Computer Troubles at the Hospital and at the Symphony

We go to the symphony to hear great music. We go to the hospital when we’re injured or sick, and hope that the caregivers will heal us. When you’re sick, the only thing that matters is getting healthy. When you’re healthy, you have a huge array of activities to choose from, one of which might be going to hear great music.

Both orchestras and hospitals use computers to do their jobs. In both cases, computers play an important supporting role, while people deliver the actual services customers/patients want.

One of the great hospitals, Mount Sinai, and one of the great symphony orchestras, the New York Philharmonic, provide clear illustrations of how differently medical and cultural institutions think about the computers they use.

Computer Trouble at the Symphony

There was a computer outage at the New York Philharmonic. Along with many other subscribers and supporters, I received an e-mail on May 7^th telling me about the problem.
The Philharmonic is clearly embarrassed by the situation, and went out of its way to make sure their customers know about it, what the status is, and what they’re doing about it. By sending this e-mail, they clearly announced to many people who would otherwise have had no idea the computers were down that there was a problem. But to their credit, the Philharmonic’s priority was being open about the situation so that any inconvenience was minimized.

Computer Trouble at the Hospital

There was a computer outage at Mount Sinai hospital last fall. I personally experienced the problem and wrote about it here. In striking contrast to the Philharmonic, no public word was or has been issued about the situation, so far as I can tell – even though I’m a patient, and even though Mount Sinai is much more crucial to my health than the Philharmonic.

Mount Sinai may be embarrassed. I have no way of knowing; they’re keeping a pretty tight lid on the situation. In fact, as far as I can tell, the medical profession combines suppressing all information about system outages with considering the whole subject to be a joke.

Why do I think they think it's a joke?

There is a list of the top 100 hospital CIO’s. There is a little blurb about each one of them. Among the 100 mini-bio’s I can find only one reference to whether their computer systems are working are working or not. Here it is. First of all, keeping computers running is beneath mention in 99 of the 100 cases. In the one out of 100, here's what they say.

He "caused" a network-wide crash -- but that's OK, he "played a role" in "recovering it" (sic) too, ha-ha-ha.

Conclusion

There’s an attitude problem and an issue of priorities among the people who run hospitals. Comparing them to their counterparts in the world of symphony orchestras illustrates the problem vividly. The people in charge should make sure that their computers are actually up, running and available, above all else. They should track their performance. They should be open and transparent about it. They shouldn’t suppress information. Above all else, they should get it done! Sadly they’re not getting it done, in spite of their monstrous salaries and budgets, and that’s not likely to change any time soon.