Pros
- IT Specialists and below (e.g., Application Analysts, etc.) are very enjoyable to work with, very motivated, and willing to learn; some of the most driven and intelligent folks I've worked with are the 35 years old and under IT staff members - When allowed to focus, our IT staff performs as a cohesive unit - Facilities staff can be great to work with, such as developing applications that meet their patients' needs
Cons
- Oftentimes, the phrase "fast-paced" is tossed around with respect to the CHS culture; this is simply untrue in the general sense of the phrase. It is only fast-paced in the sense that it is disorganized, chaotic, and difficult to focus on any given task for more than a couple of hours at a time. It is not an environment conducive to meeting deadlines that are already demanding without the extra headaches. - The upper echelon of management does not demonstrate an understanding of IT in the year 2013 and its effects on ROI. Best practices and standards are useless to try and push. Some current technologies are literally impossible to implement using the current software infrastructure. Current processes are literal roadblocks to successful application development that involved little if any input from the engineers themselves. - Somewhere along the line, management forgot that hospitals are not the driver for our jobs, which is frequently touted. It is the Patient, and the fact that humans (as patients) get sick. Without human nature, hospitals wouldn't exist, ergo our jobs in healthcare wouldn't exist. Forgetting about that bottom rung of the ladder is partially why CHS IT is so lacking. Perhaps if management were to focus on the patient, the absolute necessity of up-to-date software and smart security would become more obvious. - Frequently, you'll hear upper IT management mention that CHS is not an IT solutions development shop. This is true. We just so happen to farm out most of the IT to contractors and then we have to maintain the subpar, minimally documented code. Either that, or we're told to deliver a nearly total solution with out of the box COTS products. Sorry, out-of-the-box COTS products get you 80% of the way there. 90% solutions don't just magically appear, and when priorities change in the middle of (literally) every development cycle, you'll never achieve it.