Monthly Archives: October 2008

Upgrades

Posted on by

Ministry’s approach to product updates has changed over the years.  Previously, we endeavored to take all upgrades as they became available.  Recently, we have taken a different approach.  Our IT resources are scarce and demand is high.  We have to have a compelling reason to commit resources to any effort.  We now postpone upgrades unless there is a compelling reason such as a new feature with a significant ROI; remediation of a painful problem; or end of support for the current version.

The existing version of any application has hundreds of features that we are not leveraging.  So, stating that newer is better is not sufficient rationale.

This philosophy applies to desktop software (Office, Windows) and enterprise applications (Meditech, GE Centricity, Picis).

What’s your approach?

Memories of Jeanne Gittings

Posted on by

This week a dear friend of mine passed away suddenly.  Jeanne Gittings ran the library at Trinity Regional Health System.  Jeanne and I worked together from 1995 to 2000.  A fraction of her career in the Trinity – she started in 1969 after receiving her degree from Augustana that same year.

Jeanne was dedicated to her role as a medical librarian.  It seemed more like a calling than a career.  She was selfless and constantly adopting with the times.  I got to work with Jeanne during the Internet revolution.  During that time I saw the library go from periodicals and books to PubMed and the web.

Jeanne and I taught a series of community classes on how to search for reliable medical information on the Internet.  She convinced me that I should be demonstrating Google searches (at the time I was an Alta Vista user).

After leaving Trinity I found that all medical librarians seem to demonstrate the traits of service and adaptability.  At Affinity I found that Michele Matucheski and Mary Bayorgeon were from that same mold.

Appreciate your medical librarians.  I can’t think of a better way to honor Jeanne’s memory.