For those of you with a detailed interest in our information systems, Richard Bohmer, F. Warren Mcfarlan, and Julia Adler-Milstein have just published a case study entitled "Information Technology and Clinical Operations at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center". It is available from Harvard Business Online for purchase. Here is the link.Meanwhile, please see the picture above of our intrepid CIO, John Halamka, who recently climbed the Eaglet in Franconia Notch -- the tallest rock pillar east of the Mississippi. The Eaglet is located in Franconia Notch, just across Highway 93 from the former Old Man of the Mountain. Look closely and note John's body position and posture. He explains:
We were doing a data center electrical cutover, so I was checking in via Blackberry.
What better proof of your wisdom in abandoning your Blackberry :-)
ReplyDeleteI always find it comforting to read about this guy. In this world where most of the people think about some of us as overachievers, John makes us all feel lazy, stupid, and uncoordinated. I love to know that I'm actually a very laid back person compared to him.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder he hates reading emails on his Blackberry.
But who took the picture???
ReplyDeleteIf I were you, Paul, I'd be getting palpitations seeing one of my most valuable personnel assets standing up there....
ReplyDeleteThat has certainly occurred to me . . . but we have very good succession planning!
ReplyDeleteNow, seriously, I got the document and it's really good for those of you that want to know what a hospital IT system should look like.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen anything like this anywhere I went (not that I went to too many hospitals, but anyway... of the 3-4 hospitals I visited).
And to continue on the flipant note above, I showed the picture to my husband and he said: "Oh, is he a climber? In this case, that is a really easy climb..." Talk about overachievers...
He got signal up there?!?!? Who's his provider? Most of New Hampshire is a dead zone for me. . .
ReplyDeleteI paid the $6.95 (which, being a skinflint, I NEVER do) and yes, that is a blueprint for success. Doesn't hurt to hire really, really smart people and BELIEVE in them. Also doesn't hurt that the organization realized the value of electronic records-keeping long ago, so that distracting case didn't have to be made, so you had the energy to pursue the simple reality of one doctor facing one patient, and how it spreads from there.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads-up, Paul. I've been wanting for some time to find out what you were so ebullient about. Worth the $6.95. Though, geeze, it's Harvard. They can't afford the bandwidth for me to download it? Yes. I'm still a skinflint Yankee.