First off, warm wishes to all for a healthy and prosperous New Year. In the words of a Facebook friend, hold on tight ’cause this is going to be an awesome year!
What’s going to make it awesome? Well, it’s hard to say for certain without one of those crystal ball thingies. But a few possibilities come to mind.
My professional field, healthcare informatics, is starting on a big journey. Just the other day, the federal government released its proposed regulations concerning “meaningful use” of electronic health records to be eligible for stimulus bill dollars. This is a big thing, for those of you not plugged in to this topic, since there are a total of $19,000,000,000.00 at stake. Yes, they did get the regs published by their self-imposed December 31 deadline. Those impacted have 60 days to review. And boy, we’ll need that time. The documents clock in at over 600 pages! (Maybe there were pages left over that they couldn’t fit into the healthcare reform bill….) Anyway, those of us who do not claim government-ese as a first language will wait for the Cliff Notes version and see what surprises there might be. In any event, 2010 will be a key year for any healthcare system wanting to get in on the first car of the federal gravy train.
As for me and my team professionally, all of the above translates to job security at a minimum, and more likely plenty of support for our CarePATH team. Looking forward to the challenges. You can follow my healthcare and nursing tweets at http://twitter.com/InfoTechRN
On the domestic front, in late December we accomplished a major objective and replaced Rita’s vehicle. (Pictures in a previous post.) She’s pleased as punch with Towanda — I had no clue as to why Rita chose the name, since it had been so many years since I saw Fried Green Tomatoes. I do now…. We also got the roof replaced and added Zora to the kennel in 2009. This year, we have bedroom remodeling to do, as well as probably basement waterproofing and siding replacement. We also plan to get Zora on the show circuit and expect her to finish her AKC championship quickly. She is still too much of a puppy right now, having just turned a year old December 8, but we see her maturing quite nicely.
I will not vent this time around on politics. There will be abundant opportunities for that, no doubt. Suffice it to say that 2010 will be a pivotal year if we are to remain a constitutional republic — as opposed to something much, much different. Remember to follow my conservative tweets at http://twitter.com/dryost
Thanks for reading. Do feel free to share your thoughts, forecasts for 2010, etc. Have a great year!
Critical Condition 
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