Somebody in your operator group chat just posted about a tool that "changed everything" for their homes. A rep left you a voicemail promising a fifteen-minute call that'll save you ten hours a week. You've got three demos on the calendar this month and you haven't said yes to any of them yet, but you will, because something has to change.
Most bad technology decisions don't happen in the demo. They happen in the moment right before it: when you're tired of the current mess and anything that looks organized starts to look like the answer. Here are the five questions worth asking yourself before you say yes to anything.
1. What does this replace, exactly?
Not "what does it do." What does it replace. If the honest answer is "well, staff would probably still keep the whiteboard too, just in case," you haven't found a replacement. You've found a second system, and now you have two things to maintain instead of one.
2. Can I see it running in a home my size, not a demo environment?
A demo environment is built to look good. Ask to see a real account: an actual home with your bed count, your staffing pattern, your regional center, using it on an ordinary Tuesday. If a vendor can't show you that, or won't, that tells you something.
3. What happens if I want to leave?
Ask this before you sign, not after you're unhappy. Can you export your records in a format you can actually use? Is there a contract term that locks you in past the point you'd want out? A tool that's confident it's good doesn't need to make leaving hard.
4. Did the person who'll actually use this get a vote?
You're not the one charting a medication at 11pm. If the DSPs and house staff weren't in the room for the demo, you're buying based on how it looks to you, not how it works for them, and they're the ones who decide, in practice, whether it gets used at all.
5. What's the smallest version of this problem I could solve without buying anything?
Sometimes the answer really is new software. Sometimes it's a fifteen-minute conversation with your current staff about why the existing system isn't being used. Ask this one honestly before you spend money solving a habit problem with a technology purchase.
None of this is an argument against buying software. Plenty of you need it, and paper is genuinely the riskier option now. It's an argument for buying it deliberately, with your eyes open, instead of at the end of a good pitch on a hard week.
We're operators too, and we're around if you ever want to talk.