Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Newcrop DDoS

I have never seen a thread hijacked so much and so blatantly. Usually it occurs around post 20. But, post 2?

I never came on here and argued against the community board. I simply somewhat jokingly and somewhat seriously thought I would recommend emailing NewCrop. The reason being, sometimes those types of actions can be helpful. For reasons I will never understand this became 15 users against Bert. Given my propensity to be opinionated, I found it hard to not defend myself.

Excuse me while I go home to a completely dark and cold house. I will first check every bulb in the house and the furnace and thermostats to see if they are the cause of the above.

I wonder if I can have my thread back and people can comment on the pluses and minuses of emailing New Crop. As to the Shout Box and its utility, maybe someone can start a thread for that.

Bert, I am 100% in your corner. As I mentioned above, your solution is the most logical solution I have seen posted in regards to this problem in the last 2 years. It is unfortunate that the posts digressed, as this takes attention away from the problem at hand. There is a saying that all that it takes for evil to succeed is for good men (and women) to stand by and do nothing. It seems to be a curse among physicians that they will complain about many things but, when it comes time to take action, very few are willing to stick out their necks and do so. I stand with you and am ready email NEWCROP and SURESCRIPTS, as you had suggested. Short of starting a petition on MOVEON.ORG, or having a face-to-face meeting with the Amazing Charts administration, I cannot think of any other way to deal with this. I did not have the email address before now. It would be my hope that other users who are displeased with this service problem would be so moved to join with us.

As I think about things further, I think that your suggestion is like a flashlight in the darkness, pointing in the right direction. If you need a real flashlight to help navigate through your dark house, I have a nice SureFire flashlight I can send you.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

Doctor Mel,

That is one of the best posts I have had the privilege to read. I firmly believe when it is 15 to 1, the road seems very rocky, but when it becomes 14 to 2, it seems much easier to navigate. Not that I mean to convey it is they vs us at all.

I do think that by emailing New Crop, they may understand the physician's plight. I have emailed them three times now, and I think if we all do that we can make the Shout Box what it is supposed to be: A place for JBS and John to write witty comments in general.

I appreciate your post more than you can imagine. My idea is this: For those reading this tread and these posts, please email NewCrop when it goes down. Please don't use it to talk about how great Shout Box is. I understand its usefulness in the short run but not in the long run.

Hi Bert,

Please don't view this as "15 against one". We're all in this together! I think there are two separate issues, which clearly are not either/or. However, I believe your original post inadvertently made it seem as though these were either/or.

Your overall point, to try to improve the system, is right on the mark. I wonder, though, if it is more effective to e-mail New Crop, or Amazing Charts. We are not customers of New Crop, we are customers of Amazing Charts. I don't know if New Crop really would pay attention to e-mail from individual users, or if they would only pay attention to complaints from their customers (Amazing Charts).

However, there is another issue. You have indicated that you don't think it's appropriate to post every time New Crop goes down. I, myself, find it useful to note that this is a systemwide problem. I believe a number of users in this thread also indicate that they find such postings useful.

Can we agree that to contact someone, either Amazing Charts or New Crop or both, is a great idea? But that to post problems, both to alert other users, and to vent frustration, is not inappropriate?

Thanks.

Gene

I have never said it is inappropriate.


I think this was taken out of context. Or the emphasis was put on the wrong p art of the sentence. My mistake.

Does anyone know if NewCrop goes down at the same time. For instance, This week is the ONLY time eRx has gone down and yesterday it was up all day. Other than that, it has been "Electronic" and "Verified" over 99.9% of the time going all the way back to the beginning of eRx.

All I have ever asked is for someone to explain why it is helpful. Maybe I was missing something. Rather than berate me and tell me I'm wrong (I realize maybe I was doing the same), explaining why it is helpful would be less confrontational.

jimmie is the only one who took the time to do that.

My explanation is that everything is wonderful until the green circle turns clockwise for more than ten seconds and I get the error message. Then I know it is not working. Instantaneously. Even if I read it was down, I would continue to eRx if mine were working, which it almost always is.

Hi Bert,

You may actually be too good at this to realize where many of the rest of us are.

Not infrequently, something involving Amazing Charts will "act funny". This may be over all system slowness, may be problems printing, may be problems prescribing, or may be a problem with another function. My first step is to reboot the laptop I am using. If this does not take care of the problem, I then reboot the main computer. If this is not helpful, then I will reboot is the switch and router.

There are times when this is necessary, for whatever reason the laptop or main computer, occasionally the network, was the cause of the problem.

As you have indicated, most of the time electronic prescribing has not been working, New Crop has been the problem. However, there have been times in the past it has been something local to my system. This is why it is helpful, to me, to see that others are having the problem. It saves the time to perform the above maneuvers.

Should I just assume that any problem with eprescribing is New Crops, and not mine? Most likely. But it still very helpful to have this confirmed.

I hope this helps to clarify why I find notifications helpful.

Thanks. Gene.

Just an example of a reply from NewCrop. Please let me know if there are issues today.

Bert,
NewCrop was having issues Monday and Tuesday but has since been resolved. Are you seeing any issues now with ERx?

Thank you,
Wendy
Fax: 484-348-8153
Director Customer Support
NewCrop, LLC
wfarris@newcroprx.com

Congratulations to Bert!! This is a first time I have ever seen the name, fax number and email address for a real live person at NewCrop! Keep shining the light Bert!

Should see the email I just received from the President and CMO. Just need to know if I can post it.

maybe you could pm it, no one replied to my email but then again I told them I was just going to use performance as my determining factor and to not bother replying.

Yes, Bert, you can.

This is the email I received from Wendy Farris, Director of Customer Support, NewCrop.

It is an interoffice memo from Lawrence Susnow, M.D., President and Chief Medical Officer, Founder NewCrop LLC and Craig Wagener, Chief Information Officer, Founder NewCrop LLC to Wendy Farris as a reliability update.

You may download the email here:

https://app.box.com/shared/static/pkjsk3psnda18alnutwj.pdf

Link temporarily down.

Thanks Bert!

Sounds promising!

Gene

Thanks for sharing the email. I forgot we got crushed on prior Cyber Mondays with ERX downtime. I think it was worse last year so maybe next year will be even better!

Let's hope.

thanks for the link Bert, forgot about Susnow had corresponded with him years ago. Think I'll restart a dialogue with him.
What I would like is real time notification of eRx failure (well prefer 99.9% reliability but that is too much to expect, LOL).

Thanks for the info Bert. I'm still struggling to understand the relationship between AC, Newcrop and Surescripts. I found the information copied below. Would it be fair to say that when I send an eRx I use Newcrop and Newcrop uses Surescripts to get it to the pharmacy?

John

About Surescripts
The Surescripts network supports the most comprehensive ecosystem of healthcare organizations nationwide. Pharmacies, payers, pharmacy benefit managers, physicians, hospitals, health information exchanges and health technology firms rely on Surescripts to more easily and securely share health information. Guided by the principles of neutrality, transparency, physician and patient choice, open standards, collaboration and privacy, Surescripts operates the nation's largest health information network. By providing information for routine, recurring and emergency care, Surescripts is committed to saving lives, improving efficiency and reducing the cost of health care for all. For more information, go to www.surescripts.com and follow us at twitter.com/surescripts.


About NewCrop
NewCrop LLC provides electronic prescribing systems, delivered over the Internet and designed for incorporation into electronic medical records. All features are available as a comprehensive user interface or, via data services, as individual components.

I didn't read your whole post, and I may very well be wrong, but my understanding is that Surescripts is like the WWW, which caries the script information everywhere.

Where NewCrop is more like the link between your EMR and Surescripts. Think your computer to your ISP, which gets you on the Internet. NewCrop directly connects to your EMP to get to Surescripts (Internet).

Hope that is correct.

John, I think that is a correct characterization. You could say "I use AC to create the prescription; AC uses Newcrop to interface with Surescripts, and Surescripts sends it to the pharmacy".

So when eRx fails to go through it could be a problem with Newcrop OR Surescripts.

Yes, and we saw each each of them fail at various times in recent weeks.

How does all of this benefit me or my patients?
It seems needlessly cumbersome and complex, and seems to offer many opportunities for mistakes.

On the other hand, there is no telling where that information goes.
Are they collecting marketing information?

They surely can't imagine that the "interaction checking" at the current level of sophistication is anything other that a cruel time-wasting joke.

In its present form, it doesn't clearly benefit either docs or patients. It is just more contrived techno-crap designed to make the public think something is being done about medical errors, handwriting, cost control. Or anything else the press, politicians & academics think needs fixing. In fact, NewCrop and Surescripts are walking away with patient & provider $$$ for providing mediocre service.

So now we have new sources of errors and inefficiencies, not always obvious. And the cost benefits seem mostly for the third party payers. And there aren't any savings unless formulary matching is available. As mentioned above, it is often not.

It has to be in this present form. You don't just email your friend directly or connect directly to Yahoo. You have to have a connection to the Internet (your line to your ISP Server). It then sends the info over various servers (the Internet) which then takes it to the servers which connect Yahoo.

You don't have I-95 outside your front door. You have Oak Street (New Crop) to I-95 (Surescripts) to Pine Street (New Crop)

I believe NewCrop seems to go down more often and SEEMS to be more regionalized, hence my going down about three days total. But, I guess that could be SureScripts.

Once again, Jon takes my perfectly straightforward and detailed explanation and shortens it and claims it as his own. LOL.

John,

I am reading your post and abstract from my smartphone so I may be missing something. Do you think that eprescribing isn't beneficial for doctors or patients. Were prescription pads better?

Bert,

To be fair to everyone else, when I get on a filibuster, who the heck has a chance to get a word in edge wise!!!!!!!

We have had the perfect trifecta here, -36 degrees, electrical outage, radiant floor heat with multiple plex tubes filled with water just wanting to go from liquid to solid state in a very short time. Uggghghghghh. However, all is well, electricity has been restored.

However, Friday in the office was fantastic. Newcrop was working just fine, and I may differ a bit on the stance from others, not to be ornery but to explain my point of view, but when Newcrop works I really like the service provided.

Now, I think, is the appropriate time for apologizing for using a derogatory term in another thread. I do apologize for using the term NewCr*p and have assured Bert not ever using this terminology again and I sincerely apologize if I offended other ACUB readers or any one else. My intent at the time was two fold, I was venting frustration and trying to make a play on words.

With that being said, my guess is that the blue circle of death scenario (print failure) is a Newcrop issue, and the notification of prescription failure is a Surescript issue.

I do hope Newcrop can get things rectified, and like this electrical outage here reminds me, all systems have issues that come up from time to time, with potentially dire consequences.

Bottom line, Friday reminded me of what a fantastic and efficient system e-prescribing brings to patient care, and in my opinion the integration of AC with Newcrop, when working, for me personally, works extremely well. With the drug interaction, I usually ignore any except the ones that show up red, then usually read through and decide the risk/benefit ratio, so find it quite helpful. It is not perfect but helps my old brain along a bit.

Bert, I realize this is quite a bit off tangent and hope you allow some leniency on the scope of the discussion.

P.S. I have not used any other e-prescribing companies other than Newcrop so my experience is narrow.

Bert,

In many ways eRx hasn't fulfilled the promise of increased safety, reduced cost and efficiency -- when new sources of error, complexity and fragility of the eRx infrastructure, and physician & pharmacist time and money investment are considered. I can finish a clearly written Rx and hand it to a patient in about the same time as doing an eRx, and I rarely need to take any followup action. Can't say that for eRx, especially this past few weeks.

And now to go really off topic -- as you and I and others have disputed on the Board, I also don't consider EMRs superior to my previous paper records either. Given the garbage I get frequently from many docs using "modern" EMRs, physician communication is likely worse. I'm still waiting to receive any electronic data from my regional HIE. And it's so difficult to sign onto one of the local hospitals secure website that my staff just calls to request faxed records. Not to mention the amount of time and cash I spend now nursing my own IT infrastructure.

So no, I'm not seeing that techno breakthrough for physicians or patients yet.

I would buy your paper records vs EMR way ahead of the eRx one.

When I have to give six refills to a patient, it takes me less than 20 seconds to eRx or print the same six scripts which are legible and they are at the pharmacy quickly. Maybe not lately. If I try to write clearly written scripts times six scripts, it will never happen. Certainly faxing would be better than hand writing.

I would get a phone call from a pharmacist at least five times per week asking about a script, now it is zero.

Not to mention typing in Vyvanse and immediately knowing there six strengths. Or hydrocortisone and getting all the strengths and forms. I am good, but I can't keep all that in my head.

I am not sure I understood that.

I am not sure I can explain it because it is a guess.

Several weeks ago any time I tried to e-prescribe, the drug interaction checker and inability to print script would occur as a blue circle of death till I closed out the script. This event I think may have been on Newcrop.

This most recent event, I could actually print and send and then receive a notification of failure of prescription several hours later and at the same time Leslie using Epic was having issues. I suspect this malfunction was a Surescript issue. Also, I was able to utilize the drug interaction checker and print the script to Updox and send it by e-fax.

I lack the training or knowledge to explain it at any further depth, but this is just a guess on my part.

Well let's be glad you lack anymore training or I would be further confused. No, you are likely right. I don't use the MU (and helpful) stuff so I don't have your experience with it. I just know that I have never had Surescripts go down on me. But, then one could ask how do you know?

Here is a great story to put in the mix. In the beginning, I started using eRx. And, it was wonderful. Very fast, everyone happy. Then for a two month period, scripts started arriving one minute, three minutes, ten minutes after. Pharmacists weren't finding them as fast, etc. So, I called AC support, and he checked it out. He mad a fix and then told me that somehow I had been taken off eRx. So, where it should have been:

Electronic Verified
Electronic Verified
Electronic Verified

it was

Faxed Successful
Faxed Successful
Faxed Unsuccessful

When they fixed it, it was like heaven.

Irony. Just about to email jimmie, when right when I went to send it, I had no Internet. As I looked around, I suddenly realized I could be in both places I had been debating over. I could just say, "What could be wrong with my computer." and blame it on Time-Warner or I could figure they almost never go down, so I should troubleshoot. I find the DHCP issue, but it still doesn't make sense. But, I fixed it so it isn't Time-Warner.

I will put a beacon in the sky. And, swallow just a tiny few of my words.

_____

Oops, didn't even touch anything and the Internet is down. Suddenly the beacon is starting to flicker.

Tried to ping Yahoo! and it found Yahoo just fine. So, Internet should be up. And, it was Weird.

John,

It depends a bit on how you measure success with an EMR. I think one can see it has been helpful if it is AC. God, get rid of the MU and PM and CHHIT and no telling.

But, for me, I probably wouldn't still be a doctor without it.

I tried to do the MU stuff, but being a lazy Virgo, and not being much of a multi tasker, I was finding myself more concerned about capturing this that or the other and not taking care of the problem at hand and decided not to do any of it and if it comes down to being board certified or even being able to practice, I just do not think I can do it. I guess I should not have read Bondage of the Will by Luther a few years ago, it ruined me. I wish I was a bit more like Erasmus, but I am not.

Others can do it, and I do not fault them and even a bit envious, but I just cannot do it.

The last kind of sums it up for me as well.

Damn Jimmie,
Now you have me thinking about getting Bondage of the Will; will see if I can get it with my Amazon Prime freebie.
Have to echo your sentiments re: MU/board certification/? will licensure be tied to such things.
Just want my EHR to be a helpful tool in my practice and a big part of that is efficiency, a warning pop up at eRx screen that says "...system currently not available" would be helpful rather than waiting 20 seconds(or few hours later) for a failed send notice.

Koby,

I would avoid the J.I Packer & O. R. Johnston translation, it is choppy and harder to read.
If you can get the Philip S. Watson translation (Editor: E. Gordon Rupp) that includes both Luther and Erasmus, I think it is a better read. That is, if you do not read Latin or German.

Thanks Jimmie will check it out

Hey Jimmie,

I love your leap from DDoS to double predestination. :-)
Veritas liberabit vos.