Pros
MedHOK feeds you once a week, though the food is not that healthy. (Maybe this is really a con!)
Cons
Any company with no collaboration, no standards, no policies, no procedures, no attention nor appreciation for quality, no repeatable processes designed and adhered to, no metrics, and an aloof, arrogant, and dishonest management which allow egos to run amuck, rewards backstabbing, and promotes the erection of barriers to resist change is the poster child of what’s wrong with healthcare IT today and this is MedHOK. It is NOT a healthcare company but a software company. However, they have employed few people who know anything about building software. The juvenile code ends up riddled with rookie failures. Questions and requests from customers reveal that even they are beginning to doubt MedHOK understands the SDLC/SILC process and may be on to the realization that they are dealing with a hack. I question their compliance as I have seen non-compliance issues end up in the enhancements bucket. The code errors – like misspelling and grammar issues, non-capture of exceptions, error messages delivered after updates and record closures (a MedHOK personal security system works like this… after glass break, the front door busted down, the cat kicked, the refrigerator raided, the unmentionable drawer riffled, all electronics absconded with, and the burglars are ten minutes down the highway, the alarm goes off!), updates in VIEW ONLY mode, no standard editing of fields like state(their software is so special it cannot handle it!), phone numbers, and zip codes (have to allow for alpha characters because of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico? Seriously?) They can’t even successfully unstring character delimited data. These low-hanging fruit are all non-productive distractions to the real problems, for example, exceptions that reveal very sensitive client information. The reaction to this? ‘It’s just the client data on their system, not a problem.’ If you can successfully access a record from one part of the product but not the other – the solution is, just try another record. Want a promotion? Lose the clients requirements and hide the fact. Want to change production code/records without traceability? No problem. Can’t conduct code reviews because they need software to do it. Software does software reviews? Don’t provide test results and just tell the client it worked fine when it failed. Want better customer service? Make PM’s accountable and responsible but don’t give them the authority to do their job. (But make sure that the project status, whether in Green, Yellow or Red state, the G or Y or R is capped!) In the odyssey for truth in what is wrong with healthcare, pundits dealing with public health and patient safety – from Harvard to John Hopkins – decry the pitiful state of healthcare IT. MedHOK is a co-conspirator. I went to be an architect for change; instead I became a plumber, trying to stick fingers in the dyke of problems caused by a feckless and bloated management. I ran out of fingers. Though management has created this toxic environment, a manager told me not to trust, so sit with your back to the wall. Caveat emptor.
