Law Students

Part II of this series can be found here. As new posts in the series are added the forward and back links will be updated in order for readers to "walk the posts" in a quasi presentation like format.

There are three principal components that must be considered when implementing any technology based solution: 1) people; 2) process; and 3) platform (i.e. the technology itself). Of the three, it turns out that the people and process components are always by far the most difficult. It is almost impossible today to implement a robust compliance strategy without the use of enabling technologies. Obviously, an EHR implementation is technology centric by definition. However, if a provider or facility wants to jump the curve from the old healthcare delivery system to the new one, all three components must be addressed, but especially the people and process components.

All to often the people and process components are neglected, and as it turns out, these are the most mission critical components to get right when solving a wicked problem. In short, all providers and facilities must be more than just a little suspicious of any partner that focuses exclusively (or even to a large degree) on a purely technology centric solution. This is "snake oil" of the worst kind and is almost always guaranteed to fail. The problem is far too complicated (i.e. socially, politically and organizationally) for to a technology centric solution to deliver on the promised results, however seductive it may appear.

Consider the diagram below and it should be clear that there are many more pieces to this puzzle than what is encompassed by "raw technology."

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