My Marshfield Clinic 12+

My wife just wrote a two paragraph message logged in on a laptop requesting a referral. When the timeout screen popped up she selected stay logged in but was logged out. She logged in again, rewrote the message, as the message draft is not saved, only to be logged out again. On the third try she was unable to save or send the message and the send button or symbol could not be located.

So we defaulted to the iPhone app and tried again. We tried to copy the message before sending it only to receive an Update the App screen. We couldn’t back out of that screen. We completed the Update but again lost the message.

1. Why doesn’t the system save DRAFTS? Or at least allow a Save?
2. Why is the on-line timeout so short when users are composing a medical message with perhaps much Technical terminology?
3. Why isn’t the Send button or icon where it is visible throughout the Draft process?

The intention of the system and access it provides seems great, but thorough testing by real users is essential. And older users should definitely be a key part of the test teams!

Both my wife and I are reasonably computer literate. We’ve both done software testing. If we are struggling, how are people without reasonable tech savvy to be effectively served!

I use both clinics, as I left Marshfield Clinic (another day)as much as I could. I can’t access any medical records, while on Mayo Clinic’s portal I can pull up my images along with test results tracked over years to watch for trends. This is a big fail on the DEVELOPERS end. All of these issues are the APP DEVELOPERS.

If I am writing a note to my care team in a given specialty, I must keep a very complex situation to 2 sentences or I can’t send the message. I cannot effectively communicate with my care team. This was the problem even before the app, when ignorant appointment coordinators made themselves the gate keepers of the medical staff. I nearly died because I couldn’t get my medication, or the test to show I need it (I’ve been on for 3 decades), or get me an appointment sooner.

That issue aside, this is the worst platform for communication I’ve come across and I was there when all one saw when one’s computer was connected to the internet was a prompt and one needed to know DOS. When I need to write my care team it’s a blank screen with an arrow in the upper right corner. I’ve found it won’t send after two sentences…I am at a point where I write “please call me today, I have an urgent, but not emergency situation”. The app is worse than one I had university students develop for a city and county project. MC should get a full refund and hire a new development team.

I get an email that states I have new ‘appointment’ information. But when I go to the app it doesn’t highlight or show me what is new. I have numerous appointments and doctors I am working with right now and it is very frustrating when I think there is something important I should be seeing and being notified of but can not figure out what the notification actually is.