| I wouldn't know where to start. But here goes anyway: 1. I wrote a billing system for an M.D.'s personal practice especially geared to collect the $1.6 million in outstanding receivables. She killed the project because "those office people are too stupid to use it anyway." It was more important to her to maintain her "superiority" than collect her bills. 2. An HMO whose legacy system I maintained decided to convert to something "more modern than green screens with color and a mouse". (The legacy system worked perfectly.) The new system never worked. Two years, 3 consulting firms and $20 million later, I was brought back in to "convert it back". By then, they had lost 60% of their revenue and were out of business a year later. 3. I doctor's health organization was acquiring about one clinic per month. Their Big 5 Firm brought me in to develop a plan to convert each clinic's software and data into the main system. It was taking 18 months to do each conversion. They were 29 conversions behind. I made recommendations that required drastic changes in their IT department. They were so upset, they refused the engagement. (Out of business 18 months later.) 4. Another HMO spent 18 months and $5 million implement HIPPA to maintain privacy. The running joke was that the files for the worst cases were kept in the break room for all to see for a laugh on their break. 5. The claims processing software in another HMO I worked at was configured to NEVER APPROVE A CLAIM ON ITS FIRST PASS. I don't know what happened to them, but prison would be too good. 6. At a PPO I worked at, I had to cover production errors between Christmas and New Years because the 2 primary programmers were on vacation. (I only had access to the test system.) I prodded my supervisor to get me a production login and password for 4 weeks. The first error (7:30 on Monday morning) and I couldn't get in. We argued in front of the call center (400 people) about my lack of access. "You DO have a password and here it is," he cried. "Yea, but I don't have a login." "What's a login?" That pretty much sums up the talent level in healthcare IMO. Just part of the reason healthcare is so expensive, but the providers earn less. I'll chew razor blades before I ever consider "healthcare" work again. |