Busy at Work

It has been a quiet week, but busy at work. It seems like there was nothing between Monday and Friday. I am busy working on the new lab software replacement project and getting ready for a three-day test of the IV pumps next week.

I am a bit jaded at work about new projects. I will admit that the lab one is a bit involved in that it has 6 new servers and 14 new interfaces. The project officially started in January. It always takes longer than planned to select the vendors, signing of all of the contracts, receive the equipment and get the equipment installed. I have learned to get my interfaces written and ready for testing as soon as possible.

The Epic people (hospital software vendor) are over the project as far as management goes for their lab software called by them “Beaker”. They are getting nervous about getting the testing done on all of the interfaces by the end of August. I have been saying from the beginning that it was not going to happen. We do not have any of the software installed for one vendor, the contract is not signed for another, another one does not want to start to test until December, another one is the State of Arizona (which they are always slow), etc. Testing is supposed to start next week. I basically have my part done and ready for testing to start. The Epic people for the hospital are not ready.

The IV pump project is really about over for me as far as actively working on it goes. It has been interesting because we are the first site using the Baxter pump for the Epic vendor. They have been bending over backwards to get it working and have been great to work with. They really want it to succeed. Epic is one of the largest hospital software vendors and so they want to be able to sell in that market.

It has been going really well. It is now more about the application than my interfaces. Next week’s testing involves all of the medications that can be delivered to the IV pumps. It really looks good for the end of July Go Live for the hospital. I will probably only get called in if they need to check on something. Monday, I will be picking up 20 pumps at the hospital for testing. We have a lot of nursing staff coming in to help test.

We had 2 consecutive days of temperatures 100 degrees or above this week. It is about time that summer started. Most of the Winder Visitors have left and we have no problems going to restaurants. By the time summer is over, we will have had 120 days of above 100-degree temperatures. Winter is just not long enough here. The vegetable fields have now sifted over to durum wheat, sudan grass, etc.

The newly built house next door is now finished and the owners have moved in. We have not yet met them. This is the last house to be built on our side of the block. They started another one behind us that is the last one there. We have been here for over 8 years and it is finely getting to be built out. Not to fear though, they will be opening up an additional section soon.

Last week’s workshop project is officially called a Dungeon and Dragon’s portable game monitor. I have seen many more elaborate ones on YouTube that are built into tables. They are making the first use of it this weekend. I am interested to see how it went. If I built it again, I would change a few things. At least I did not have contracts to sign, equipment to be delivered, etc. The customers seem to be “Tickled” to get it. They are more worried about function than form. The next one will have a more finished form.