Brian,
I for the most part I agree with you. But unfortunately part of my frustration that you so properly pegged is that I feel and others have seen and agree with me here on this is that to some extent AC and its creator have sort have lost their way philosophically speaking. And so this why some of us poke and prod like this now and again about such things as the EULA and how features and problems are or are not supported. Things got a little chilly around this board and the AC community last winter as certain negative issues heated up. The resolution to some of those issues have yet to really reach fruition. The cost of support verses making things easier on themselves, no less the fact that some of us even openly offered to consider paying a reasonable amount more for support so as to not "shoot our goose who was laying the golden eggs" (AC) in exchange for a stronger promise of capable support was brought up, but never really answered.
To this day just what is Guardian Angel Support and just what does it really cover, including database repairs which is a major issue for both users and vendors. Read the newest EULA and you will clearly see that as much as we are being told on the main website that there is top-notch service, really the EULA actually states quite clearly that all support is at AC's choice and that nothing at all is promised. So just what do we have, which of these two completely conflicting statements is the real "Guardian Angel", the real AC?
So when truely risky ideas like SYNC come up it really reminds me of these not so nice things. Before any of us put our data in harms way, just what is our level of support, what can we count on when the chips are down and our data is corupt? Really that is my main point here and has been for quite some time now. This is not my being a bad guy and or my wrongly picking a fight, but my simply stating real fact and asking solid questions that need to be answered and clarified. Patients' and doctors' property rights are at stake here. Who's records are these and what policies and what ethics should guide such policies? Our legal and ethical obligations to our providers and our patients extents far beyond any little business agreement between two parties that any lawyer might dream up to blantantly protect only one party at the expense of the other. In the end when our patient needs their records and their labs it will be us that will have to answer for their where abouts and integrity.
As I said a long time ago, I truely yearn to get AC to back to what I refered to its original "Waterbury VT" place making reference to Ben and Gerry's and the great state of Vermont that I still yearn to return to and live in sometimes. Still have my old Green Plates in the garage that say 72 DART, 72SCAMP and ELSIE (Inside joke for another Dart of Nancy's for Little Car). But I am just one voice and only a few really brave folks stepped up and spoke up when things got weird. We are the passengers on someone else's airline here. All we can do is watch from the sides and try to see if the crew really is properly attending to this plane's care. But in the end the policies that determine that care are not directly in our hands, and so we ask, we poke and prod as we wonder and wait for positive progress that has yet to be produced or shown.
And still I hope to return to Waterbury... I really do want AC to the the phenom that you spoke of. At one point I thought Jon was really on to something and that he really understood just what he had and what he could have someday. I personally used to refer to AC in public as the "QuickBooks of EMR's" Simply, elegant, easy to use and care for, at a reasonable price that any office could afford. All while being run in this Ben and Gerry's community spirit of openess, sharing and mutual support. It was such a wonderful safe haven in this dirty business we find ourselves in, that medicine has become. But as much as there has been a sort of peace here, it is more of an edgy time out where many of the old issues have yet to be properly addressed or resolved. It's still lerking just below the surface.
So the question here is; where is this plane headed as we draw closer to a major upgrade (4.0) that might possibly also have some serious changes in the agreement between us users and our vendor? The dialog sort of started on that EULA thread a while back, and then there was no reply..... It seemed hopeful right after that last big EMR article was run and some AC users posted responses to the editors, and then it just sort of petered out. So what does that say and where does that leave us all??? I don't know either and I am just too pooped to think straight anymore. You are one of those really great members of this board that help keep it vibrant and alive. Thanks for being you.....
In closing if we felt that there would be nice, friendly, knowledgable folks at the other end of the line, who would politely and properly fix our corupted database if all was to go to hell in a hand basket from trying Sync, when we too would have "pushed that button" along time ago, as you so aptly put it. We would have been good beta testers like we used to be and taken that leap of faith. But now we have been burned and we are wiser for the experience. We no longer take things on faith even here, but instead want to see policies that we can have faith in clearly stated in black and white so we can feel secure as to where we stand. And is that asking for so much? Lately it seems that there is wiggling to avoid stepping up, all while still promoting that good old fashioned we are here for you and all that feel good jazz. We find that kind of lacking to say the least, don't you??? What say all of you??? So many watchers and yet so few contributors.....
Have a great night and let's pick up on this again tomorrow.
Paul
