codename D

“One day soon – I don’t know when

You know we’ll all be free and the bells of peace will ring again

The time will come for you and me

We’ll be goin’ home when this bloody war is ended

The guns will be silent on Remembrance Day

We’ll all say a prayer on Remembrance Day

On Remembrance Day – say a little prayer

On Remembrance Day” *

To all our soldiers, past and present, we raise a shot in your honor and observe a moment of silence for your sacrifice on this Remembrance Day!

Cheers to the men and women who fight for our freedom!!

*- lyrics from Remembrance Day by Bryan Adams

I got this link:

http://www.syleum.com/2009/03/17/healthcare-data-model/

from a co-worker who thought it would be important for the team to read the article.  We support the concept of an electronic health record (EMR), since we are the IT support for the software that tracks everything to do with the paper version.  We aren’t directly involved with the creation of the EMR for our health authority, which has always been put into question seeing as we would have some of the most useful insight.  But then, that’s part of the problem with large organizations.  Not only do they forget the past ways of doing things while they try to develop and implement the “new way”, they often forgot who maintained it.

But I could go on about this very point forever and still get nowhere.

My point on this article is that the writer is part of IT.  Or at least he has a background in it.  And so with the article and the knowing the person who sent it, I was sort of expecting some good insight.  Unfortunately I got near the end and stopped reading.  The IT dude in the article, who became a patient and watched the EMR fail miserably, failed to grasp the very concept of why it didn’t work.

His experience in hospital was an ordeal and certainly not uncommon.  Anyone can profess to put out why the enormous undertaking of an EMR is a fail in many organizations and the complexity of it.  There are privacy issues, there are many systems to connect – and by that, translate into a common application and correlate all the data.  In his overly lengthy explanation of it (bit of a yawner in the beginning and end), he does illustrate the various challenges and questions the point of pouring billions into creating a national EMR.

Well dear sir.  The EMR can work and does work in different organizations around the world.   The information on patients is there and waiting to be merged, correlated and merged.  There are a ton of challenges and picking a vendor is the least of the issues.  Noted facts that the vendor shouldn’t be picked on their product but more so on their ability to create a user-friendly product is… noble but naive.  Very few vendors are going to create a new product from scratch.  But I digress.  This is a known issue (he’s not original in his idea) but is not the slightest bit why his experience was so bad.  The real problem is the clinicians – nurses, physicians, residents, and specialists.  The EMR is only as good as the people who will use it.

Re-read your own story, fool.  How many times did you mention that the attending, resident, nurse retook a history rather than read the one already on the chart?  How many times was it said that medical staff didn’t read the consult from your specialist?  There was a super keener (good on her) that diligently put every ounce of info on his medical history, problems, and prescriptions into the EMR.  NO ONE READ IT throughout his stay in hospital.

IT staff had implemented a good system from his initial observations.  Staff had access to computers on carts, nursing stations had computers and if I recall, some had pc tablets at the bedside. 

And let me just put it out there – there was also a paper chart.  Which was never consulted either.  So whine away about the expense of an electronic system and what the government will have to do with a vendor to “get it right” – the problem was not that the info wasn’t available in a convenient format, it was that no one could be bothered to look at the chart – electronic or paper.

With the many challenges ahead in creating a national electronic medical record in Canada, there’s still the issue of getting the medical staff to use it consistently when the patient is admitted.  Build THAT into a business plan, my friend, and half the battle is won already.

For some reason, this didn’t post earlier so it’s out of sequence… This should have posted on January 20, 2009. 

Well, about the only thing good about being sick today was that I was home to watch the US Inauguration of Barack Obama.

I’ve never watched one before and have to say, the US certainly knows how to put on a show.

The only bad thing I can say about it was Kevin Newman on the Canadian broadcast.  Started watching it on our station but this news anchorman, who is by far not my favorite, kept talking and talking.  As the day got started and the Speaker came on camera to start the Inaguration, guess what?  He continued to talk OVER her.  Hellooo.  No one has turned in to listen to you yap.   SHUT UP!  I ended up changing station to NBC.

Thankfully I was home to watch it live because had I taped it and come home to him yapping, I would have started a FIRE KEVIN campaign.  Dumbass.

Ok, so the news on the wire is that Stephen King doesn’t like Stephanie Meyers writing.  He has apparently read Twilight (where has he been, it’s been out for years?).   He comments in an interview with USA Weekend, he comments that she can’t write worth a damn.

 Now, I won’t say Stephanie Meyers is a great writer.  I’d comment that her writing is quite basic but she also has a teriffic story.  And in her defense, she’s had no professional training or education, and Twilight was written for herself originally (all based on a dream).  Further, her books become better written as they go on.   Eclipse by far was my favorite but the writing steadily improved by Breaking Dawn.

I’m not a crazy fan of the series (like other people in my life) but I can testify that she’s not the worst writer out there.  I think it’s unfair that Stephen King would compare her writing to JK Rowling - even if their circumstances are similar.  Talent is very different.  And looking at other popular series I’ve suffered through - TekWar by William Shatner or Da Vinci Code by Dave Brown, anyone?! - it seems odd that this is the series that’s getting trashed.  Could it be that the King of Horror, who’s been dabbling in fantasy and other genres unsuccessfully (by that I mean, not so popular as his dinner talent), be suffering from a bit of current success envy?

 Maybe he’s too big for that.  How about providing some Stephanie with some positive advice then, from a man who’s written so much?

So, was watching Three and Half Men and while waiting for the next show, the credits rolled by.  The Chuck Lorre Productions white screen flashed and for whatever reason, I noticed that the info had a Dear Joan…  It goes by very quickly but ya know, I have a PVR (best thing ever for TV) so I hit the rewind then pause.

Evidently, I’m behind on the times.  Chuck Lorre writes a vanity card at the end of every one of his shows, going all the way back to Dharma and Greg.

The first one I saw was #131.  He’s on to 236(c).  Most of them are quite funny.  I think it’s quite an original, creative ending to his shows.

 You can read them here if you care to do it - or just hit pause when the white screen flashes.  But if you were out of the loop like me, consider yourself among the cool now:

http://www.chucklorre.com/

So as a pedestrian (we don’t have a car), we walk a lot and take public transportation.  Nothing special here except over the course of our travels, we tend to find a lot of pennies that people have thrown away or didn’t bother to pick up when dropped.  We find change often enough that we both have coin jars.

Last year, Little Mouse decided to save all the found coins over the course of a year to see how much she collects.  It is amazing how much change is discarded on the street.

This morning we counted the change, mostly pennies and dimes.  $8.18 found!

So we’re starting again today.  We’re both going to do it and see who finds more.  Let the games begin! 

Happy New Year everyone!

I have a draft posting, which I started to write the day after the US election.  Obama won, no big surprise to me anyway.  I had written a bunch of stuff but had to save it as I got busy doing something else.  Now it just seems too long ago to post it.

Anyway, I didn’t sleep well last night - I finally crawled back into bed at 5 am to try and get some sleep.  I’m fighting off some anger regarding work.  It is irrational and I won’t say I’m overreacting but emotionally, I probably am.  There are so many small things in life that you take for granted and that make your life a little bit better.  So when they’re yanked away it is a bigger piss off then it probably should be.

I have a prime cubicle at work.  It has a window that overlooks the mountains, has an office in front of it so I have extra privacy and because it is by a foundation wall I have a larger space.  And late in the evening on Monday, our team lead emailed to say we’re being moved to the other side of the building, our team won’t be kept together, we’ll probably get middle of the room space (amongst some hundred other people) and if we have some “reasonable” (he put that in quotes) about what we need, to email him.  All of this is being done in order to close a lease at a different building and all of those people get to take our space on the North side. 

I get the cost savings.  But exactly why is it the people that are living in the space are the ones getting fucked over?  Oh, they need to stay together… but apparently, we don’t.  If there’s a window, it overlooks a busy street and ya know, condos.  And there’s 49 of us being moved and last I checked, all the window space on the other side was taken and if there is one, who gets to have it?

It’s just office space but it was handled so poorly that it just irks everything that wee bit more.  And I lost sleep over it because everything possible ran through my head on how I’d handle it at work on Wednesday.  Yeah, just fucking say good morning to me - I dare you!

And I was still in bed at 11:06 when the radio started it’s Nov 11 tribute to soldiers.  Reality is that someone has their life on the line right now.  It does give some perspective, although I can’t say that I’m not still totally pissed.  But today is not a day to be mad, it’s a day to reflect.

So to all our soldiers that fight for our country, past and present, thank you.  To those still abroad - Stay safe.  Take care of each other.  Someone back here can’t wait for you to come home.

You ever re-read your blog entries and realize just how much you ramble on and on and on and… well you get what I mean.

I should take more time to plan out my entry but I find that well, because I want to say something creative, I’m not blogging that much.  It’s been a problem from the very beginning.

I just need to go with the flow.

So - this past weekend was DST.  Earlier here in North America than the rest of the world because some genius thinks we’ll save energy this way.  I often wonder:

• Who the hell gets to make this type of decision?
• Has this person taken a look around at the people in their office/city/country?  I mean, we waste sooo much.  Can setting the clocks back/forward 2 weeks earlier than the rest of the world really save that much?
• Did this person ever consider how much work is involved in doing this?  I mean, you have to create new software (and download it) to every pc/mac in North America.  You then have people like me, who have to check the servers on the day at 2 am to make sure the time did change.  AND I will have to repeat this in 2 weeks to ensure that the servers don’t participate in the time change that the rest of the world is doing.
• I’m willing to bet it wastes just as much money/energy to do this change early as it saves.
• And I am a big supporter of environmentally friendly “things”.  I just don’t like these dumb-ass ideas that don’t appear to be helping anything.

But I’ve bitched about this before.

So here’s something new.  It was DST today.  It’s the fall so you know, you turn the clock back an hour.  And I don’t know why it’s so hard for people to figure our which way their clock is supposed to go but I had a training job to do today.  I was being picked up at 11 am.  My doorbell rang at 9 am.  Oh yeah.  This person participated in reverse to DST - putting their clock ahead an hour, thus being 2 hours early to pick me up.  Needless to say, I wasn’t ready.   I wasn’t even showered… having been up at 2 am to check the freaking servers!

And speaking about going about it all wrong, what the hell are the Vancouver Canucks doing taking so many penalties these past few games?!  We lost tonight as a direct result of sloppy play.  Boo!  3-2 vs. Detroit.  However, the one bright shinning light is my favorite underdog Kyle “Chunky Monkey” Wellwood.  He scored on the shootout against the Ducks on Friday and had a goal tonight.  Yeah!  Let’s see them try and get him to clear waivers now when old man Demitra returns!

And OMG can the stupid US elections be over any sooner?!  If I have to watch another “I approved this commercial” commercial, someone will ultimately have to be killed.  Based purely on the hate/warning emails I get from my US buddies against Barack Obama… I predict he’s going to win.  The overall bad and worthless alert emails makes we think of the phrase, “you doth protest too much”.  

I have some opinions on the 2 men running for President if you want to keep reading:

Continue Reading »

And no I’m not some lame ass rabbit about to jump down a hole.  It’s just me, too freakin’ busy with so much to do.  So much to do that isn’t getting done and really, really needs to get done.

I haven’t balanced my cheque book in months.  MONTHS, people.  It’s not like me - I am the insane person that likes to do this.  But I changed some stuff around the office, my papers are all jumbled, my bills are unsorted… just a big old mess that needs cleaning before I can do anything.  And who the hell has time to clean.

Recently (well 4 months ago or so) bought a bed frame from JYSK.  I have never liked the store.  I can’t really say why other than perhaps my weird loyalty to “things” makes me feel like this is an IKEA (I LOVE) rip off store.  I have never shopped there but know a lot of people who do.  I needed a new bed frame and for once, IKEA let me down (I found nothing I liked).  So, I was convinced to try JYSK.  Shockingly - found an awesome looking bed frame.  I believe it is called Opium.  Should have a clue.

The sales guy - nightmare and I have to say, stupid.  Almost lost the sale twice because he was freaking annoying me with his stupid questions.  I wanted the bed frame delivered because we do not have a car.  I don’t care that we are only 4 blocks away the bed frame is huge (Queen) and way too heavy for 2 people to carry.  Yes, even 4 blocks away!   Anyway, it was delivered 4 days later.

Now - putting it together - I almost set it on fire.  And it probably would have gone up in smoke real easy too.  It was such “great quality”.  But see, my old bed frame made it into the dumpster just prior to the new one arriving (spring cleaning - the units rent a dumpster so no one gets a dumbass idea about putting their mattress or such out on common property).  So I was stuck with this bed - made of plywood and black spray paint, I can only say, I kid you NOT.  The middle beam was wood.  Not metal as is the case with most things Queen size.  It was cracked in a part that I ended up glueing.  Little Mouse used black felt on some piece that got missed during the spray paint time and the two middle legs… well one fell out a few weeks later (it screwed into the wood beam - screwed in and fell out with a mattress on it!).  So I didn’t really have any support at the end of the bed if anything gave way.

Needless to say - JYSK is not an IKEA rip off store.  They are a CRAP selling store.  I will never shop there again.

By late last week, the bed frame was looking like I’d owned it for 10 years (like my last one and the last one, looked better).  Soooo, off to IKEA to see if I can’t find a nice, new bed frame.  Even though, it’s been months - not even a year - since I bought this piece of crap.  And I know, should have returned it as soon as I unpacked it but it was too damn  hard.

Well, I found me a bed frame.  As did Little Mouse.  And then some book shelves (being turned into shot glass cases).  Then we also bought new mattresses.  I don’t know for sure but I think I’m broke now. 

Bed frames arrived and got setup tonight.  I hurt all over.  I love IKEA but can someone tell them that not every part of the frame needs a metal or wood thingy!!  I pretty sure it would survive just fine with a few less pieces.

So this has cut into my time.  Putting furniture together and I’m not done… *Whimper*

TV - was meaning to watch the Fringe tonight.  Sigh.  As I was putting beds together, I came down to check that the PVR turned on and it did.  But it has this new programming and it doesn’t freaking work.  I got 15 minutes of the Fringe.  15 freaking minutes - what am I supposed to do with that and how does the PVR tape 15 minutes of a show that was supposed to be 1 hour and 35 minutes?!?!  So, I don’t know if I’ll be watching this until it comes out on DVD because I can’t watch it without knowing what the hell is going on.

Hmmm.  This is an entry that has gone all over the place…

Wow.  A little late - this chickie has to go to sleep - on my new bed (frame)!

Catch up on things this week.  I promise.

Alrighty.  So I read tonight that Robert Downey Jr. is dissing the Batman movie.  He said, and I quote:

“My whole thing is that I saw ‘The Dark Knight’. I feel like I’m dumb because I feel like I don’t get how many things that are so smart. It’s like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and script writing and I’m like, ‘That’s not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.’ I loved ’the Prestige’ but didn’t understand ‘The Dark Knight’. Didn’t get it, still can’t tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character and in the end they need him to be a bad guy. I’m like, ‘I get it. This is so high brow and so [expletive] smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.’

Now, I haven’t posted my review of either the Batman or Ironman movie but let me just say, he’s absoluetly right on the point of having intelligence.  On the quick front:  I found Ironman okay.  Everyone I know, loved it.  LOVED IT.  So perhaps I went in with a high expectation.  Now, truthfully, never liked Ironman comics.  Man in a tin can.  I don’t get it.  The movie is predictable and the conflict easily solved with a rock ‘em sock ‘em ending.  Again, it was ok.  Nothing that hasn’t been done before, nothing truly story telling and no thinking required.  The action flick you go see because, well, nothing else is out.   Ya know, while you wait for Freakin’ Batman to come out!!

Yeah, I loved Batman.  There were flaws (I’m highly critical when it comes to doing Batman right) but overall, it stayed dark.  It stuck to the story and you had to pay attention.  The acting by all, was brillant.  I thought so anyway.  And it did require some intelligence to follow along but it wasn’t so difficult that most people couldn’t do it.  However, I do believe that’s why I did like it more - it had thought put into the script and twists and character development that you had to pay attention too in order to stick with the story.

What’s probably more dumbfounding is that Robert Downey Jr. couldn’t follow along to a Batman movie!