St. Lawrence County
Information Technology Advisory Committee
March 27, 2008, 2:00 pm
Location: Claxton Hepburn Hospital, Ogdensburg, NY
Meeting Minutes
Present: Sign in sheet handed out (Laura Perry has on file)
1. Phil Deleel called meeting to order at 2:05 pm.
2. Marc Rousch made a motion, seconded by Greg Stahl, to accept meeting minutes from the 2/28/08 meeting. Motion passed.
3. Mark Webster, CEO of Claxton Hepburn joined the meeting. The group made brief introductions. Mr. Webster provided a discussion on his perspective of technology issues at the hospital. He gave a brief outline of how the healthcare industry works and some of the challenges for implementing the new technology.
· Healthcare is a growing industry. Hospitals function on very tight margins. As a regulated entity, they can’t control pricing. As a non-profit, they are required to serve the public (even uninsured). Hospitals in NYS are ranked in the bottom 2 for profitability among all 50 states.
· Healthcare is a big user of technology. In the last 10 years, technology has reached into the clinical side of healthcare.
· One challenge for adopting new technology has to do with the dichotomy of interests among the hospital’s potential user group. More senior doctors are resistant to new technology, while newer doctors demand more advanced technologies.
· Another challenge for investing in new technology is that it is hard to identify a ROI. When investments in IT compete with other capital investments, it is difficult to prove that the technology will drive the bottom line.
· Claxton Hepburn has 849 employees, and a $42m annual payroll.
· The committee thanked Mr. Webster for sharing his time and insights.
4. Subcommittee Report:
Strategic Plan for Universal Broadband Coverage – Laura provided a report on the subcommittee’s progress to date. The subcommittee (C Tuttle, K Lynch & L Perry (P Wagschal-absent)) met 3/17/08. The subcommittee reviewed the Meade County strategic plan. The group identified a need to produce a comprehensive document such as the one for Meade County, but also identified a need to move forward while such a document is being produced. In an attempt to gather data to be used for an interim plan, the subcommittee is recommending the IT Committee host a one-day work session in which representatives of the County’s stakeholders sit down to discuss what their needs are and how the county committee might serve those needs. A draft list of the stakeholders are attached to these minutes.
The following are the reactions and recommendations from members of the IT Committee:
· Overall the group gave a very positive response to the idea and the initiative.
· How many people did we anticipate? Ans. 30-50.
· Recommendation to gather a diverse group of stakeholders – both across disciplines and geography. Definitely should try to include representation from as many Towns as possible.
· Question of whether we should host more than one session – so to best include the broad spectrum of needs due to the geographic size of our County.
· Recommendation for the invitation to include a description of what our expectations are for them. This is to maximize the productivity of this one day session. We should encourage them to think about what we are going to ask of them for input and information during the session. By giving invitees this heads up, they may do a little fact finding in their own organizations prior to attending the session and bring that information with them to the meeting.
· Other thoughts on the content of the day:
Morning session should include:
· a brief overview of the IT Committee, including the value of the committee, examples of successful projects, and the potential role it can play in the County
· 15-20 min discussion on successful examples of IT in society - the goal is to help people think about what is possible if needs are addressed
· possibly provide an opportunity for groups or stakeholders that want to share their story with the entire group – in terms of sharing what their accomplishments are and what their needs are, example provided was to invite Tom Coakley of the Canton Initiative to talk about its accomplishments and challenges.
· Folks were open to scheduling the day on May 22, at CU Barben Rooms, with the idea that members of the committee would participate in the session and wouldn’t need to give up a second day that month.
Laura promised to take these suggestions back to the subcommittee and work to come to some resolutions on the suggestions. Also, the subcommittee will ask for help with putting the invite list together. More to come on email.
G2 - Broadband Access Map to Establish Baselines and Target Areas – J Montan provided a brief report on the status of the survey. He received a sample data dump from the Allen Tunnel group to ensure that he is able to use it for the mapping effort. He has not heard from the Chelse Snyder, the Youth Bureau’s intern who is receiving and entering data from the paper surveys. He hasn’t heard a survey count from Allen Tunnel either. The group briefly shared experiences with distributing and sharing the survey. Laura mentioned that she planned to do a second round of press releases and touch base with distribution locations. She also mentioned that she had an interview scheduled with Craig Freleigh at the North Country This Week for an article.
G3 – Laura mentioned the announcement of the grant funding announcement for the project in Newtown Falls. She thanked Jon Montan and Heidi Ames for their role in this process, and will be looking forward to discussions with the partners to close the $25K funding gap.
G4 – SLC Government Technology Projects – M Cunningham gave an update on the status of the County many technology projects currently under way:
New telephone system – some new handsets have been placed on desks with intercom working, Court House scheduled to go live later in April.
Website RFP – is on the street, with responses due back April 10. Return deadline was postponed after some changes were made by dataprocessing.
WAN RFP – is on the street, pre-bid conference was successful, with very few question. Fairly straight forward service requested.
New IT Director Position job desc – Mike thanked folks for making submissions. He said he would take any other input as it comes in, summarize our recommendations and forward to Karen early in April.
New Business –
Laura asked the group to consider a recent announcement by the NYS PSC to take public comment on assigning a new area code. She shared a brief review of the situation and asked whether or not the committee felt it had a role to play in this issue or if it was interested in learning more at a meeting in the future. The thought was to invite someone to come and talk with the committee about the issues involved.
There were mixed reactions to this suggestion. The group decided to watch as the situation progresses. As of 3/24, the public comment period had been suspended because of a court action. It was agreed that we may want to revisit this next month as news progresses.
Next Meeting will be Thursday, April 24th at St. Lawrence University in Canton. Francine Perretta will chair the meeting, and Greg Stahl will host. (Note the date & location previously noted on minutes & agenda was incorrect).
Action Items
· Strategic planning committee to discuss reactions from the full IT Committee, develop invite list and continue planning
· Continue Survey Public Relations
· Members to distribute information about surveys.
· Newton Falls Grant Team to discuss next steps.
List of possible stakeholders for our work session. 3/18/07
1) Local Government
- Town/Village Clerks
- Assessors
- Planning Board members
- County Government
- Libraries
-
2) Higher Education
3) K-12 Education
3) Business & Agriculture
- Chamber of Commerce
- Small Business Reps
- Manufacturing
- Agriculture
4) Healthcare (Hospitals and Medical Providers)
5) Tourism Recreation & Parks
6) Residential
7) Community Based Organizations
- 501C’s (Can we get a list of these in SLC from the County?)
8) Broadband Providers
9) Libraries
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