We Have a Dream

Working with Fran Trant and Dawna Vann of the Service Excellence team, a group of IS managers and staff recently met to brainstorm a vision of their "preferred future" for Information Systems. Building on the concepts of communication, innovation, and customer service (which they identified as core values in a previous work session), the group agreed on the following statement as an accurate reflection of their dream:

We engage our customers and colleagues as we channel innovation and harness technology to create a postive customer experience.

In future working groups, IS will expand on this vision statement to create a set of core principles that exemplify Service Excellence in Information Systems. Based on those principles, IS will then define concrete "behavioral competencies" -- measurable performance objectives that can be used to evaluate an individual's success in bringing service excellence to her or his job. Eventually (after a suitable trial period during which staff becomes accustomed to the new requirements) these competencies will be incorporated into employees' annual performance appraisals.

An IS team employs kinesthetic techniques to help solidify their vision.

Virus Update

As many of you are aware, since the first of the year, IS staff has been diligently combatting an invasion by a nasty computer virus. But this is not just a local problem -- the malicious intruder continues to infect millions of computers world-wide.

"This is enormous; possibly the biggest virus we have ever seen," said software security specialist David Perry of Trend Micro.

Here's an article with more details on the Conficker virus.

Happy New Year!

Please join me in welcoming our new CIO, David Runt, to Contra Costa Health Services. With a new year and new leadership, we have an opportunity to re-invent ourselves, building on past achievements but unburdened by the baggage of habit and tradition. Our talented team is committed to collaborating with all our colleagues in CCHS to enhance the care and outcomes -- dare I say, the "experience" -- afforded to the people of Contra Costa County.

Stay tuned for more news on our plans for 2009!