Home Forums Discussions General Discussion ACUB is now Amazing Charts Users Forum Effective 07/25/2019

Well, this just sucks.
One of the best things about AC has been the user community, and the ability to exchange information and help each other directly.
Any time I have a question about AC, I turn to the search function on the board and I can usually find answers.
It is one more step away from AC being a physician focused company.
Why not just host the board on one of the new servers?

This is just bullshit. The one good thing about AC that has never gone away. Amazing Charts (Harris Company) should reconsider strongly.

Everyone please make your comments here.

Put a post on their Facebook page as well, and, anyone use Twitter?

Agree this is BS! This board has helped me so many times. It would be a HUGE mistake to do away with it, and I think it would literally drive business away from AC, especially for those of us who have depended on the board for answers when AC does not always have them. And that is a lame excuse - "outdated server" - umm just move it to the new one.

David Lee, MD
IM
Dallas, TX

One of the selling points for me to choose AC back at the end of 2011 was this very active user board. The user board give us a community, and unfortunately since I have given up seeing patients in the hospital, this user board has become my "virtual doctor's lounge". It is a great place to problem solve and look for questions already answered. Also just a place to vent, commiserate, and touch base with great minds still doing what we all love. I hope the user board remains and Harris reconsiders this decision.

Wow talk about a bad move guess someone calculated not enough value added to the bottom line; suspect this move will have 'bite you in the [censored]' potential.

I just sent AC a message asking them to continue the User Board. Please do the same!

Thanks

Gene

Thank you Bert!

Gene

U da Man Bert Thanks!

I'm curious what their business model is. (Dangling participle intended)
They seem to have relegated AC to just meander on, but why not just move the UB server to a VM and let it continue?
This will actively discourage long time users and loose a valuable source of both information and contact with users. As many have said, the UB has served as a selling point but if you're not actively selling the product I guess it doesn't matter
Hopefully Bert will offer a better option but this is a sad day

i wish to express my gratitude to all who have participated in this user board over the years. i have received much help. i honestly would not have been able to solve many of my issues without the help of the members of the user board

thank you

This is so very sad.
Amazing Charts and the User Board made electronic medical records possible for me.
I will never forget all the incredible help I got from Bert and Sandeep and many, many other regular users of the board -- so many problems (and not just with medical records, but office issues in general) resolved through their generous support.

I hadn't planned to retire, but the reasons to do so are piling up fast -- loss of the UB may be the final nail in the coffin. I certainly am not in a position to buy a new EMR, and it looks like this one may be on its way out

There will be a userboard either way. The key is whether Harris allows me ftp access to the database. I see no reason why they shouldn't. It would take the headache away from their hosting it, and allow one of the most integral and important parts of AC intact.

And, in doing so, take a negative and turn it into super positive with its current users.

Said in plain English, I already have the hosting company, a free gold license for life and a host admin to take care of all the details. This, again, is already underway. All Harris has to agree to is to give my host admin access to a few files. This is the same host admin who upgraded the database when we had all of those issues with saving posts, etc. and stopped a crash over a weekend.

Well, I've posted a lot to this board, hopefully helped someone. I'm going to participate in a successor board in any form.

Bert, you are amazing. Thank you for your ever presence and the fantastic amount of support you have provided over the years. It needs to be reinforced from time to time.

It would be marvelous if you could continue the board.

We all owe you a great debt for all the free support you have and continue to give.

More cheers for Bert

I hope that AC is watching this thread. I will be so disappointed if the UB gets shut down. This has been a great place to bounce ideas off each other and get helpful advice. This is truly a sad day.

Sad to see this board go. Everyone has been so helpful on so many different levels. Would not have been able to stick with amazing charts for 18 years without this board.

Really bummed about the loss of this board. I lurked more than I contributed, but it saved me countless calls to AC support.

Bert - where should I look for your board and what can I do to help make it happen?

Bert
Make it happen. If so can you use something other than face book. That place too creepy for me.

This board has helped me so much for the past 11 yrs! So very upsetting if they shut it down.

Bert,

How would we find your board?

Boy, it's like they are trying to kill Amazing Charts. Looks like my hunt for a replacement will need to be sped up...

Said day they would kill their own community, rather than find a way to better support it. the sale to Harris has been nothing but horrible.

I'm very happy the board it up and running again.
As many know, Indy recently passed. He passed out a great deal of wisdom to the board. I think it's fitting that the renewed board is in his honor.

Wow, looks a lot like the old board, I have to admit, I have felt a little lost not having my "virtual doctors lounge" to hang out in, glad to see this is up and running, and I echo what Wendell says above. I agree, very fitting indeed!!!! Thanks Bert for keeping this going.

Yes, I have been very mopey between the loss of Indy and not having this community. So glad that we are back! Very grateful to Bert! I can change my face to happy again.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Can't count how many times this forum has prevented a call to support. Appreciate it being back up.

And I must say, I'm relieved this is independent from AC/Harris. As a former SOAPWARE user, I have some experience with user boards being abruptly closed. Just before Soapware announced they were sunsetting their EMR, they closed their forum. I suspect it was to avoid chat about alternatives, other than the one SW was pushing their customers to switch to.

Glad to be back!

The only thing I miss is the post count on the right column. I'm pretty sure I was about to get within 10,000 posts of Bert...

This can only be accomplished by disabling the feature to make the screens work on mobile devices due to excessive data on a small screen.
You can still see the post count comparison on the users list.

Did I say mobile.
Yes I did the newer version of this same software works on mobile devices now.

Thanks so much Bert!

Interestingly, the email notification of the new board ended up in my junk email folder. Wonder if this happened to anyone else?

Thanks again!

Gene

Unbelievable! I will have to contact your service provider and your email software. Something coming from me, rated as JUNK! How dare them. LOL.

Wish I could purchase the domain address that takes you to the defunct site. Could just forward that. Google may be our friend soon.

Nice to see you have your avatar back up and running. One of the few.

Why this avatar?

It bears a striking resemblance to Chesapeake and Ohio 1309, which (hopefully) will be running on the Western Maryland scenic railroad very soon. This will be the largest steam engine running regularly scheduled routes, either in the entire country, or east of the Mississippi, depending on which source you believe. This specific engine was nonfunctional, displayed in a museum in Baltimore. It was purchased four years ago, and I believe about $2.6 million has been spent thus far on its restoration.

Interesting (and unfortunate) side note. The railroad runs from Cumberland to Frostburg, about 16 miles. The railroad has been very proud of having an operating round house turntable at the Frostburg terminus, literally the engine disconnects from the train, pulls on to this, is rotated 180°, pulls off on another track so it can couple to the other end of the train for the return trip.

This engine is apparently too large for the turntable.

So there is way more than you ever wanted to know about my avatar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_and_Ohio_1309

https://www.times-news.com/news/loc...ac2baec-b77f-565b-9a3a-e4c73a6e30d9.html

Gene

So glad to see the board back! Thanks Bert.

I am including this post, for those who missed it. It apparently was not picked up in the transition to the new board. I don't mean to exaggerate the importance of this, or any other post, but given the turn of events, I think it is worthwhile to copy it here. It originally appeared a day or two before the old board was shut down:

"Unfortunately, this is a "no win" situation.

Yes, the board is a great value to users. Hundreds of us would be happy to testify to the help it has provided in so many ways. These include:
1. Sharing work flows and processes in the EMR that can ONLY be known to providers who use it every day
2. Sharing tips and shortcuts that may be known to the company, but people only use when others point out and share their value
3. Morale support, the value of which is not to be underestimated. When I started AC, 75% of practitioners owned their own practices; now about 25% do. AC is almost entirely used by the latter, so we are a natural support group to help each other survive in an essentially hostile environment. The user community is a valuable support network for dealing with innumerable issues.
4. Installation and support - AC support is great. But SOMETIMES users or the techies here have answers that AC cannot provide. Or SOMETIMES AC support is not available. OR some issues, like networking and hardware questions, are not part of AC support at all.

Now that is the value to US, the users and our staff... in addition, I believe that the user board is an asset to the company as well. I could list the reasons, but will not... the bottom line is that the company does not see it that way.
In order to have #1,2,3, and 4 above... the board needs to be open to all opinions. Some people are consistently negative about the program, support, development, etc, etc. Most, though, are happy and proud to be AC users but need to be able to express the negative as well as the positive.

I know it has never been easy for Jon Bertman and his team, or any of the successive owners and their staff to view negative comments here. It has to be painful at times, and I suppose I can understand their view that it is ultimately "bad for business".
On the other hand, I always saw the openness and the willingness of the company to permit that dialog as a major sign of their good faith and their commitment to their customers. When someone is looking to buy or switch EMR's... they are not going to be like car buyers... excited and enthusiastic about a new purchase. They know the medical community is overwhelmingly unhappy with EMR's. Not so much AC - but essentially ALL of them. In every survey and study, physician burn out is a major problem in our profession. Why? Every survey puts EMR's high on the list. So people are not looking for reviews that say "this EMR is PERFECT"... they are looking for honest assessments of the pros and cons, like the ones they get here.

So this is why I say we are in a "no win" situation. If we get angry and complain about Harris taking down the board, it just feeds into their perception that we are negative and "bad for business". If we keep quiet... then one of our lifelines is gone.

All I can say to all of the users and my friends here, is thanks for all the help and camaraderie over the years. Lets hope we can continue to work together on a new board.

To Harris... all I can ask is that you try not to stand in the way of a new user board, and do all that you can to support it, even if you do so passively.

Copy my email address now if you are concerned that this board is taken down, and there will be a new board but you cannot find it. Hopefully, I can direct you to the new one. jonbschreiber@gmail.com"

Let me add my thanks to Bert and Ruben for doing such an amazing (and fast) job in reproducing the old board and creating a new one. It looks even better than the old one! If you have not checked the appearance of the board on your phone, I would encourage you to do so.

I have added several more color themes to pick from.
Some may be redundant.

I also am going to add a issues and concerns post to deal with any nit noid issues that may come up with the forum software.

After a bit of time we will migrate to https instead of http just to make the site more secure for user data,

Jon, I missed your post that you just reproduced above.

It was eloquent and expressed the pro's and con's perfectly. I'm glad you were able to post it again.

The board had not been as active in the last year or so, I'm not fully sure why, probably because I wasn't posting as much???? Hopefully we can regain momentum.

Many thanks to Bert and Ruben for bringing us the new board! One thing I'm wondering is how new AC customers can be informed of its existence. Like Wendell, I'm hopeful we can make the board a little more active, and I'll do my best to be a part of that. I also hope AC support will continue to watch the board as well, and chime in when they are able to provide answers to questions.

Agree. This board is one of the main assets for AC. Helped me immensely.

Chris and co: please leverage and listen to the board we can all work to improve AC. We really are your allies.

So, this is just not a good time for me to be so busy. I haven't been able to get on the board as much as I would like so I am missing posts. And, I am missing good ones, plus I will get overtaken soon in the post count if I keep being lazy.

I don't know why prior to this forum the user board slowed down a bit for the past year or so. Maybe more users went to the cloud so there were less issues. I think the P2P vs Client/Server debates finally died out. Maybe just more paperwork. And, yes, not having the privilege to read Wendell's posts was definitely a factor. Plus his tag line at the bottom was the best I have read. Tied only by the simplicity of Jon's.

Maybe Sandeep had something to do with it. No one is smarter with computers and networking, and he always explained things at our level. So, everyone's computer issues were gone.

@Jon, that is kind of weird. I read that post you made, but it didn't seem nearly that long. I mean long in a good way. That was an incredible post. I agree with Wendell on that.

Finally, to answer AnneMarie's question, we are working on making it easier for new AC users to find the board. If I recall, it was never that easy to find the link on the website to begin with. And, we are working on letting other users know.