Just when you thought it was getting better:
I've been getting rumors, and now several folks have emailed that I probably should put the warning back on the site as to monitoring of PRMC computers. But, that isn't the only thing....
I've been getting rumors, and now several folks have emailed that I probably should put the warning back on the site as to monitoring of PRMC computers. But, that isn't the only thing....
The clicking that you've been hearing on the phone lines--Yep, Big Brother. The new "smoke detectors"? Some have cameras built in to them. Might be interesting to see what ones actuate from actual smoke....I've heard that the outlying clinics all have gotten their monitoring upgraded, as well as Aerofit (wonder where the cameras went there! Better keep the swim suits on in the hot tub!)...guess they feel when the cat's away....
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who watches the watchers?) Me.
Footnote: From a comment, looks like public opinion wins--apparently Huddie doesn't like the flak, and some of the cameras, if not all, have been replaced. Makes me all warm and fuzzy towards Essent. Now we just have to watch the various other appliances to see if they end up in those....frank
18 comments:
Old news, Frank, they're monitoring the smokers, and the number of breaks.
How come does the "Man" feel like he has to monitor the children?(Maybe its because the blog has cost him at least two acquisitions.) The Hubris of this bunch defies belief! They haven't learned anything from their Pyrrhic "victory " over the Radiologists.
Now the word is that the General Surgeons defiance over the central lines will be punished by recruiting two more General Surgeons.(If you can't control the ones you have, get you some that you can control.)This "solution" is the same old hackneyed one that every hospital administrator since Cain has resorted to.
Sorry to say it doesn't work in a town like Paris. The two saps that they can recruit here are either running from something, or can't speak English well enough yet to get a job in Dallas. No top-tiered surgeon is going to move to a town with this pay mix and competition!
Please don't use our recent acquisition of Hamsi and Salas as an exception: the one rents here and in Dallas, the other has said that he is not here permanently. I suspect both are here to try and salvage the mass exodus to Dallas and Tyler by anyone with chest pain and insurance!
It has been said by the surgeons here that there isn't enough work for the ones we have. If you drop some more in the mix, sponsored by the hospital, we might end up losing the ones we trust...but maybe that's the plan: Break them like they did the radiologists here (well, it was the plan, anyway) and the cardiologists elsewhere! Then we can have medical staff like NVMC--and have the medical review boards opening an extension office in Paris!...frank
Worked real well with the GI guys, as well....
If you really want to know which smoke detectors are real, push the battery test button (if it has one). If it's in an outlying clinic, it should have one, since they're not linked into a fire alarm system. If it doesn't work, replace the battery. You might have to wonder where to put it....
Seems as tho' the powers that be are getting less inventive in finding ways to hack folks off. They seem to have achieved what they wanted, automotons marching to their insipid tunes! Perhaps we'll "bore" them outta Paris, apathy seems to be our forte here anyway!
Personally, I don't want my butt plastered on a webcam that's accessible by any 14year-old with a PC. That's how those "priceless" outtakes get on the web.
I dislike the thought that security or MIS will virtually patrol the halls where privacy is a truely sparce commodity already.
If they want to monitor, then monitor, but don't hide it in a smoke alarm!
Health hazard: Computers spilling your history
Former President Clinton's identity was hidden behind a false name when he went to New York-Presbyterian Hospital two years ago for heart surgery, but that didn’t stop computer hackers, including people working at the hospital, from trying to get a peek at the electronic records of his medical charts.
The same hospital thwarted 1,500 unauthorized attempts by its own employees to look at the patient records of a famous local athlete, said J. David Liss, a vice president at New York-Presbyterian.
...from the NY Times
The phrase, "...getting a peek..." takes on a new meaning....frank
One more tidbit from one of our astute readers: "As of today [Friday], certain U.S. companies will need to keep track of all the e-mails, instant messages and other electronic documents generated by their employees, in accordance with new federal rules. In April the Supreme Court began requiring companies and other entities involved in federal litigation to produce 'electronically stored information' as part of the discovery process of a trial."
From the article:
"Under the new rules, an information technology employee who routinely copies over a backup computer tape could be committing the equivalent of 'virtual shredding,' said Alvin F. Lindsay, a partner at Hogan & Hartson LLP and expert on technology and litigation. 'There are hundreds of "e-discovery vendors" and these businesses raked in approximately $1.6 billion in 2006, [James Wright, director of electronic discovery at Halliburton Co.] said. .'"
Most digital surveilence equipment uses CD/DVD technology for storage. So to the person who commented earlier: your butt might be preserved better than it has been so far...or at least longer....frank
Ken Rodgers is supposed to be the manager/director of the clinics. My question to Ken would be "Did you oppose the surreptitious monitoring?" If you didn't then that's the same thing as condoning it.
Welcome to the executive suite of E$$ent Healthcare Kenneth. Do you have any cahones?
The answer is no. Essent recruits the people that are dependent on their jobs--to the point of perverting their sense of right and wrong. The first time it's hard, not as hard the next time, or the time after.... Pretty soon you're just one of the crowd...sort of like the Enron crew...or Judas....
Frank,
here's Essent's records policy....seems to leave the door open for discovery....frank
After all this time studying E$$ent/PRMC management I believe I have figured out the problem here!
The real CEO of E$$ent is "CrazyCrazy Clown", big red nose and all.
His office is hidden somewhere in Administration, though it's pretty easy to find...just follow the trail of peanut shells and abandoned cotton candy shreds.
When the lesser Admin types need an answer or a decision, they stand before the neon throne (embellished by sagging helium balloons) and petition the great and mighty Clown to hand down his words of wisdom!
(A fine example of his early words..."These nurses look too bright and unique in their colorful scrubs, the patients might actually figure out who their nurse is...let's dress EVERYONE in drab and ugly navy blue and khaki so that no one knows who anyone is...yuk, yuk! Besides, with the big bucks we're "gonna be" paying these nurses, they'll be happy to rebuy all these uniforms!)
Of course, everyone knows how important it is to be consistant, so let's not forget CC Clown's number one rule...Keep everyone afraid for their jobs!
Now that I'm on a roll, let's go to # 2!!
#2...Run off intelligent, experienced people and replace them with new grads who are much too intimidated to question Admin...much less know how hospitals should be run. Don't forget the bonus to this rule, these poor kids come CHEAP!
#3...Hammer down on any employee who suggests anything that isn't a parroting of what CC Clown is saying today, no matter how much sense it makes or how well it would work.
#4...Be sure and piss off everyone in this county and anyone else within 200 miles, then gripe about how "the employees aren't working hard enough to please patients/family members". (Translation: not enough patients=less bucks for E$$ent)
#5...my favorite...Continue to do the same stupid things over and over again, no matter where you are or how it screws things up for you. (Eventually these tactics might work somewhere...somehow?)
I'm sure we can add to this list, since everyone had a different view from their seat in the stands of this circus act!!
Every time I get to missing the excitement of the hospital world, I read the blog.
I might not be having my regular adrenaline rushes--and I'm not getting my daily dose of pissed off beyond belief, but I think I'll make it.
Frank, I heard from a semi-reliable source that they took the secret camera/smoke detector out of one of the clinics and replaced it with a real smoke detector. How insulting.
Thought it was newsworthy enough to bring it back to current. Don't worry, one day this will all be a bad dream....
Wonder if we can vote Essent 'out of the house?' You know, "Big Brother"....ahhhh, you're killing me........
They probably did have enough surveilence to make it into a show, with some cutting and splicing, they might have a money-maker...but who'd watch the "Hud and Bud" show?
Apparently Hud could use the cash, however, he's not as flush as he once was....frank
Oh, did yall see that letter to the editor in todays Paris Snooze? It is about Tony Williams, but the author also makes reference to PRMC and Andrew.....
If they are truly monitoring everything in the hosptital why is it that care doesn't improve? Who sees everything? The things that happen at this hosptital not only affect the employees but they affect the PATIENTS. What about people who's lives are changed forever and I don't mean in a good way by the No one really pays attention. How is it that a patient can come in with an infection and then after battling for the right to transfer ends up in Dallas septic, uremic, and overdosed on demerol with no record of ct scans that were charged to the insurance company including the one done at 7:00 the morning the patient was to be transferred? What about the patient who has permanent disabilities from a drug given and no legal recourse. What about the family who has now lost the wages, benefits, and insurance of the patient who had at least fifteen more working years and now walks with a cane? This hospital may disgust some but it literally terrifies me. I wish I had tapes of the conversations and the FEW and SHORT doctor visits. I would put them on TV so anyone withing viewing distance would know that if you are bleeding - put a tourniquet on it and GO TO DALLAS!
Rumor has it that letter that mentioned Andrew the other day in the paris news ruffled some feathers up in admin. Did the truth hurt, Kinzey??? Funny how one sentence from a citizen un-nerved some up stairs.
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