Christina's Considerations

Swine Flu Advisory

The CDC has released an advisory regarding the reported cases of swine flu and will continue to post updates on their swine flu site. It is recommended that persons with febrile respiratory illnesses who are in the affected areas or... Read more →

It is the customer's fault!

I can see it now -- visions of stimulus funding dancing in heads the heads of administrators, doctors, and IT staff, but the reality is sometimes an expensive EMR sitting alone in the corner gathering dust while the piles of... Read more →

Grace in the workplace

This morning I checked out one of my fellow bloggers to catch up a little and see how others are using their voice. Dr. Halamka's post on apologizing with candor and grace speaks to what I believe is the responsibility... Read more →

Pandemic Flu: Still a possibility!

The last issue of Modern Healthcare includes an article on pandemic flu that reviews concerns about by the CDC and others that hospitals are ill prepared for a serious outbreak. Yes, their are cases of the flu jumping from birds... Read more →

Speaking Up, Staying Put or Getting Out

I've studied and experienced workplace dynamics and cultures and have only come across really deep system-wide dysfunction twice in my career. Once in a client organization and the second as an employee. The former is now being forced to change... Read more →

New CA Deputy Secretary for HIE

Jonah Frohlich, MPH is being appointed today as the new CA Deputy Secretary for HIE. Jonah's experience working to improve healthcare using HIT for chronic disease management and with HIEs, as well as, his perspective from a role at CHCF... Read more →

Clinical Decision Support Tools

CDS for Medication Management is a "meaningful use" in my book and AHRQ is releasing an online copy of the first chapter of a HIMSS book titled "Improving Medication Use and Outcomes using Clinical Decision Support: A Step by Step... Read more →

Disaster Response: Psychological First Aid for Children

Below are links to brochures (English and Spanish) to assist with the psychological needs of children in a disaster situation. The three primary steps are to: Listen, Protect and Connect PFA Children Spanish PFA_Children English Read more →

Disaster Preparedness: Increasing Surge Capacity with Reverse Triage

I'm currently working on a hospital evacuation project and received information on a paper in Disaster Preparedness and Public Health Medicine on the subject of reverse triage and early discharge of hospitalized patients at low risk for untowed events. While... Read more →

Tax on Health Plans to support HIE

I just read that Vermont has a quarterly tax on health plans to support their HIE efforts and RHIOs. I'm not typically one for additional taxes, but this one seems like it will help address the accrual of benefits issue... Read more →

First Peanuts, Now Pistachios!

There is now an FDA recall of pistachios from Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, Inc. here in CA. This follows the recall of peanuts from PCA in Georgia. Please periodically check the list of safe brands and refer back as... Read more →

Top 50 blogs on wellness, women's interests and work/life balance

The Deleware Employment Law Blog recently ranked the top 50 blogs on wellness, women's interests and work/life balance and Christina's Considerations made the list. I'm honored and hope that my writings on the subject are helpful. Also of note is... Read more →

What is an HIE?

Many readers are still finding my weblog as they search for What is a RHIO? and What is an EMR? EHR?. Given the current attention to health information exchange, I thought I would anticipate the next question some of my... Read more →

An Unprecedented Opportunity: Lets Get it Right!

There are two recent papers addressing the federal stimulus funds for health information technology that I really enjoyed reading and I want to share these (and a couple of comments) with my readers. The first comes from the California Health... Read more →