Vince Ciotti was recruited to head up sales for MedTake, a bedside nursing documentation system. He joined in 1986 with high hopes but faced challenges selling the new system. After some initial pilot sites, larger prospects did not convert to full implementations. Independent studies of MedTake's benefits were also inconclusive. While they sold some systems, Ciotti and his team could not deliver significant sales. In 1987, Ciotti was let go from MedTake. He later found a new job opportunity starting a healthcare consulting firm that has now been in business for 25 years.
2. Tales From the Crypt
• We left off our story of MedTake with Jim Pesce’s
note trying to recruit me to head up sales at
MedTake, the extremely modern bedside micro-
based system for nursing notes, vitals, etc.
• Jim hoped I could do the same stellar sales job
for Micro Healthsystems that I had done for HIS,
Inc. in nearby Brooklyn just a few years before.
• So did I, as I received a nice chunk of stock options (Micro had
already gone public) and all we had to do was make the first few
installs go smoothly so we had some references to sell more.
• So I joined in the fall of 1986 and tried my hand again at helping a
start-up make it as big as SMS & McAuto, the giants back then.
• To open the eyes of CIOs who never worked for an HIS vendor,
I’m going to tell some inside stories about what goes on inside
vendors – might help you understand their very different world…
3. Wow, Some Title!
• First thing, check out the title I had: pretty impressive, huh? That
should get me an audience with any Director of Nursing (DON)!
• When I got to West Orange, NJ, and checked out Micro
Healthsystems offices, I learned just what
kind of division I was “president” of:
• A single FTE! Now, granted, she was
an RN, which was a pretty important
background to have for a bedside
system, but not exactly the “span of
control” one would expect of a pres.
• So, when you meet some vendor rep
who is the “Senior VP of the Midwest
Region,” don’t be overawed as they
may have 1-2 sales reps under them!
4. A 2nd
Brave RN!
• My first RN, Joanne Karl, left
early due to the horrible new
commute across NYC to NJ
from her home in LI near PTI.
• So we searched for a 2nd
RN,
and found this brave lady on
the left: Cindy Baker, who
moved from her home in the
Midwest to live in a NJ hotel.
• She had never seen MedTake
before, but she sure knew
nursing, and earned great
respect at our early installs.
• So just how long has your
trainer worked for you’re HIS
vendor? And how many
installs on the product you’re
buying?
5. Impressive Client Lists…
• Besides the 2 pilots mentioned in last week’s episode, we had an
amazing prospect right across the Hudson at Mt. Sinai Medical
Center in uptown Manhattan, a huge place and prestigious
name!
• Joanne took me there one day for a meeting of RNs piloting
MedTake, and I was humbled at the number of Masters degrees
and EVEN a few PhDs in nursing in the room – what a class outfit!
• What were we doing there? They were exploring MedTake for
free – for such a big name, here, have few and try them out…• Seems they had a Board Meeting coming up, and
MedTake was to be a star attraction – show the
bosses just how advanced their hot IT shop was…
• Right after the Board meeting, they dropped us cold
and continued their inhouse path on IBM’s PCS/ADS.
• So don’t get too impressed by big user names – are
they fully installed? Running all apps you’re buying?
6. “Independent” Consulting Studies…
• We faced a lot of challenges from prospects wanting to know how
to cost-justify MedTake – could we prove any real savings?
• Well, we hired our audit firm (one of the Big 8) to do a “time &
motion” study at our most advanced pilot, Palisades Hospital.
• They proposed observing nurses using MedTake to document how
much more time they spent at the bedside vs the nurses’ station.
• We coughed up the dough, they sent in some
pros, and we waited eagerly for the results…
• The results were inconclusive – no more time
spent at the bedside with or without MedTake.
• So we thanked them and shelved the report!
• Keep that in mind net time you read some
impressive study proving the ROI of new system
“X” – what about all the studies that didn’t!?
7. Real World Implementation Issues
• We sold United Hospitals Medical Center in nearby East Orange,
NJ, an “inner-city” facility if there ever was one! I remember their
impressive DON, Dolores Henderson (hello!), but who was such an
amazing leader of a nursing staff that was seriously under-staffed...
• We had an early meeting with her to
discuss installing the bedside terminals
and, being an inner-city environment,
suggested we would bolt the MedTake
terminals to the tables seen on the right so
they wouldn’t be targets for theft…
• She stated they had items a large as vendor
machines stolen from floors, so she called
maintenance and they decided to also bolt
the table themselves to the walls!
• Hardly an item on an RFP feature checklist
8. “Expert” Consultants!?
• By 1987, we made good progress with MedTake, getting it live at
about 5-6 hospital sites, with a hundred or more devices each.
• I got a call one day from the “assistant” to an big-name
consultant doing a survey on bedside systems, so I gave her the
full list & #s.
• Then went to AONE’s big annual show in Chicago where she was
speaking, and brought Dolores with me to talk about her go-live.• At the convention, this “expert” was the keynote
speaker, and she proceeded to debunk the whole
bedside terminal concept as being balderdash.
Said she had done extensive research and
couldn’t find a single hospital really using them.
• I was flabbergasted: apparently her assistant
(secretary?) had either lost the notes of our
phone call, or it was edited out by the “expert!?”
• Always ask where those “experts” got their data!?
9. My Sales Dénouement
• So what happened to MedTake? Sadly, all the
sales came form Micro’s financial systems clients;
me and my sales team couldn’t deliver squat…
• On April 1, 1987, Jim Pesce called me into his
office and gave me the pink slip - devastating!
• After almost 20 years in HIS, I was a failure…
• It hurt bad, but Jim was right – I just did not repeat the miracle
of HIS Inc in Brooklyn. Jim then hired Bruce Sherr, a superb sales
pro with SMS roots, and Bruce sold MedTake like hot cakes.
• I called my friends desperately looking for a job, and John
Indrigo from InfoStat Texas told me about another HIS pro who
was starting a consulting firm in NJ – Bob Pagnotta, a big name!
• I called Bob and the rest, as they say, is HIS-tory – we are now in
our 25th
year as HIS Pros. So if you ever get bopped, don’t
despair – it may actually turn out to be for the best!
10. My Sales Dénouement
• So what happened to MedTake? Sadly, all the
sales came form Micro’s financial systems clients;
me and my sales team couldn’t deliver squat…
• On April 1, 1987, Jim Pesce called me into his
office and gave me the pink slip - devastating!
• After almost 20 years in HIS, I was a failure…
• It hurt bad, but Jim was right – I just did not repeat the miracle
of HIS Inc in Brooklyn. Jim then hired Bruce Sherr, a superb sales
pro with SMS roots, and Bruce sold MedTake like hot cakes.
• I called my friends desperately looking for a job, and John
Indrigo from InfoStat Texas told me about another HIS pro who
was starting a consulting firm in NJ – Bob Pagnotta, a big name!
• I called Bob and the rest, as they say, is HIS-tory – we are now in
our 25th
year as HIS Pros. So if you ever get bopped, don’t
despair – it may actually turn out to be for the best!
