Mckesson software nightmare!

[RN1263]

My company went "live" with Horizon's McKesson program last week, we are switching patients over from our past program. All new admits and recerts are going on McKesson the transfer of all patients will take 2 months, so in the meantime we are on two programs. So far, I'm not loving McKesson and either is anyone else. The print is so small I think I might go blind, every patient has had adverse reactions # 2 that requires MD notification via fax (the med list and full adverse reaction report), POC orders are a mess (long tedious guidelines to alter, etc.)- typed orders will get missed when the nurse thinks they only have to do a guideline, scheduling problems when switching appointment from one nurse to another- no one has yet to tell nurses how to do it on their end and the office is not keeping up, having to use "search" button for everything (diagnosis, pharmacy, facilities, etc) and if you can't find it you can't free type it in and have to rely on office staff to add it in on their side.....

Anyone using McKesson that can give some helpful tips?

[RubyRN,CHPN]

- The print is so small I think I might go blind

***Have your computer personnel switch the font on your laptop to make your print bigger. It is possible. Some of our staff had also encountered this problem

every patient has had adverse reactions # 2 that requires MD notification via fax (the med list and full adverse reaction report),

***Yes, I heard this is a requirement. Perhaps there is a way to copy and paste that infomation to a generic Word form you save on your laptop.

POC orders are a mess (long tedious guidelines to alter, etc.)

***I hear you. We use a Word form saved on our laptop that is a paper version of our request for orders. We have library text for each order stored in F10 so we add the library text items to orders (without actually making the order) copy and past them to the the Word document, print the document and fax it to the MD. You are aware you can add multiple items to a guidline and edit multiple items off the guidlines by hitting your control key and clicking on those items you want to delete, go to tools and remove. Big time saver.

- typed orders will get missed when the nurse thinks they only have to do a guideline,

***See above.

scheduling problems when switching appointment from one nurse to another-

***If you have a scheduler in the office, they can use the white board feature in the interactive scheduler to move patients from one clinicain to another. Then the clinicians will need to tranfer their computers to capture those changes.

no one has yet to tell nurses how to do it on their end and the office is not keeping up,

***do you have access to those modules such as scheduling? At our agency only the schedulers do.

having to use "search" button for everything (diagnosis, pharmacy, facilities, etc) and if you can't find it you can't free type it in and have to rely on office staff to add it in on their side.....

***there is a data change feature in notes that gets routed to appropriate personnel to add those things. Have you met with your supervisor to discuss your concerns...I know,its a very tedious and complex program.

Anyone using McKesson that can give some helpful tips?

***Good luck, we've been on it for 2 years and are switching in another year to 2 to another program. Change is hard and inevitable, isn't it.

[hotmommanurse]

I just finished my first week of home health orientation riding along with a nurse. She clicks right thru it all and i am clueless how to use the software. i hope i get it this week...urg hate it so far. confusing! time and travel and charts and all that stuff is new to me. Holly

[Whohealthcares?]

Do you work for Mckesson.....or are saving money by using it bacuase I have not heard one good thing about it and no hospitals near us uses it. In fact we all use e-record and it couldn't be easier.

[mhobby]

I was very excited to find out that my home care agency was implementing a computerized records system. I've worked in other settings during changeovers to computerized systems and though they had their rough spots, the change on the whole was a vast improvement. Sadly, after working with it for 6 months, McKesson is still a nightmare to use. It is very buggy and completely unintuitive. My documentation time is 2-3 times greater than it was with paper. We've actually had several therapists and nurses quit partly because of having to deal with Mckesson. Steer clear of this program.

[AMN74]

I came from a home health company that has been using McKesson for more than 5 years. I recently switched jobs and my new company uses Cerner. I can tell you from one switch to another, I MISS McKESSON! It was rather bothersome at first, but many fields became customized by our company over time, and it was much more of a user friendly program than Cerner is now. Maybe I need to take more time to learn to like a new program, but I can tell you that Cerner is NOT as user friendly. And I see why the nurses I work with now are sinking in hours of documentation. I thought it was bad with McKesson, but I promise it is much more lengthy and not user friendly than Cerner.