sorry for the quality, I drew this in high school

Tenth grade biology class was on the second floor.  One of my best friends said that for five dollars he would jump out of the window during class, sort of like falling out of the stupid tree and hitting every branch on the way down.  Others took the bet.  Lemmings.  They all jumped.  Speaking in parenthesis for a moment, this same friend was interviewed on Larry King on September 11, 2001, discussing how to run covert ops on Bin Laden.  I haven’t slept well since I learned that.

As I talk with clients and several of the healthcare thought leadership, I see consensus building around a lemming-like acquiescence about reform, especially as relates to EHR.  That wasn’t much of a segue, but my children stared school today, and I am still in shock from having let me seven-year-old pack his lunch—very different food groups.

I read an article in a much respected—I wrote ‘very’ instead of ‘much’, Word didn’t like it.  Learn something every day—publication that the primary business driver behind EHR is that it is perceived as a mandate.  (Sorry, that was written poorly—I may have to fire that guy.)

If that’s why your organization is doing it, do yourself a favor and stop.  The ROI from the stimulus money will not make EHR worth your while.  How will you know if you did it for the right reasons?  When you get to the end, if you aren’t able to say, “I wish we had done this years ago”, you’ve done something very wrong.