I find North Shore Connect to be a great way to connect with my doctors and their staff and receive an answer to a question, or check on test results, and make or confirm an appointment. I do however, find logging in an issue. NS Connect is supposed remember my password; it does not. If I type a letter or number incorrectly to log in, it often doesn’t let me correct it, but only to use a new password. I seem to have an easier time using my iPad than my iPhone. There are days I give up and use my cell phone instead, since many new passwords are not accepted. If logging in can be made easier, than NS Connect would be used more frequently. I have spoken to friends and family and they too have this issue. North Shore Connect does not remember my face any longer and I can change my password constantly, but I cannot change my face. Very frustrating!

I had a scheduled telehealth appointment with my doctor to discuss medication changes. And as a blind man its very normal for me to do telehealth. And before my appointment as usual I received multiple emails and automated text messages reminding me my appointment time and to check in by 3 o'clock. out of courtesy trying to check in earlier, no matter what route I went, text message or email when clicking on the link to join it would bring me to a questionnaire survey that was eight pages long. No matter how much I attempted to fill out everything it would not allow me to submit it. It was getting closer and closer to me missing my appointment time because North Shore would not let me enter the meeting. I then went to NorthShoreConnect and attempted to enter the meeting through the portal, when it brought me to my Web browser and wanted me to agree to terms and conditions, but there was no checkbox to click, and the accept one was dimmed. So again no matter what route I took North Shore would not allow me to log into my appointment. and when calling customer service and attempting to relay this, customer service had the audacity to call my doctor and completely cancel the appointment. my doctor then contacted me and wants to make me, the blind man come into an in person appointment making it out to be my fault that the portal does not work. when as a blind man why is it even necessary for me to do a video phone conference? Why couldn't they have the common sense to just give me a phone call to do my appointment. Because after relaying all of this again to customer service, I was told the supervisor will call me to discuss my concerns. Here we are a week later when I have not received a phone call from anyone; which is not surprising in the least because of how absolutely pathetic their patient care is

For YEARS I’ve been waiting for their programmers to WAKE UP! Do they even use their own app? This is only 1 example: Recently I was asked to fill out a rather lengthy pre-visit questionnaire. When I reached the end I was to verify my identity by putting in my birthdate. The format indicated was MM/DD/YYYY. The area where you entered information was auto filled with today’s date of JUN 01, 2023. Strange, the formats are not the same. Still I clicked in the area to complete the information. A calendar popped up. You are forced to use the calendar to go back DECADES to fill in your birthdate. You cannot fill in a numerical birthdate. And when you finally arrive near your birthdate…. There’s no DATE. Only the month and the year are possible to select. Ok… So you select that. It plugs in the month and year (eg. JAN 1973). Then the systems says basically. Sorry this isn’t you and deletes your information from the questionnaire. Then for an even bigger laugh the systems reminds you in a few days you still need to fill out the questionnaire. This is only one example of the disasters we’ve experienced from their “programmers.”

I guess I’m somewhat old fashioned, but I would still like to talk to the doctor when test results indicate that there are new significant health concerns, instead of receiving cryptic messages through the app containing misspelled words, medical terms that require Googling and warnings like “URGENT- see the first available cardiologist!” Imagine getting that message and having all weekend to sit around and ponder it because the phone lines are closed until Monday! A simple 5 minute phone call saying “here’s what we have learned and here’s what we need to do next” should still be the norm when circumstances merit it. Maybe once they figure out how to bill for it, the personal touch will make a comeback.