Does it get any better you IT people?

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

I'm ready to quit my job.

We've been using Mediserve at my hospital to keep track of our patients and then because it was considered "too expensive" to continue using it the hospital didn't pay the bill and they cut us off. Now we are stuck using a system that is half broken and being mended piece by piece by our "IT" dept. Not one IT person is in house all this holiday weekend and I just broke down crying because I'm totally overwhelmed because they cut off the only system that I know how to use and they threw this on us with minimal training. I'm supposed to know what I'm doing and am frustrated with having to do troubleshooting on the phone while the on-call IT person was at a funeral. Is this normal for an IT department not to be in house when a system goes "live"? I'm so frustrated and I've cussed more than I have in my life all in one shift.

I think I've scared off my staff and they are all getting sick left and right.
Even my secretary ended up in the hospital today very sick.

Please tell me it gets better. I don't think I can take much more of this and I've got 1 more day to deal with this.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Come on-- you really work at RCI - right ?


Usually it will get better, but sometimes it has to get worse first.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Very funny Tony.

If this is any indication of what RCI is going thru, no wonder it was such a fiasco. I've never felt so abandoned by management in my life. And on a holiday weekend no less.

Man, I gotta buy a powerball ticket next week.

I need a vacation stat. Good thing I'm going to Disney this week.
I'm outta there on Tuesday even if the house falls down.
They can eat my dust.

[billymach4 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close billymach4]

I'm ready to quit my job.

We've been using Mediserve at my hospital to keep track of our patients and then because it was considered "too expensive" to continue using it the hospital didn't pay the bill and they cut us off. Now we are stuck using a system that is half broken and being mended piece by piece by our "IT" dept. Not one IT person is in house all this holiday weekend and I just broke down crying because I'm totally overwhelmed because they cut off the only system that I know how to use and they threw this on us with minimal training. I'm supposed to know what I'm doing and am frustrated with having to do troubleshooting on the phone while the on-call IT person was at a funeral. Is this normal for an IT department not to be in house when a system goes "live"? I'm so frustrated and I've cussed more than I have in my life all in one shift.

I think I've scared off my staff and they are all getting sick left and right.
Even my secretary ended up in the hospital today very sick.

Please tell me it gets better. I don't think I can take much more of this and I've got 1 more day to deal with this.

Sounds like you are a victim of the "system". Don't blame IT. Blame your management for their stellar planning.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

Chris,

No this is not normal for IT at least it wasn't when I did cut-overs. I feel for you. Hang on to the Disney vibe. Tuesday will be here before you know it.

[Keitht Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Keitht]

Lack of IT support, systems set 'live' with either known problems or insufficient testing to be aware of problems, systems simply not fit for purpose... Regrettably all are commonplace particularly in what would be termed the public sector in the UK i.e. areas where there is Government (at any level) involvement. It's certainly not entirely confined to that sector but is far more common as instead of fixing things the effort goes into making sure the brown stuff doesn't stick on the guilty.
Will it get better in the situation you give? Hopefully, but don't expect it to happen without a lot more pain first.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

After my meltdown yesterday, my manager was there at 6am along with our "Superuser" interdepartmental trainer. So I had to cry to get them to take pity on me. Well hey, whatever works.

Things went a little smoother today. Not that the system has less glitches but at least I'm able to spot them and taking tons and tons of screen shots to bombard the IT department with on Tuesday when they return from the "Holiday". At this point I am just ignoring what I can't figure out and somehow survived the day. Okay so a few patients didn't get their treatment and we lost probably about $300K in revenue but it's not my fault. I warned them not to ignore us on Friday morning and all I was given was the cell phone of the on call IT person who refused to come in and help me.

Unfortunately we are a county government hospital and it's a sad fact that someone seems to have sold us a huge bill of goods with this "system". I know they spent millions on this system and it's old technology by now. It's a system more than 4 years old and it's hugely glitchy but what do I know. We are just too big of a hospital for this small town community hospital system.

Today I resorted back to doing things with a pencil and paper and then entering the data once I did my own calculations with my trusty desktop solar calculator. Really sorry and a huge step backwards from what we had before they cut us off. Talk about inefficiency, now we are paying tons of overtime just to get the same amount of work done, so whatever savings we did on the 90K rental of the software went out the window on OT. No wonder our county is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Tomorrow I'm really on my own but now I've got a new attitude.
It can wait til Tuesday when the real employees come to work.

Thank goodness my secretary was released from the hospital but she's still out sick. I don't blame her for not wanting to come back.

It really sucks being the low on the totem pole leader at times like this.
I love my job but not the BS that goes with it at times like this.

Orlando here I come.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Sounds like you are a victim of the "system". Don't blame IT. Blame your management for their stellar planning.

You are absolutely right, we and the patients are victims of the system alright. It's the price paid for working for the county government.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Chris,

No this is not normal for IT at least it wasn't when I did cut-overs. I feel for you. Hang on to the Disney vibe. Tuesday will be here before you know it.

I'm hugely shocked that an IT department for a hospital does not have someone in house 24/7. I mean my boyfriend works for a cruise line and he works in IT and he works night shift and they always have someone there 24/7. How can it be that in a hospital where life and death is dependent on the systems working properly that no one is required to make sure that all goes well all the time. This is hugely negligent in my opinion.
Even RCI stays up all night "fixing" the systems and no life or death is going on there except maybe for our exchanges.

I just don't get it.

I'm sure if we decided to stay home and take care of things by phone the patients wouldn't be too happy. Especially the critical ones.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Lack of IT support, systems set 'live' with either known problems or insufficient testing to be aware of problems, systems simply not fit for purpose... Regrettably all are commonplace particularly in what would be termed the public sector in the UK i.e. areas where there is Government (at any level) involvement. It's certainly not entirely confined to that sector but is far more common as instead of fixing things the effort goes into making sure the brown stuff doesn't stick on the guilty.
Will it get better in the situation you give? Hopefully, but don't expect it to happen without a lot more pain first.

So it happens in England too? We are very public sector so you hit it right on the nail. We are also the biggest money loser for the county so maybe this is their way of letting us know how displeased they are with our impact on their "budget". Except of course unless one of them or their family is in an accident. Then they become VIP's and money is no object.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

Sounds like you are a victim of the "system". Don't blame IT. Blame your management for their stellar planning.

Amen to that! If you buy a cheap rotten system you'll get the results you bought. Admin doesn't always understand that cost doesn't always equate to price.

[BoardGirl Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BoardGirl]

Bad planning and lack of consideration are huge in this scenario. And, yes, the ole "you get what you pay for" is figuring in and will for a while. Sounds like IT is supposed to support an out-of-support system and aren't familiar with it? yikes. If it's any consolation, it's going to suck for them, too. Not sure it isn't already!

I'm not sure what the holiday is that everyone is off for???

[The Conch Man Past Goumba President & BigFrank's Cigar Buddy! Find all posts View Profile Close The Conch Man]

Government holiday - Columbus Day!

Boardgirl wrote:


"I'm not sure what the holiday is that everyone is off for???"

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Bad planning and lack of consideration are huge in this scenario. And, yes, the ole "you get what you pay for" is figuring in and will for a while. Sounds like IT is supposed to support an out-of-support system and aren't familiar with it? yikes. If it's any consolation, it's going to suck for them, too. Not sure it isn't already!

I'm not sure what the holiday is that everyone is off for???

Yup, it's the half blind (IT) leading the blind (me).

She was doing the usual log off and log on and restart etc. stuff with me. Finally figured I can do that on my own. Why bother her since she really doesn't want to do it anyway.

When we got into an argument about a box that was supposedly on my screen and I told her that it was not we actually got into a shouting match. Her telling me that it is at the bottom of my screen and that I am not seeing it and had to drag it up to the window which wasn't there and nothing to drag, anyway bottom line she was wrong because she wasn't remembering the screens correctly. After she kept insisting it was there, I asked her then why isn't she here too, it went downhill. That is when I realized that she is just as clueless as me. Then I apoligized to her and told her to never mind, we'll figure it out. And I did.

And yes since we are county gov't we have Columbus day off.
At least some people have columbus day off.
Not the caregivers.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Amen to that! If you buy a cheap rotten system you'll get the results you bought. Admin doesn't always understand that cost doesn't always equate to price.

Honestly, my boss told them not to buy it because he could see that it had huge problems with it working like we wanted it to but......
someone obviously knew someone who got something in return for this wonderful system we are all suffering with.

And so goes our local government. The worker in the trenches suffers the consequences and so do the patients. I'm sure when the lawyers get wind things will change but until then we're stuck like Chuck.