Well, spring has definitely sprung and the wedding season is in full bloom. A couple of years ago I mentioned in this forum an intriguing analogy I came across related to marriage and EHR adoption. Heather Haugen was making a presentation about EHR adoption at a meeting I attended. She pointed out several parallels that exist, in her view, between marriage and the utilization of EHRs. This past weekend her comments returned to mind after I participated in the wedding of one of our children.
According to Heather, a wedding is similar to an EHR “Go-Live” date. We spend a lot of time and effort focused on making the launch of the EHR implementation a success. I have attended several weddings through the years in a variety of capacities, but this past weekend was the first time my role was father of the groom. As luck would have it, my wife, a physician with about a decade’s worth of EHR experience, filled the role of wedding planner. For the past 6-9 months I have had a ring-side seat as she facilitated the navigation of wave after wave of wedding related challenges. Following a substantial amount of effort by many folks, and the consumption of a sizable sum of deniro, the big day arrived.
From my perspective the day was flawless. The weather was picture perfect, the ceremony short and sweet, and the reception was a fabulous way to bring the celebration to a close.
The day after the wedding, as I was contemplating the events of the previous day, Heather’s analogy fired a couple of neurons in a distant recess of my brain. It became very clear to me that she was indeed correct. As with the typical EHR Go-Live, we spent a tremendous amount of time, energy and money focused on a single, albeit very important, date. But while the wedding is an important event, those of you involved in a successful relationship of significant duration realize the wedding is simply a point in time.
Now let me be the first to say (actually the second because my wife said it first when I provided her with a sneak peak at this post), I am a nephrologist, not an expert in the realm of marriage and relationships. But if you will extend me a bit of latitude, I think there is a valuable lesson for us here. Clearly the most successful relationships do not “just happen.” A varying degree of ongoing effort is required of both parties in order to ensure long-term success.
To carry this analogy further, think about what is required for long-term success with your EHR (or dialysis information system for that matter). A successful Go-Live is nice to have, but it is not sufficient for long-term success. Returning to the marriage analogy, the wedding could actually be a disaster, and yet the long-term relationship, the marriage, could succeed beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. Within the EHR world, a Go-Live can go wrong, and while it can be difficult to recover, such an experience does not prevent long-term success with the EHR.
Within the health information technology realm, we have a lot to learn from this analogy. On the vendor side we, and others, are busy chasing the second Stage of meaningful use, preparing for the transition to ICD-10 and aligning reporting requirements for CMS. Our partners, those folks using the application every day, are taking care of patients, keeping up with a changing regulatory environment, and running small businesses. As partners in a long-term relationship, we need to work together to strengthen this relationship to ensure long-term success. For too long, our industry has focused on the wedding instead of the marriage. Increasingly, our industry is devoting additional resources towards adoption, working together to improve the relationship’s chances of long-term success. We have a long road ahead, but perhaps someday this story will also end with “…and they lived happily ever after.”
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