick the wrong players. Having watched Moneyball we know that we tend to ignore useful data and rely too much on our instincts.

Selecting and choosing EMR systems is no different.

When we invite vendors for a demonstration do we even think about what was a criteria for their preselection? We may have gone by recommendation of a third party or a trusted friend. We allow somebody else to prejudge us. What we should really be doing, is to understand our internal needs first by talking to the entire team. Focus on prioritizing what is important and what is not.

It takes guts to stop prejudging because it feels like we’re giving up control. But, as far as EMR is concerned, we never had control did we?

Inspired by Seth Godin.

Author: Chandresh Shah

Chandresh Shah specializes in Healthcare IT and Medical Billing. He knows the market inside out; what works, what doesn’t. He advises and works with small business owners.