I explore life in the form of didactic narratives, apologues.  Life as one non-stop non-sequitur.

I may have mentioned that I am training for my first triathlon.  The running and biking won’t be a problem.  I may drown during the swim.  I understand they penalize you for that which hardly seems fair.

I’m thinking of creating my own event, sort of the thinking man’s triathlon.  I’d call it the Crest White Strips-Mensa Triathlon.  The events would be the following—teeth whitening, points awarded based on degree of whiteness, lumineers not allowed; IQ—the difference between what you think it is and what others know it is times three; and the number of Ju Ju Bees in the jar on my desk.  I feel pretty good about my chances in at least placing in the top ten.

So, back to business.  I think part of the problem we face when addressing the topic of implementing an EHR system is that we are taking a complex problem and making it overly complex, or at least focusing on the wrong complexities.  What if there was a way to make it complex in a less complex way?

Let’s see if we can chunk it into three chunks, each chunk quite complex in its own right and co-dependent on the prior chunk.  Call the chunks;

• Plan
• Implement
• Try it

My acronym for the EHR triathlon is the PIT.  Each phase has plenty of meat behind it.  The great news is that we do not need to be in a hurry.  There’s at least as much time left to get it right as there is to get it wrong.

Let’s say you’re just starting.  There’s no reason not to consider starting with a six month detailed planning phase.

Over the next few weeks I will address each of these in detail and would like to learn from what you’ve experienced.  Having received his permission, I will supplement the narrative with some of the real-life experiences encountered by one of our readers, Dr. Dirk Stanley, CMIO.