When is too much to do too much?

We were recently working on an implementation of our performance management and we had a very frustrated client. Not because of us (fortunately), but because of the pressure they felt from competing priorities. This hospital was pushing hard to meet the demands to become “paperless”, but in doing so, they felt they were being set up for failure. The questions it raised for us is - are hospitals taking on too much when they buy more software than they can handle? Are governing bodies and insurance companies pushing too hard and setting up hospitals for failure? It is common knowledge that American healthcare is generally slow in adopting information technology and therefore lagging behind other industries, and even global healthcare in some cases. The need to meet the demands to go paperless is a valid one but at the same time rolling out too much software can cause a domino effect of frustration on employees, patients, HR and even the software vendors involved. How should an organization prioritize between rollouts? This hospital was faced with the choice of refining the hiring process, better tool for documentation of patient care or redefining the way employees are assessed - and they felt so much pressure to do all at once. As a responsible software vendor, we see our role as helping our clients simplify and execute on reasonable initiatives. But we also believe we need to support them through this change and help them push to meet these demands.