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.
Preparing for Frances
Things to do:
- Back up the computer
- Collect all the things to take with us
- Secure the apartment
- Top up the hurricane kit
- Gas up the car
- Get some cash
- Find a place to evacuate to
Where we evacuate to will depend largely on where Frances decides to go. During Hurricane Floyd back in 1999, we took off to Atlanta (had to go there anyway). The wife says we should go there again this time. But if Frances goes inland and turns to follow the coast, then Atlanta might not be such a good choice.
Bye bye Gaston, Hello Frances
We weathered Gaston pretty well. The wind got pretty howly and saw some branches fall from the trees outside one of our windows. Lots of water and blown down foliage on the roads yesterday and flooding in all the usual places. We ended up losing power twice yesterday, but not for very long.
Pop! Pop Pop Pop!
They’re popping like mushrooms after a heavy rain! Big Hurricane Frances still in the mid Atlantic, and now there is Tropical Storm Gaston that popped up off the coast. Fortunately Gaston looks like it won’t bring much more than a lot of rain as it wanders over top of us.