My hope, as I have expressed to them in the past (hopefully they are lurking
from the highest levels here) is that they begin to treat Pharmacy and all
Medication, allergy, formulary, related modules with the same level of control
and management that they took for Blood Bank when the FDA got aggressive with
IS systems as medical devices. Meditech correctly responded with specific
blood bank development and serious control of the module.
The implications for Patient Safety, to me, surpass those for BBK, and they
have to do better in change management for Pharmacy, RXM and all medication
related modules not to mention development of these systems.
Thanks,
Maura
Maura J. Hoag
Contra Costa Health Services
Information Systems Specialist
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"Charlie Downs" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To
<[EMAIL
PROTECTED]>, "'Mary Everett'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
07/05/2007 07:40 AM
cc
[EMAIL
PROTECTED], [email protected], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject
Re:
[MEDITECH-L] Buggy Meditech programming of DTS's
I couldn't agree more. I have had a programming course and know how
complicated it is (it is the toughest course that I've ever had and believe
me, if you've had organic chemistry, you know that programming must really
be tough if it is tougher than organic chemistry). What I was trying to say
in my message is that there is an insufficient amount of QA going on at
Meditech to allow these many bugs to make it to the end users. That is where
pharmacists (or other specialists in the other modules) can help.
I have suggested numerous times that a core group of super users be
able to dial into Meditech, access a test version, and be able to put any
enhancements or fixes through the testing mill and see what happens. I would
volunteer my time as I am sure others would to do this; no need for Meditech
to hire anyone for this (although if they offered to pay me something to do
this, it would be a nice gesture).
The problem here is with the management at Meditech. Yes, there are
programmers and consultants who have been there a long time, but others who
spend only a short time there. As an employer, shouldn't they be asking the
question why is the turnover rate so high? Is it money? Increase the pay. Is
it working conditions? Improve them. Whatever it is, fix it so that people
with experience are rewarded and do stay for the long haul. I believe that
the other problem with management is that customer satisfaction is not at
the top of their list where it should be. Meditech is what it is because of
the customers. We are the ones who make the suggestions which make it a more
robust product. Yet, Meditech no longer participates in MUSE, has eliminated
the enhancement voting process (sorry, but the MIX doesn't replace this),
and continues to release products with basic design flaws that could have
been prevented up front. Also, I see Meditech as unwilling to spend the
dollars on R&D that need to be spent and to hire the staff that needs to be
hired.
Yes, Meditech is still one of the best healthcare software companies
around, but is that enough? The hallmark of a great business is that they
always go above and beyond to offer the best product and customer service
that they can. Saying that you are better than the competitors is not
enough. What if the Boeing manufactured jets with as many problems as there
are with the Meditech software? Would you want to fly in one of their jets?
Charlie
Charles Downs PharmD
Washington County Hospital
251 E. Antietam Street
Hagerstown, MD, 21740
301-790-8904
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2007 8:32 PM
To: Mary Everett
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED];
[email protected]
Subject: Re: [MEDITECH-L] Buggy Meditech programming of DTS's
That is actually quite helpful. Sort of what we already know. I think
the poor guys that are still there are spread so thin because besides
pharmacy,
there is now physician order entry, ambulatory care, oncology, BMV, eMAR
etc. etc. which ALL involve pharmacy at different levels and require
different
levels
of knowledge. Ambulatory care pharmacy is not the ame as oncolgy is not the
same as long term care is not the same as acute care. It is sort of the
different between an ER doctor ,a neurologist and a psychiatrist. They may
use the same tests and the same drugs, but they may order them in a
completely
different way and look for different results for different reasons. The
pharmacy programmers may have worked at Meditech for years and there may
even be a
pharmacist there but if they are not actually hands on familiar with what is
going on out there today with the laws and regulations and requirements and
expectations of management on what technology can do (regardless of whether
it can do it or not), I think they will be hard pressed to really understand
the
needs of
the users.
But I think hooking them up with pharmacists who can help them
understand is management's job. There are enough pharmacists
who are able to explain how things should work, but I think that it is
better done visually. When it is done over the phone or when a spec is
written out,
we wind up with these enhancements that the programmers have worked really
hard on and they turn out to be just terrible because they require far too
many
keystrokes,
or they are too cumbersome to use, or they just don't work the way they were
envisioned. These things don't get tested and checked out throughly in the
beginning and by the time someone sits up and complains about it, it is too
late to fix it for that release. Then,you have to wait years for it to get
put
back the way it should have been done in the first place. The problem is
that, now we are being faced with mandates and regulations and we can't wait
years
for these issues to be resolved.
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