Being Terrified is No Excuse for Inaction

My husband and I are house hunting. On one of our recent home tours I got to the bottom of the basement stairs when I suddenly heard, "splash, splash," and realized that my feet were wet and that I was standing in a puddle of water. There was water everywhere. Too bad I thought, yet another potential future home scratched off the list. With baby number two on the way, our tiny apartment is suddenly feeling like a closet. But I have to admit that the thought of buying our first home is terrifying. It's an enormous amount of money and I am far from a home expert.

It is this same look of terror that I see in some of our grantees' eyes when we start talking about information technology upgrades. The grantee knows that technology should be part of the solution to effective and efficient health service delivery. Although they are not techies, they do know that technology has the potential to make their working lives easier. But they too are terrified about making technological changes. Their first thought is often about money. They ask themselves, "How can we possibly afford this sort of on-going expense?" Their second thought is, "We know nothing about technology." Finally, there may be concerns around negotiations and contracts with vendors.

Our grantees, like us, are often social workers and clinicians. While we frequently use computers, there is little in our academic preparation that gets us ready to negotiate the world of technology. How can we get what we need, at a cost we can afford, with contracts that protect us as the consumer?

If this sounds like you or your organization and you could use a little guidance on how to move up the technology ladder, consider attending our up-coming workshop on IT acquisition planning and vendor negotiations. On August 31st we're bringing in a nonprofit IT consultant from Pittsburgh who will help you figure out what you need and how to get it at a reasonable price. For more details, please visit http://www.healthfoundation.org/events/itplan.html.

How's this for a deal? You come to the workshop and start laying out some concrete steps on how to improve your organization's technology infrastructure, and I'll stop looking for bunk bed style cribs. Hope to see you there!