So, I told myself I wasn’t going to do this, I didn’t want to be THAT person. But we all have a breaking point and I have discover that months and months of an unresolved issue as led me to be, THAT person. I am hoping that you understand though, as you are also a devout GE Healthcare CPS user. Do you know what the bugger of it is though? If at one point in the last few months someone had said sorry, or any of the sort, it would have made things a little better. Acknowledging to someone that what has been done to them is wrong, and that they are sorry no matter where the fault lies, is part of being good, being a good company. Is that not what we strive for, doing good, being good?
This is only PART of my never ending, let’s call them endeavors, with GE. I will keep this mostly clean, as I am passed the point that my more vulgar and quite frequently used vocabulary will be used. I will admit on several occasions I had some very choice words. But we’ll leave that to another day. Also keep in mind, if I had included the correspondence and SR’s that I have had to open with GE, it would be quite extensive, you probably don’t have the time, and you probably don’t care much, but you’re reading this, so. Here goes….
We updated to CPS 12 July 2 2014 and have had nothing but issues, and that is putting it MILDLY. We had over 45 SRs within the first 8 months of updating. Customer service has been terrible, rude, and unreliable. Not sure what monkey farm produced the operators, or whatever they may be, defiantly not a “tech”, but after spending an ungodly amount of time trying to tell them the issue, and them not fully understanding, they blame you then shove you on a different monkey. Okay, so 1) Techy people have a language all their own. (I speak that language, wouldn’t one think communicating in the same language would be simple?) So getting them to understand the issue is difficult at best. 2) Let me be perfectly clear it IS an issue on their end. Always.
Finally you get a tech on the line, try explaining again, and….they don’t know, and will need to call you back. Great. Once they “fix” the problem you will never get an apology or any sort of ownership of their mistake. Then again you probably talked to, I don’t know 3 maybe 4 different people. But hey, the issue is resolved (back pat for GE), it doesn’t matter that they speak to you like you haven’t gotten a clue how to even put your socks on in the morning. One foot at a time fellas, just like you.
Each SP that is released has bugs, EVERY. ONE! And fine, all software has bugs and each time they are released they get better. You hear that GE you’re supposed to get better with each release! tap. tap. tap. Is this thing on?
I have heard….. that they don’t even test the updates before they roll out (collective gasps) as they are rolling out so often that they do not have the time to test. I know what you’re thinking, “How can they do that, how can they possibly release an update without testing it?” Its simple really, they don’t have to. They don’t have to make sure what they release to the ton even actually works, this wonderfully mastered software. This is supposed to help you manage the CARE OF YOUR PATIENTS. People really, why do we stand for it?? I have an answer to that, of course I do right. WE HAVE TO. That’s it, we have to. Because if you’re a small clinic like us, 3 providers, we would literally go out of business. We simply cannot afford to change our EHR, we would be financially ruined. Sorry kiddies the doctor you saw when you were a wee little babe, the one that you now bring your babes to has been shut down, closed, gone dark, folded. You get it.
I wonder sometimes, if we were a larger facility, would we get the attention we needed? Would we have to worry everyday what kind of problems will present themselves? Would we have to fight tooth and nail to get an issue resolved?
I have ranted and raved enough, you’re probably asking yourself what happen to make this poor person break. Okay, so quickly, quicklyish anyway, since June 2 we have not been able to print most (like really important ones) financial reports, view or save them. We opened a SR on June 2, it was closed Aug 8. We talked with a rep, we will keep names out of this for the sole reason that I do not think that anything at all will come of name dropping, we found work around, ah the infamous work around, which turned out to not “work around” and left it at that.
And this is probably unbelievably, my fault. I did not state to the tech, continue working on the issues that was not resolved, to let me know once they found the issue. I am undeniably at fault for not expressing that I wish the issue to be resolved. But to my displeasure, when I check the status on SSO it was closed. CLOSED. No one called for two whole months, no one bothered to follow up. They closed the SR. JUST. LIKE. THAT. Closed. Now I cannot say was shocked, remember over 45 SR’s. I’ve seen all, experienced all. I was not shocked. I. WAS. OUTRAGED. Our sales rep was finally involved, little good that did. She escalated the SR to a “support manager” who was supposed to get back to me later that day. That was three weeks ago. Now understand, I did not give up. I called GE every week, up until our rep was involved. I was told all techs were busy and I would get a call back. Bet you can guess what happened, go ahead, I’ll wait…...RIGHT! I did not get a call back. I stared wondering what if it’s me. Nah.
I have called on her, our sales rep, a couple of times since, and get the same response “I’ll look into it”. So now it’s been three weeks, since she said she would get the ball rolling, again. WE STILL CANNOT PRINT REPORTS! REPORTS people, the reports that a business office would rely on! What kind poppycock and all around general duckery (yes duckery) is going on over there!! And how is it ethical?
So I am begging you, please, if you are not vested too deeply into GE, get out!! Get out now, before it’s too late. Once they have the claws in they will bleed you dry and leave you a shriveled shivering husk, they own you. Well done GE. Well done. We cannot save ourselves, but if we can save you from the money mongers that claim to “power, move & cure the world”, and are “changing the world one idea at a time” it’s my duty to try. Just remember that they are “curing the world” your world, your patients!
