Regular readers of this column might recall that one of my daughters has a talent for graphic design and illustration, and we were recently engaging in the time-honored process of college tours, hoping to winnow the options down to the best one for her.
I’m happy to report that, after traveling up and down the Eastern Seaboard visiting various schools, and digging into all of their facets—tuition cost, the degree program, tuition cost, student life, location, tuition cost, etc.—she committed to a university in the spring. There was much rejoicing and sighs of relief.
Then we went to “Accepted Student Weekend.”
It’s at this point it’s worth mentioning a cool term I just learned: “unfair surprise.” It’s from the world of law. It can also be found on Accepted Students Weekend.
It has a broad meaning, but it essentially means what it says: One party in a contract or legal proceeding is blindsided by something that they had no previous knowledge of, and may have changed the outcome of the situation had they known.
Our surprise came in a session for parents of accepted students. During his presentation, one of the college’s student life directors informed us that, due to our daughter’s incoming class being so large, they were going to have to take rooms that were normally sized for two students and instead stuff three kids in there.
The parents came at the guy with torches and pitchforks. Backing up against the wall, his eyes darting around at the exits, he assured us that it wasn’t all the students, just some. But, as lawmaker Mr. Murphy would have predicted, my daughter was one of the victims, er, beneficiaries, of the new policy.
This idea of an unfair surprise (a term that’s really growing on me and that I plan to use a lot from now on; I’m toying with the idea of a tattoo) sounds like something to keep in mind when you think about switching your electronic health records system, the topic of one of our feature articles this month (pg. 40).
Such a transition is rife with potential for unfair surprises, such as the potential inability of the practice management systems in the EHR to communicate with each other (billing and optical for example), expecting an EHR vendor to be in it for the long run, as your partner, but instead you find out they’re actually not; or when you expect it to interface with your diagnostic equipment but instead it falls short.
Fortunately, the physicians and practice management experts we spoke to cover a lot of these unfair surprises, and share advice on how to avoid them if and when you make the switch. Hopefully you can profit from their adventures (and misadventures).
Until we visit again next month, may your EHR system run smoothly, and may the only surprise you experience be finding $20 in your jeans.
— Walter Bethke
Editor in Chief
