My experience with Epic was both good and bad. I enjoyed learning about the technology, and I loved working with the Epic Technical Team at Community Medical Centers in Fresno, California. And so I felt hurt, betrayed, and angry that they fired me for the first time in my life. Not for doing wrong, but for doing right.
My Responsibility to Community Medical Centers
One might expect to read this coming from a young kid fresh out of college not used to working hard or feeling entitled. But I had over 40 years of industry experience and my 59th birthday was approaching. Eleven days before Christmas. A few months after losing a good friend and coworker and my mother.
Did I tend to make excuses and cast blame? Maybe. If I did not constantly watch and guard myself against those behaviors and keep my mind open to the possibility of them, I could fall into that trap. But I detest those two failures as cowardly and detestable.
What’s Wrong With Blame Casting?
Wouldn’t it be better for a person to set aside pride and dive into courageous self-examination than to throw up one’s hands and give the power to someone else to render permission or ability? Shouldn’t we all determine what is right, ethical, responsible, benevolent, faithful, loving, and courageous and do it without asking permission or seeking approval?
Why should we need excuses or blame casting when we can give our best effort? And if someone does not have the good sense or integrity to acknowledge when we are doing our best, why should we consider their lapse in judgment or integrity our fault?
When a person casts blame or makes excuses, or abdicate responsibility for choices they have the right and responsibility to make, they not only lie, but they weaken themselves. They throw the power to someone else to fix the problems they consider themselves powerless to solve. And that raises a question about their competence and their diligence.
My Firing: Community Medical Centers’ Lack of Political Ethics
So, why would Community Medical Centers’ Leadership fire a Clinicial Systems Manager like me if I were doing my job well? Did I do something unethical? Or did I break the rules? Did I engage in insubordination? Or incompetence? Was I lazy? Did I cross someone politically? Or abuse someone or get into a fight or threaten to do something violent?
I believe leadership retaliated against me for questioning the integrity of Epic’s CSM certification practices and suggesting how Epic might improve that practice. Epic offered a $250,000/year Good Maintenance Discount for Health Care Organizations that had a fully certified staff. Then they scored the certification exams without any accountability or integrity as far as I could tell.
Epic’s Corrupt Certification: Stranglehold on Health Centers
In other words, Epic could cap off your score and pocket the $250,000, or give that discount to Community Medical Centers on good will as long as your management did whatever they wanted. So, if they wanted your company to buy more services, and you stood in the way, then Epic could force your management to demote you or fire you. In fact Epic could do this for bringing up any question regarding the integrity of their practices. And if your management did not comply, they could be fired.
Each time I took an exam or made an attempt on an exam, my entire line of management would be notified of how well I did in the exam. 85% or higher was a passing grade. One question short of that was a failure.
Epic Certification: Leaving Room for Corrupt Scoring
If Epic training staff liked you, you could be off by one question as my lead was, and still be awarded the point and receive certification. However, if you asked a question they did not like, or if you reminded them of someone they hated, or if you were the final certification in your company, they could simply lie, say that you received 84%, and tell your management.
And you might be required to return to Epic in Verona to retest again and again being shamed before your management without ever deserving it. And who could you tell? Who could you complain to?
- What if your trainer at Epic did not like black people and you were black?
- Or, what if your trainer did not like women or men or white people or gay or straight people?
- And what if your Epic trainer did not like people of your religion?
- Suppose you were a Sikh and wore a turbin?
- Or what if you respectfully challenged your trainer with a question that made your trainer uncomfortable?
Now, I supposedly kept failing the last Epic CSM exam by about one question. I don’t believe Epic was being honest at all. And I am sure they would not be willing to lay out my exams on the table in my presence and prove their case against me because I do not believe they could.
Epic and Community Medical Centers: Challenge to Prove Failure
Imagine the shame that both Epic and Community Medical Centers would have to bear if Epic training staff could not prove their case? What if I could cross examine them and verify the exams with Epic’s training manuals in hand? I’m sure it would not go well for either Epic or Community Medical Centers’ leadership.
In fact it would embarrass those who deserved to be embarrassed and exonerate all those who were treated similarly.
But if that were not enough, they changed the examination rules mid-certification.
Actually, it was not in the middle, but as close to the end of certification as possible. I had already attended three weeks of training on site in Verona, Wisconsin. Afterward, I passed three grueling two day projects with flying colors. And finally, I passed two out of three written exams also with flying colors.
It was only the last exam that I kept “failing”. Supposedly failing.
Cheating by the Teacher: Stay With Me Here
If my score went down or stayed the same, that would be suspicious. For my score to rise up, I would be certified. So, rather than risk either, Epic changed the rules to limit attempts to five.
And I believe the last two attempts I made, if graded honestly, would be either perfect or near perfect according to their own training materials, and according to what worked in real life.
I say they were perfect. Epic says I scored less than 85%. And I think we would both claim the other was lying.
Of course I am concerned and upset for what happened to me personally. One could chalk it off to anything they might want to call it. Irresponsibility. Narcissism. Pride. Unwillingness to accept responsibility.
Facing Humiliation Repeatedly
The Bible says in Psalm 15, an honorable man will swear to his own injury.
Lord, who may [a]abide in Your tabernacle?
Who may dwell in Your holy hill?2 He who walks uprightly,
And works righteousness,
And speaks the truth in his heart;
3 He who does not backbite with his tongue,
Nor does evil to his neighbor,
Nor does he [b]take up a reproach against his friend;
4 In whose eyes a vile person is despised,
But he honors those who fear the Lord;
He who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
5 He who does not put out his money at usury,
Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.He who does these things shall never be moved.
Would a dishonest, proud, irresponsible, lazy person go back for more torment five times rather than give up and walk out in a huff? Maybe. Maybe not.
Whatever anyone might think, I had a job to do. Community Medical Centers did not cause this problem. Furthermore, they paid for my training. And I owed them a good return on their investment. I felt I had no right to give up. Even if Epic could cheat and make every honest attempt I made futile and an embarrassment before my management.
There was no way I was going to fall short of doing my best to deliver regardless of whether I was treated fairly or not. If there was any chance that Epic might come through and decide to operate honestly, I needed to be there to do my part.
How Were My Coworkers Affected?
I had one coworker at Community Medical Centers who seemed reluctant to return to face a Data Courier certification. I feel he was a good man, but I think he likely ran into discouragement and did not want to go through what I experienced. And it seems to me he might have lost hope and respect, and perhaps for good reason.
Over the next few years, leadership fired other friends while others left in disgust for other reasons. And to my knowledge leadership fired only one for good reason. And yet, I question if his behavior came about from discouragement and disgust over the lack of honor he saw in the workplace.
Breaking My Own Principle
After I experienced my first firing, I violated one of my own rules. I never wanted to give a past employer reason to regret having hired me. If an employer gave me the privilege to work for them, I owed them my very best.
Usually, businesses expect at least a three times ROI. But I shoot for 10 times and internally, I push for 30 because I believe I have far exceeded that in the past, so I should at least shoot for 30 times. I don’t compete with my coworkers. I compete with my past performance.
But this time, I felt I had to fight back against injustice. I had to air my concerns. I reported my situation to OSHA, but they don’t handle non-profits and privately held corporations. The lawyers ran like scared babies. Perhaps they did not want to risk missing out on working for Community Medical Centers. Or risk being on the operating table under the knife of someone they had opposed or ruled against.
Lawfare, Cowardice, and Retaliation
Leadership at Community lied the the court about me. You can bet I would never say something like that unless I had proof. But it came in a green folder to my door. It contained the most childish false accusations, intimidations and misrepresentations. It appeared meant for someone who knew nothing about the law and could be intimidated easily.
Initially, I wanted to drag the leadership into court. Or just attend court where they would be required to be. And I would demand answers. Answers such as how they knew some of the lies they told. And whether those were their words.
I would question whether the words they quoted out of context were actually things they believed. Then I would ask them if they could read a sentence or two before or after their quote. And it would make them look like the idiots they were pretending to be.
Perjury. They said these things under penalty of perjury. So one question I had for the judge was this: would the judge punish perjury as called for by the law? Or would the court be biased against me? After all, would the judge be afraid to be on the operating table at CRMC after ruling against them?
SEIU Union Advice: Perhaps the trial should be taken out of town.
I spoke with the SEIU. I considered encouraging the adoption of a union to protect other employees from experiencing the same thing. Tewe43he SEIU person I talked with suggested getting a labor attorney out of town. A lady attorney. A Jewish lady attorney, as they were thought to be fierce and determined to win their case. And they would not have the worries of having to face the operating table in Fresno.
I didn’t chicken out. But many of us on the technical team had experienced atrial fibrillation. A kind of heart flutter that either sent us to the doctor, hospital, and in one case the grave. And I had been on medication for this for a few years already. The one who passed away was only six months older than me.
In all, it seemed wiser to seek out a peaceful solution. If not that, at least a solution that would not put me in the grave unnecessarily. But there have been times since that then that I wondered if I should have dragged them into court. I could have asked for a trial out of town. And then dragged them through hell–each and every one of all ten of them. Then I might have required them to make an apology before all of Community Medical Centers. Then having done that, restore me into a job at a higher level.
To Forgive, or Love Without Forgiveness
Sometimes I feel I was foolish to let go, although one friend told me I should forgive them. Forgive someone who didn’t even repent? Not even God would do that. And are we supposed to have a level of forgiveness holier than God’s? My understanding is that we’re supposed to desire to forgive. To be willing to forgive anyone who admits to wrongdoing and asks forgiveness.
And yet their cowardice, insincerity, unmanliness, insincerity, dishonesty, and sheer lack of integrity and ethics was sickening. So much that I prayed for God’s infinite wrath to remain upon them until they would repent.
It took about ten years to come to the place where I wanted to repent myself. And then come to the place of praying for them. Not forgiving them–but praying for them. My job is to love and to be willing to forgive and pray.
But I cannot be an honest man and approve of what they did.
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