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 Today in Health it, the story is a state's plan for vaccine distribution and a precursor to the JPM conference, which starts today. My name is Bill Russell. I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system and creator of this week in Health IT a channel dedicated to keeping health IT staff current. And engage.

Today's sponsor is health lyrics. I can be your coach. I've coached CIOs, CEOs, and CMIOs of providers and startups. I read and report on the News Daily. Consult with some of the largest and smallest health systems and startups, and interview the people in the industry that are influencing outcomes. I've been in your shoes.

See health lyrics.com for more information. Alright. . I, you know, today, here's what I did on a, a couple days ago, I posted on LinkedIn, uh, I, I gave an assignment which said, Hey, check this out. Try going out to your state and figuring out what the, the, the covid vaccine, uh, distribution in your state is. And I got a bunch of responses.

Texas, uh, talked to somebody from Rhode Island, Illinois, and others. And, and, uh, so I thought, Hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna check out ours. And, uh, here, here's my report out on this. So this is the state of Florida. This is where I live and I, I report on this for two reasons. One is I report on it 'cause it's where I live.

And the second is I report on it because, uh, this is a perfect example of political hacks trying to score points, uh, where they really shouldn't be. They're getting involved in a process and really hurting the process instead of helping the process. And, and I titled this, you know, what is, uh, not perfect, but pretty darn good look like for vaccine distribution.

Communication from a state perspective. Uh, so I, I do the good and the bad on this. The good. Uh, you know, the governor is over-communicating. I I have a link in the LinkedIn post you can see this morning, uh, where you can go and you can see all the things that the governor's highlighting, all the press releases, all the, uh, the public appearances, uh, where he is talking about public-private partnerships.

They've partnered with Publix, they've partnered Publix, which is the grocery store they've partnered with, uh. Uh, religious communities they partnered with, uh, you know, with, uh, senior homes and, and whatnot. So over-communicating on what's going on, uh, there are many sites to get the vaccine, and I have a link in there.

And it has, uh, just a, a, a huge amount of sites that you can go to to get the vaccine. Pretty easy to find as well. Uh, you can register at the county website. Uh, so some of the, some of the states I've gone to and visited, uh, it's not clear how to get scheduled. They refer you to the local health system.

Local health system refers you back to the, uh, to the county website. Uh, so you have the circular communication going on. Uh, this is pretty clear. You, you click on a link and you can schedule, uh, there's multiple channels of communication. I thought this was one of the more creative things. There's a, there's a, uh, 24 hour, twenty four seven call center.

Because, you know, not everybody is going to be, uh, easily hit the internet and figure things out. So there's a call center. Everyone, most everyone has a phone. Uh, we could talk about mental health and the homeless and, and plans for that. And maybe I'll, I'll, I'll do a show on that later. Uh, there's an email, covid dash 19 at, uh, fl health.gov.

Uh, and then you can also text, there's a, an easy text, uh, to text a, a. A, um, a number and get information back. Uh, the next thing around the good is the expectations on the amount of vaccine per location and instructions are readily available. And I put another link out there for that. Uh, there's a couple things that could be better.

The, the county website that I go to, uh, for my county doesn't have an a, an updated SSL certificate. So the, the browser does warn me. This is not a secure site, uh, that might lead me to believe that this is a, uh, you know, is, is a scam site or something to that effect. So they, they should up. That's such an easy fix.

They should update that. Uh, the information is o is not overly obvious on the florida.gov website. They've signed it up, they set it up like a Google site, which is, which is fantastic. I mean, uh, you know, it's just the one box type in your question kind of thing. And it's really well designed. Uh, but, you know, I think in today's day and age, there's so much information that's needed on the vaccine and on Covid that there should be a banner.

I'm recommending that every, uh, state website should have a banner of some kind that makes it easy to, uh, get over to the, to the . To the, where the health information is, is, is, uh, located. Um, you know, my so what pretty quick on this is political hacks are everywhere right now, and I, I'm really not a fan.

Uh, this is, and I'm not a fan If they do it to Florida, I'm not a fan if they do it to, uh, governor Cuomo in New York. Um, you know, this is a serious challenge and requires our best to partner for the good of those we serve. So, uh, I would highly recommend we not . And we not, uh, participate, uh, with the political hacks trying to score, uh, points, uh, at least around this issue.

If you want to, you, if you wanna be a political hack at other times, by all means have at it. This is a free country, uh, instead of really a, an extensive. So what I'd like to introduce, what I'm likely to be talking about for the rest of the week, uh, and that is the JP Morgan conference. This has been and probably will be, uh, my favorite conference every year.

It is, uh, you know, I mean, this year is gonna be virtual. Last year was in person, in person. It was a phenomenal event for networking. Uh, virtual, it'll be a little different, but the, but the content still looks fantastic. Uh, this conference brings, uh, financial and investors together with biotech, pharma, retails, startups, uh, EHR providers, uh, you, uh, you name it.

And, and, and, uh, healthcare delivery providers. Uh, I go to the non-profit. Provider track. Uh, I get a glimpse into, uh, last year's performance and next year's plans for roughly 16 health systems. Uh, these health systems usually bring their A game because, uh, you know, at some point they're gonna be relying on, uh, the bond markets and debt financing to fuel the engine.

And that is predominantly who they're presenting to. They're presenting to. Bond holders, institutional bond holders, and financial people. Uh, this is what I will be doing starting in about a half hour, uh, this morning, uh, through Wednesday and should be fun. And I look forward to reporting out, uh, to you on the themes, uh, from these provider leaders as well as, uh, I, you know, some of the individual plans.

'cause you know, last year, . Uh, we learned, uh, just a, a ton of really interesting things about what people are doing around social determinants, how they were entering new markets and those kind of things. That's all for today's show. Uh, if you know of someone that might benefit from our channel, please forward them a note.

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Thanks for listening. That's all for now.