Monthly Archives: October 2007

Google Maps Snaps My House

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Only a nerd like me would be excited about this.  Streetview is an awesome feature of Google Maps.  It allows you to see 360 pictures of the streets in Google maps.  Google has mostly taken pictures of the streets in big cities.

Yesterday, Just as I was arriving home from work there was a car with a fancy camera mounted on a pole that extended high above the roof.  On the side of the car was a  magnetic Google sign.  I recognized it as the car that takes the Streeview pictures.  I hope it caught me in my car.  I was amazed that Google was already photographing the streets of this relatively small town.

I wonder how long it will take for the pictures to appear.  I will check periodically.  If there are pictures of my car or houe I will post the link.

PACS: workflow is the often missed key

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When we selected our PACS system we over-emphasized our desire to archive images (“going filmless”).  We failed to really understand the entire radiology workflow.  The paper requisition is such a key today to drive workflow and document information needed by the reading radiologist.  Consequently, films are available for reading, but still sit in the queue waiting for the paper requisition and the hand-written notes.  Furthermore, the techs are still moving that piece of paper all around the department.
We had developed scenarios, but somehow we missed all of these key workflow steps in the process (ouch).  Our PACS system is great at capturing, storing and moving around images.  But we missed out on a host of workflow improvement opportunities.   So, we are busy developing workarounds using other systems and scanning solutions.

Goals

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Reaching a goal should be your reward for all of your hard work. Set challenging, but achievable goals. On a daily basis allow yourself to visualize the moment that you reach your goal. When it happens, embrace it. It is bound to be different than you had planned. When you reach your goals, have a smile on your face that tells everyone that you are completely satisfied.

2007 Chicago Marathon Finish

How much time do IT folks work on projects?

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I spend a lot of time analyzing how much time we spend moving forward strategic initiatives, versus support and minor enhancement work.  As I have looked at our various operations over time I have found that number fluctuates between 15% and 25%.  So, if you have 10 analysts in an IT department, your only getting 1.5 to 2.5 FTEs of project work.  Hardly enough to accomplish a big project.

We spend a lot of time talking about how we can get that number higher. And like anything you want to improve we have to measure it.  Our IT team track all of their hours so we can analyze the data.

This year we are estimating that we have the capacity to work on 100,000 hours of IT projects.  But, the nature of that work is that there is a lot of inefficiencies.  Folks are not on an assembly line waiting for the next part to arrive.  There are a lot of stops and starts.  It will be interesting to see how much project work we actually complete.  I would not be surprised if it is less than 50,000 hours.  I will let you know.