The Bahamas got hammered by Frances, and Florida’s getting it now too. And in another week or so, it may very well be deja vu as Ivan comes barrelling through. It was called a hurricane with today’s 5AM advisory with the 5 day track taking it over Haiti/Dominican Republic and over the Bahamas. But it’s still early yet and a long way away. Definitely another one to keep an eye on.
Apparently August has been a particularly busy season too, with 8 named storms so far. A record from what I’ve read.
In the meantime, if you’ve got some extra cash burning a hole in your pocket, consider making a donation to the Red Cross’ Disaster Relief Fund. You can even donate your spare change at a Coinstar machine.
Where will Ivan go?
Well, thankfully Frances has weakened somewhat and won’t significantly impact us here, but that means Florida will take most of the impact, which is bad considering what Charley did a couple of weeks ago.
Now the next thing to think about is Ivan, which will probably be another big storm coming in the next 7-10 days.
If Jim Cantore is in Daytona, it’s time to leave
Yesterday a couple of local radio guys were joking about how if Jim Cantore from the Weather Channel showed up on Folly Beach, then it’s time to get out. He always seems to go where the weather is going to be the worst. But if Mike Seidel showed up, then it was probably OK.
The latest 11 AM discussion from the NHC makes a Florida landfall in a couple of days more probable The wife has a notion that Frances will decide to skirt the coast, so our preparations continue.
Continue reading “If Jim Cantore is in Daytona, it’s time to leave”
Getting things done in health care
A friend of mine at work received a page today that made me think about how things get done and how to get people to do things in health care. The page was from a nurse manager, and was a complaint about the web based image viewing system not working and how it was affecting patient care.
And there it was, the two magic words: patient care. As anybody who works in a hospital will tell you, you can get just about anything if you mention that patient care is involved. Need to buy or replace a piece of equipment? Just say that it’s required for patient care. Trying to get someone to do something? Mention how the job not getting done is having an adverse effect on patient care. Need something fixed? It’s affecting patient care. Got your eye on some space and want to kick the current occupants out? “We need that space to make patient care more efficient.” And the list goes on.
Of course, it doesn’t work everywhere, and there are a lot of areas in the hospital that aren’t directly related to patient care. So bring up environment of care. “It’s necesary to maintain/establish/promote a good environment of care.”
Patient care, that’s what it’s all about. And it makes people jump.
Take aim!
Looks like Frances is going to be taking a bead towards central Florida, although I won’t feel like we’re out of the woods yet for a couple more days. We had planned to evacuate out to Atlanta for the weekend, but now it seems that will probably be a bit too early.
From the 11 AM 1-SEP-04 NHC discussion:
THE SUBTROPICAL RIDGE CONTROLLING THE MOTION OF FRANCES IS FORECAST TO PERSIST BUT TO WEAKEN. THIS WOULD ALLOW THE HURRICANE TO TURN MORE TO THE WEST-NORTHWEST AND NORTHWEST WITH A DECREASE IN FORWARD SPEED. THE OFFICIAL FORECAST IS VERY SIMILAR TO THE PREVIOUS ONE…AND BASICALLY FOLLOWS THE GLOBAL MODEL CONSENSUS. THE OFFICIAL FORECAST BRINGS THE CORE OF THE HURRICANE NEAR THE FLORIDA EAST COAST WITHIN 3 DAYS.