Getting the Record Straight
Electronic Health Records Fast and Efficient…So Why Are So Few Doctors Using Them?
New York Daily News
May 30, 2009
The Obama administration has promised $20 billion to expand the use of electronic health records in doctors' offices.
The patients had the same name, lived in the same city and were born only one day apart.
But the girl in front of Dr. Shamiza Ally was not the one in the photo on her medical record.
It turns out the front office staff had inadvertently checked in the wrong patient, and Ally had filled in the wrong person’s chart. Ally did not catch the error until it was time to schedule a followup visit.
“It could have ended much worse if medication were involved,” said Ally, a pediatrician at Urban Health Plan, a Bronx clinic serving 31,000 patients, many of them from low-income backgrounds.
The photo in the health chart might not seem like a big deal, but it’s part of the Urban Health Plan’s ongoing system of electronic health records, first implemented six years ago.Read the full story.
The Quiet Dissent of Cuban Youth
As Castro’s new crackdown throws dissenters into jail for up to 27 years, many youth are protesting Cuban life in quiet ways — from operating illegal living-room businesses to coveting forbidden videos and magazines.
April 11, 2003 |
Home Sweet Home
Illegally converted homes are a problem as old as time. But with the economy in the dumps, is it about to get worse?
New York Daily News
Jan. 25, 2009
When Jesus Castellanos, a construction worker, became jobless in the fall of 2007, he knew he had to cut expenses – big time. So the 30-year-old moved in with two other men into a small room in a Jackson Heights home for $175 a month.
There was no heat or electricity, and at least 13 other people shared the five-bedroom home, all of them Latino immigrants. But for Castellanos, originally from Mexico, it was the only thing between him and a homeless shelter.
“A lot of people might blame the landlord for being a bad guy, for breaking the law, but he helped us out,” Castellanos said.
Complaints of illegally converted dwellings have jumped 62 percent over the past three years, according to the Buildings Department. That’s despite new laws that raised penalties to as much as $25,000 and a year in jail. Read the full story.
Sharing business space to boost income
New York Daily News
December 22, 2008
It’s a Saturday afternoon at the Great American Laundromat in the East Tremont section of the Bronx, where Hawa Sidibe has spent the better part of her day. But she’s not impatiently awaiting the rinse cycle — she’s busy braiding a woman’s hair into neat rows in a makeshift salon the size of a walk-in closet.
“An outside store is expensive for me, that’s why I have it inside a laundromat,” said Sidibe, a 26-year-old immigrant from Mali.
At a time when the profit margins of countless small businesses are shrinking, shops-within-a-shop like Sidibe’s are multiplying throughout the city.
Sari Maker Worth the Journey
Queens Courier
Dec. 8, 2008
To find the tailor of 37th Avenue, you have to allow yourself to get lost.
You can start by meandering down the avenue in Jackson Heights, past the discount stores and street vendors hawking samosas, nuts and the holy Koran. Cross Kalpana Chalwa Way, named after the Indian-American astronaut who perished in the 2003 Columbia explosion and come to JMD, where rows of saris glimmer in the window. Walk down the staircase to the underground mall, past the beauty salon specializing in herbal waxes and a tiny store selling Bollywood videos.
This is where you will find Abdul Majid, hunched over a Juki sewing machine set directly into the table in front of him. There is no music, no distractions, just the steady swish, swish of the steel needle gliding across colorful pieces of fabric Majid feeds into the machine. The only decorations are scribbles of customers’ phone numbers and sketches of dress patterns, taped haphazardly to the walls.
Marijuana University Offers Higher Education
Agence France-Presse
June 2008
A private San Francisco area university dedicated to the study of the cannabis industry is giving a whole new meaning to higher education. At Oaksterdam University — so called after the nickname locals have given to Oakland — students learn how to grow, harvest and cook marijuana, as well as dispense it to others.
The goal, say administrators, is to educate consumers about the benefits of the mind-altering plant and encourage graduates to start their own dispensaries in California, even though possession remains prohibited under federal law. The university, which is modeled on a similar school in Amsterdam, opened in November and has recently begun offering classes in Los Angeles. Read the full story.
Bay Area Company Eyes European Market
Agence France-Presse
May 2008
SAN FRANCISCO – Earth-friendly thrill-seekers in Europe can get into the driver’s seat of their own Tesla Roadster, provided they have a trunkful of cash to buy an electric sports car that zips from zero to 100 kph (60 mph) in less than four seconds.
California‘s “green” governor Arnold Schwarzenegger bought one. So did actors George Clooney and Kelsey Grammer.
Tesla Motors opened its first store over the weekend on the Los Angeles coast and has begun taking orders in Europe via the Internet. It plans to show the Roadster off at the Cannes Film Festival this month and at the Monaco Grand Prix and Le Mans auto races.
Thanks to a wimpy dollar and stumbling US economy, the Northern California car maker is focusing on Europe a year ahead of schedule and plans to soon open stores in Paris, London, Munich and other cities there. Read the full story.
Grapes of Wrath
Despite years of migratory experience, Mexican families make life on both sides of the border
Stockton Record
FRENCH CAMP – It takes 37 hours to get from the tiny village in Michoacan to Stockton, but it’s a trek the Perez family makes twice a year.
Every spring, after the rains have stopped, they pile their pickup high with clothes and food, setting out on the trip that has become a sort of pilgrimage for the farm worker family. They drive 10 to 12 hours a day, stopping only for bathroom breaks or to sleep. They inch through the deserts of Northern Mexico and the long line at the border. They skirt Los Angeles and blow through Bakersfield as they climb up Highway 5.
Eventually, they come to French Camp, as they have for decades, their Chevy pickup a dusty camel that has once again survived the treacherous journey.
“We are like the Bulgarians,” says 50-year-old Guillermo Perez Sepulveda, referring to Roma Gypsies. “We carry our homes with us.”
Others have also resigned themselves to the migratory existence that sends them from French Camp to other agricultural communities in Oregon, Southern California and Arizona. For their work, they receive an average of $7 an hour or $5 for each box of cherries they pick. Those who earn more than $80 a day are considered fortunate.
“Nobody likes doing this, but we have no choice,” said Miguel Angel Garibay, 44, who had also recently arrived at the migrant camp with his wife and four kids. “It’s a vicious cycle that forces us to live the way we do.”
Last week, dozens of new arrivals stood in line at the Joseph Artesi Migrant Center, waiting to present identity cards and be given keys to the simple wooden duplexes that would be their homes over the next months. Ryder trucks and vans idled in the parking lot, as families moved back and forth to unload the items they had brought with them. All camp residents are required to have permission to work legally in the U.S.
Nearby, a group of adults greeted familiar faces, shaking hands and slapping backs, as they sought refuge from the already-blazing sun. Their kids ran around, looking for their friends from last year.
“We are a community here,” Guillermo Sepulveda said. “Everyone knows each other and we don’t have any problems. We are here to work.”
Gloria Marquez and her husband, Rafael, are other long-time residents of the camp, but after nearly 40 years of the migrant life, they are thinking of quitting. At 65, Rafael is no longer the spry young man he used to be. His back hurts. His joints ache. But he still ambles out to the fields several months a year in order to supplement his pension.
The Marquez kids, however, aren’t following in their parents’ footsteps. They’ve settled in Southern California, where a son works in construction, two daughters are in real estate and another daughter owns her own business. ”We are glad they are not in the fields,” Gloria says. “It’s too hard and pays so little.”
Great Coverage.