As the federally mandated "digital transition" for television broadcasting signals is scheduled to transpire this month, it should inspire those in the healthcare industry to recall fondly the on-again/off-again promotion of that ubiquitous "digital hospital" along with the ongoing digital push by administrative, imaging, surgical product and equipment manufacturers.

Curiously, a government bureaucracy seemingly in favor of computers over paper as the salvation for the healthcare industry, chooses to provide its constituents with better access to the likes of "American Idol" and "Lost" rather than force hospitals to invest in digital everything and insurers to pay for it.

Think of what’s happening to American consumers as a genuine economic stimulus package for retailers and TV and converter box manufacturers, when what America really needs is a clinical overhaul. Of course, perhaps the healthcare industry should be more thankful that the feds prefer red-herring rhetoric over regulations and requirements or it would be seeking its own stimulus package in the form of a multibillion-dollar bailout. Some might argue that General Motors’ fiscal woes stem from benefit packages rather than its supposed core business of building cars but that’s another argument for another day.

Just imagine, though, if hospitals were given a deadline for digital conversion. While shows like HIMSS and RSNA might record significant spikes in business, along with the requisite manufacturers and distributors planning to reap windfall profits (from where is debatable), hospitals would be frozen (pun intended due to the unusual frigidity and snowfall around much of the country this season).

Amid a nationwide – and some contend global – recession, coupled with declining reimbursement and escalating technology costs in terms of pricing, maintenance and training, there’s only so much a feeble bottom line can withstand. And only so much inefficiency and waste that a market will stomach.

Even so, an infusion of digital capabilities and technology is just what the industry needs. Think of it as the necessary tonic to inflict pain (reform) as it kills germs (wasteful practices). Unfortunately, a digital framework would make an already bad situation worse at the beginning because it likely would unearth more deeply routed problems that any had envisioned. Think of it as pulling down wallboard to build a room addition for a growing family only to find a termite infestation.

And that’s not to say there wouldn’t be problems with the various digital technologies and applications either. We already know that many systems may be able to link up with one another but whether they can truly talk with one another is debatable. Lacking any types of standards (take your pick) only exacerbates a problem, compounded by the fact that no one wants to be accountable for the improvements – as in paying for them or even training to use them, which affects revenue generation in its own right.

Certainly, healthcare faces a crossroads with financial doom and gloom in its crosshairs. In the classic but clichéd chicken-and-egg scenario the industry has to determine whether truly standardizing data and procedures outweighs the immediacy of investing in digital technology first before incorporating standards.

Pick your side of the debate. Just don’t wait too long to decide before someone else does with potentially dire consequences for all.