Most technology assessments promise detailed insights but deliver generic recommendations that could apply to anyone. If you're considering the 7-Metric Assessment, you probably have some healthy skepticism about numerical scores. Fair question. Here's what the scorecard reveals and what it leaves out. What the Scorecard Does Tell You The 7-Metric Assessment measures your perception of how technology is performing. These are subjective answers based on what you observe every day. A more scientific approach would involve collecting specific metrics and analyzing data patterns. That kind of deep analysis has its place, but it takes weeks, not minutes. The 7-Metric Assessment gives you something different: a structured way to organize what you already know. Patterns and priorities. Low efficiency and low quality often point to the same root cause. High alignment but low reliability means leadership knows what they want, but systems can't deliver it. The scorecard shows you where issues are connected and which gaps create the most friction. Visibility gaps. Questions you couldn't answer confidently are as revealing as the scores themselves. If you're unsure whether your team can recover quickly from an outage, that uncertainty points to communication gaps that matter. Shared language. Instead of "IT is frustrating," you can say "we're at 40% on efficiency." That shift from complaint to observation changes the conversation. What the Scorecard Doesn't Tell You Root causes. A low reliability score tells you systems are unreliable. It doesn't tell you whether that's because of aging infrastructure, poor vendor support, understaffing, or lack of processes. Implementation details. The scorecard points you toward problem domains and offers directional guidance. It doesn't give you a step-by-step plan, timeline, or cost estimate. Whether you need outside help. Some low scores can be addressed with internal effort. Others require expertise or capacity you don't have. The scorecard doesn't make that determination for you. Why Subjective Scores Still Matter Perception drives decisions. If your leadership team believes systems are unreliable, they'll make choices based on that belief. And most of the time, those perceptions are grounded in real experience. You know when workflows feel clunky. You know when security makes people nervous. You know when alignment is missing. The 7-Metric Assessment captures that knowledge and organizes it. Numerical scores create shared vocabulary across your leadership team. And if you retake the assessment in six months, you can track whether changes actually moved the needle. What to Do With Your Results Share results with your leadership team and look for patterns. Which metrics are consistently low? Which show strength? Identify the one or two lowest scores that cause the most daily friction. Read the targeted guidance for those metrics. Then decide: can you address these internally, or do you need outside perspective? The scorecard won't make that decision for you, but it will help you frame the question clearly. If your results reveal patterns you're not sure how to address, the Discovery Diagnostic takes the scorecard findings and turns them into a practical roadmap. But whether you work with Metric7 or tackle this internally, the scorecard gives you something concrete to work from. Next week, I'll share more about interpreting your results and what specific steps make sense based on different score patterns. For now, if you haven't taken the assessment yet, it's available at https://assessment.metric7.net. It takes a few minutes, and you might learn something that changes how you think about your technology landscape.

Last week, I mentioned that Metric7's 7-Metric Assessment was nearly ready. This week, as many of us pause for Thanksgiving, I want to share how this tool actually works and why it's designed the way it is. The assessment is built around a simple premise: technology health isn't one thing. It's a set of interconnected patterns that either support your team or create friction. To understand those patterns, you need to look at seven dimensions: alignment, reliability, security, efficiency, quality, innovation, and resilience. What the Assessment Looks Like The assessment includes 21 questions, three for each of the seven metrics. Each question uses a 1-5 scale, where 1 represents significant challenges and 5 represents strong performance. The questions are straightforward, and most leaders complete the assessment in about 3 minutes. Here's what makes the 7-Metric Assessment different from other technology assessments: The questions aren't technical. They're about outcomes, not implementation details. You don't need to know your server uptime percentage or your patch compliance rate. You need to know whether your team can rely on systems when they need them, whether data tells you the truth, and whether technology helps or hinders patient care. The questions are designed for leaders who have visibility into operations. If you're part of the executive team, you should be able to answer them based on what you see every day. If a question makes you pause because you genuinely don't know the answer, that uncertainty is itself diagnostic. It often points to gaps in communication or visibility that matter more than you might think. What You Get Back When you complete the assessment, you receive a scorecard with three components: First, a composite score that reflects your overall technology health. This gives you a sense of where you stand relative to other community healthcare organizations. Second, individual scores for each of the seven metrics. This is where the real insight lives. You might score well on reliability but struggle with alignment. Or you might have strong security practices but weak data quality. These patterns matter because they point to specific areas where small improvements can have outsized impact. Third, targeted guidance based on your results. If you score low in a particular area, you'll see recommendations tailored to that metric. If you score high, you'll get insight into how to maintain that strength without creating new problems elsewhere. The language in the scorecard adjusts based on your results. Low scores get practical, immediate steps. Medium scores get direction on what to prioritize next. High scores reinforce the key disciplines that are working and help you maintain that strength. Why It's Designed This Way I've spent years evaluating technology operations in different organizations. Most of the time, the problems aren't mysterious. Leaders know where things feel fragile. They know which systems cause frustration. They know when the team is spending too much time on workarounds. What they don't always know is how to make sense of it all. Which problem should they tackle first? What's actually urgent versus just annoying? Where will effort pay off, and where will it just shift the pain somewhere else? The assessment helps organize those instincts. It doesn't tell you what's wrong, it helps you see the pattern more clearly. And patterns are easier to address than scattered symptoms. What Happens After You Take It The scorecard is useful on its own. You can use it to start conversations with your leadership team, frame decisions about where to invest time and resources, or simply validate what you already suspected. But it's also the starting point for deeper work. If your results show areas that need attention, and you're not sure how to address them, that's where Metric7's services come in. The Discovery Diagnostic takes the scorecard findings and turns them into a practical roadmap. The Strategic Sprint builds momentum on the highest-priority improvements. And the Fractional CTO Partnership provides ongoing guidance as your technology landscape evolves. The assessment isn't a sales tool. It's a service. Whether you work with Metric7 or not, the scorecard gives you something concrete to act on. A Note on Evolution This is version one. The questions, the scoring model, and the guidance will improve over time as more organizations complete the assessment, and I learn which patterns emerge most often. I'm treating this as a living tool, one that gets better as I see how it performs in the real world. If your results raise questions or don't quite match your experience, let's discuss what you're seeing. This tool only works if it reflects what clinics actually experience, not what I think they should experience. During this Thanksgiving week, I'm grateful for the leaders who've already tested the 7-Metric Assessment and helped refine it. Their feedback made it sharper and more useful. If you're curious about where your clinic stands, the assessment is ready. It takes a few minutes, and it might surface something worth your attention. You can find it here: https://assessment.metric7.net More to come as we move into December and year-end planning season.

The past few weeks have reinforced something I’ve seen again and again in small healthcare teams. Most of the pressure points they face aren’t caused by one big problem. They’re the result of several smaller issues working together. A little misalignment here, some friction in a workflow there, a system that isn’t as predictable as it should be. When you look at the whole picture, it becomes clear that technology health isn’t a single score. It’s a set of patterns that either steady the team or pull them off balance. That idea is shaping the next step for Metric7. I’m putting the finishing touches on a short assessment built around the seven metrics I rely on when evaluating a clinic’s technology landscape: alignment, reliability, security, efficiency, quality, innovation, and resilience. Each one tells part of the story, and together they offer a practical snapshot of where a clinic stands today. The goal isn’t to grade anyone. It’s to give leaders a simple way to see their strengths, spot early warning signs, and start conversations that matter. Most clinics already know where the friction is. This assessment helps organize those instincts into something clearer and easier to act on. Over the next week, I’ll share more about how the assessment works and how clinics can use it to guide steady improvement. I’m excited to get this into the hands of the people who need it most. If you’re curious, keep an eye out. More to come soon.