Most of us would probably agree that the roll out of the COVID19 vaccine has been anything but stellar. The large task of developing a vaccine in a lot of ways went smoother and more efficient than the logistical handling of actually distributing the vaccine. However, what caught my attention in a CNBC article about why Walgreens and CVS were selected as the primary distribution channel for Assisted Living Facilities was the role IT played in the decision.

"[Walgreens and CVS] have been doing this for a while," Paul Mango, deputy chief of staff for policy at HHS said. "They have demonstrated the ability from an IT perspective, from a training and personnel perspective, from an asset perspective."

Now let's not read too much into the statement, but that being said, not only was "IT perspective" in the list, but it was listed first. Why? Because technology is what makes or breaks a smooth operation in healthcare.

Of course, this isn't a surprise to anybody who works in healthcare. I have had the opportunity to work with over 50 different MCOs directly and when you work with that many insurance companies you definitely get a sense of the vast chasm between the well ran healthcare technology operations and the poorly ran healthcare technology operations.

Ultimately though this isn't about CVS, Walgreens, or any insurance company. This is about you and your operations? Why? Because technology plays an important role for two reasons:

1. You can benefit greatly within the healthcare industry by being a market leader with a well run technology operation yourself
2. If you have any scale at all within healthcare, you will one day be faced with the challenge compensating for your customers technology inadequacies.

Flip back to a previous article as an example of just how sometimes you need a technology solution to overcome your customers own internal inadequacies.

The challenge of course is for your operation to be like Walgreens and CVS and not like the countless others out there using technology just barely enough to get by. If you want to start using technology to thrive, we would love to help with that.