Thread regarding Ascension Health layoffs

@amye So strange to run into this response while looking for more information on HCL on the web. I've been approached by HCL for an on-site technical role at Ascension Health and decided to do a quick search online for more info. My previous role was at Cerner/Oracle literally supporting Intermountain Healthcare. I was on the team when they decided to switch to Epic. From what I am reading here, it sounds like there is some negative feelings for HCL.

HCL is a joke

Use American labor stop using HCL (India) company

Looks like Ascension's Oracle Cerner choice might ultimately bite them:

"Oracle shares fell 13% Tuesday as the software giant's near-term revenue forecast was weaker than Wall Street analysts expected."

"The company, which acquired health IT company Cerner a year ago, brought in revenue of $12.45 billion in its fiscal 2024 first quarter ending August 31. Revenue was up 9% year-over-year but analysts were expecting the company to bring in $12.47 billion in the quarter, CNBC reported."

"Oracle bought Cerner for $28 billion in June 2022 to push deeper into the healthcare market, and the database giant is betting big that the acquisition will help scale up its cloud business."

"But, Oracle Cerner customers in the healthcare industry continue to have reservations about the future of the EHR company, citing the lack of a concrete road map, according to a March report from KLAS Research. Analysts at KLAS Research have spoken with Oracle Cerner customers in the past year and found that CIOs are concerned about the company's vision."

"Two big health systems, Intermountain Healthcare and UPMC, recently announced they are transitioning from Oracle Health's Cerner EHR to rival Epic across their health systems."

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/oracle-ceo-warns-cerner-ehr-business-facing-near-term-headwinds-revenue-growth

Intermountain Healthcare just made the decision to switch from Oracle Cerner to Epic based on "higher physician satisfaction scores."

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/intermountain-upmc-switching-oracles-cerner-ehr-epic-enterprise-wide

This strikes me as likely true.

Because Ascension is a top-down dictatorship, they don't really care what physicians think. When I worked at an Ascension hospital, I clearly recall some physicians expressing their opinions OUT LOUD that they believed Ascension executives choosing Cerner was the WRONG CHOICE.

Meanwhile, at Ascension, I observed a pattern of executive arrogance "let them eat cake" behavior repeatedly.

For example, at Ascension, one could not choose an Apple computer for creative work -- even when one could justify it. The arrogant "we know better" IT department instead made incredibly d-mb decisions about which software and which hardware creative types might have permission to use. This induced a chilling effect on creative thinking, in general.

Just the incompetent management of Windows computers alone was a JOKE. I watched one Windows computer take a full THIRTY MINUTES just to boot up for use. Unacceptable.

Communications were a mess whether you're talking about telephones or video conferencing. I remember any time a rational suggestion for improvement was made, it got shot down in Evansville or St. Louis in favor of obsolete and outdated solutions.

I'm told not much has improved.

Sad.

So how many millions of dollars did Ascension spend to move the WI market from Cerner to Epic.....mind you this happened the last couple months before the transition to HCL lol.

I heard they were renewed. Stuck with them.

I wonder if Ascension -- once again -- bet money on the proverbial "wrong pony" when it comes to EHR systems.

Looks like Epic might be beating Cerner (now an Oracle company).

• "EHR vendor Epic Systems continues to be the leader in the EHR hospital market share, with 83 hospitals joining its network in 2022, compared to Oracle Cerner, which only added 22."

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/ehrs/epic-vs-cerner-ehr-market-share.html

When I worked for Ascension, I noted they foolishly bet on the proverbial "wrong pony" in IT software and hardware choices frequently.

By the way, Eduardo claimed that "one this/one that" strategic thinking was sort of the basis for Ascension's controversial partnership with Google.

To come up with a search tool that could search through various EMR systems in such a way that doctors and nurses could make sense out of disparate record systems.

The funny thing about electronic medical records systems is that everybody involved dances around the main point: That raw capitalism in the medical records race has failed to produce a product that works.

Eduardo decried it to some extent here:

"Since 2005, tens of billions of dollars have been spent on the creation of siloed, clunky electronic health records systems. As indicated in a recent Yale study, the transition to electronic health records was supposed to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare for doctors and patients alike, but it has failed miserably. The study’s authors gave these technologies an “F” for usability from healthcare professionals, finding in addition that they contribute to high rates of professional burnout. EHRs have been called “death by a thousand clicks.” The promise of the EHR has not been fully realized and interoperability across the various clinical ecosystems remains far from complete. In short, the patients and clinicians have not adequately benefited from this massive investment."

In other words, the IT industry has wasted a lot of healthcare money.

True, but it's also quite possible that Ascension's IT strategy is also wasting a lot of healthcare money in spite of HCLTech's claims to the contrary.

What I observed at Ascension was raw stupidity.

Well, if you believe the propaganda from HCLTech, then the association with Ascension may not end anytime soon:

• "HCLTech will continue to partner with the client to accelerate its progress in 2023 and beyond."

One of the alleged reasons for the Ascension/HCLTech collaboration was to move forward with what is called a "one EMR (electronic medical records) strategy."

In other words, Ascension wanted to standardize on the Cerner EMR system instead of Epic and other EMR systems.

You can read the HCLTech "case study" (propaganda) at this link:

• https://www.hcltech.com/case-study/enabling-one-EMR-strategy-for-a-large-healthcare-organization

According to the HCLTech online propaganda, "The client engaged HCLTech in a multi-year strategic panership that began in 2020. The initial objective was as clear as it was challenging; optimize the cost eiciency of its Cerner Millennium software implementation, facilitate all end-user training and provide necessary go-live suppo, all on an extremely tight timeline."

• HCLTech claims $9 million of savings in the first year of this effort and $22 million in savings over three years.