Comments on: MD Leader 1/15/09

By: bignurse

bignurse — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:42:55 +0000

Hello Mr H,

What do you think about the Sunquest thread in the Discussion area? Do you think it is wise for employees to sound off about their employer in a public discussion area like HISTalk? I guess it wasn’t so wise for the poster who got dismissed. Not everyone can be a Justin Deal. Interested in your thoughts.

[From Mr. HIStalk] I hope they’re not using their real names and that someone wasn’t axed because they were. Posting anti-employer rants is risky if you aren’t absolutely certain you don’t give yourself away, even by the subtle nature of what you said or when you said it (like the police, employers always look for someone with motive, which can narrow the field down more than you might think). And, I don’t always run them, especially if they insult someone by name. If someone hates their employer that much, it’s time to either find a new job or quit complaining. I’ve been in the same position and my only regret was that I waited too long to leave because of inertia.

By: MM

MM — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:46:20 +0000

“Good process and leadership trumps bad software.”

There are some many things wrong with this statement I don’t no where to start. Suffice it to say I completely disagree with this statement.

Nothing trumps “bad software.”

By: Esther

Esther — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:15:14 +0000

Great post! I love it when the clinicians take ownership of the clinical projects. Unfortunately that is not the norm in our organization but we’re getting there. My primary soapbox as CIO is that IT should not ‘do it’ to them – if they want something they need to own it. We are there to assist them in anyway we can. We have at least gotten to the point that we are no longer calling them IT projects but Clinical Technology projects. When a technology project is planned/budgeted it shows up in capital as the department who is driving the implementation.

By: Francisco Scaramanga

Francisco Scaramanga — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:23:41 +0000

I can understand that you don’t want people padding their budget estimates to ensure 100% success, but I also understand why someone might bristle at having their project labeled a failure for completing work too far ahead of schedule or producing something at a lower cost than expected. Much is learned during the course of a project, and it seems like you might inadvertently be disincentiving people from taking advantage of optimization opportunities.

By: Forward Solutions

Forward Solutions — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:24:06 +0000

An interesting post — A partner and I are ramping up to start a consulting practice sharing best practices for HIT projects. We are consistently amazed at what a little project management rigor can do to keep the ship on course.

Thanks, always interested to hear success stories and lessons learned on HIT projects.