“To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.” ~Eva Young
Last year we purchased new medical billing and electronic medical record software, we immediately started using the billing end of the software once we were trained with the idea that we would slowly start using the medical record portion that would allow us to become paperless. As the year went by we still were not using the medical record end and all of the staff members were pushing as to a reason why, because by doing things the way we were was more time-consuming and we could not move on to tackle other projects. We all understood that there were a few reasons “like waiting for the right time”, that seemed to keep us stuck in a place of “limbo.” So we (the staff) came up with a way that we could begin implementing the medical records in our new software and wean away from the paper charts. With the doctor’s permission we began with baby steps, it wasn’t as easy as we had hoped, but it wasn’t hard either because we were excited that finally we were heading in the right direction. Little-by-little each week we have added a new step to take us closer to being paperless. We realized that the biggest reason for not moving forward was the fear of not knowing exactly how it was all going to work out, the fear of change, and the fear that something might get lost through the cracks while making the change. There have been many little bumps in the road, but we have made a notebook that we write down issues that come up and then we have a weekly meeting or two to work them out. There is no turning back now and even though it will be harder for a while it is going to be worth it in the long run. We are so glad that we just pushed ourselves to begin and didn’t allow our fears to keep us from achieving the goal that we had set out to do the year before. No matter if it is a big project or a small challenge there are times when we just seem to get stuck because it seems safer and easier right where we are than to head into unknown waters. The article below talks about “the waiting for the right time syndrome” and really hits the nail on the head. I hope you glean a few good pointers from it like I did.
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