This blog spends a lot of time educating providers on technology that's out there today.  As a software company, we obviously live and breathe technology but we know that's not your focus.  Technology is a tool to help you do your jobs better.  One of the problems facing providers today is that there is a lot of technology available and not a whole lot of guidance to help you select tools that will work for your agency.  Throughout our travels and encounters with providers, we find smaller agencies seem to think that technology solutions are geared for large organizations.  But, really large agencies are not the norm.  When we surveyed providers across the country awhile back we found that over 60% of agencies served clients that ranged from 1 - 100 or 100 - 500.  Only a minority serve more than 500 clients.  But, the common thought is "We're so small we don't need a software system."

We spend a lot of time on this blog helping educate agencies on agency management platforms and all of the great things it can help providers do.  But, we've never discussed what an agency management platform won't do.  I know it's hard to believe, but an agency management platform can't do everything for your agency.  It's close, but it falls short in some areas.  Below is a list of the top 5 things it can't do and this list is based on the questions we get most often. 

In most cases, if you are an providing agency implementing a new technology you are going to receive push back from your staff.  What you find to be cutting edge and highly beneficial for your agency, your staff could find threatening.  Especially with staff that has limited exposure to computers and technology, the idea of implementing technology at your agency could be extremely earth-shattering.  So how can you motivate staff in home and community based services to use technology? We have some ideas that we'll share below, but it's important to note that the best to motivate is not through threats or negative reinforcement.  If you keep it positive and make it internal in terms of personal growth, technology and change will be embraced a lot deeper!

In a follow up to last month's blog post regarding a recent study that was co-sponsored by the Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities and the University of Illinois at Chicago's Department of Disability and Human Development, this post is going to focus on the study as it relates to state trends.