Upstate New York Go Local

Important News

unygolocal — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:53:07 +0000

Yesterday NLM announced during a conference call with Go Local representatives from almost every state that it would end its support for all Go Local projects. While no specific date was set, it is clear that the project is ending and only the details need to be determined. Several Upstate regional liaisons were informed about this meeting via NLM’s Go Local listserv and chose to attend.

For those who were not in attendance, a series of slides was presented showing NLM’s research into usage statistics and user interaction with the site. Currently there are only an average of 27 page views for every 1 hour of staff or volunteer labor. This is considered very low for internet websites. To download a PDF of the slides from the conference call, click on Go Local Story Feb 18-1.

The data that we have created for Go Local will not immediately disappear. We have the option to extract all of it for our own use, if we choose to do so. The Online Input System will also remain operational for another 6-12 months as states transition out of the project. The Steering Committee will be convening this coming Monday to determine our next steps.

Ideas for Contacting Health Agencies

unygolocal — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:56:45 +0000

When Go Local goes live in September, how will we spread the word? Recently, RRLC staff convened to discuss this question. Here are some ideas that we generated in our meeting. Feel free to look through our list and use any ideas that will work for you.

All regional library councils have hospital library programs – ask them if they conduct outreach to healthcare agencies in their areas. Ask their member hospitals if they have outreach programs to healthcare agencies. Ask if the health agencies are looking for presentations on health topics.
Work through hospital librarians to get in touch with key health agencies and to learn about important projects in the area.
Contact the public libraries and public library systems, and ask if they have regular contact with health agencies in their areas. Ask if those health agencies solicit for presentations. Ask to post a link to Go Local on their websites.
Attend health fairs and set up a booth with information about health websites and include Go Local. You can find out about health fairs from your local legislator’s office, the local health department, or health agencies that do screening at health fairs (such as the American Heart Association or the Diabetes Foundation).
Have a breakfast and invite the area health agencies (obtain addresses from the health department). Getting support from the health department lends weight and crediblity to our project. When CLIC-on-Health began, the invitations to the breakfast came from an administrator at the Monroe County Health Department, and this boosted turnout.
Attend meetings of agencies that have a large number of health agencies that they interact with, such as United Way or 2-1-1.
Look for health coalitions, particularly in urban areas where there is a need for collaboration. Ask if they are looking for members, and offer to join. Provide information and research services on issues of health and wellness.

Sharing Resources

unygolocal — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:44:31 +0000

Currently, some of our regions and volunteers are in the midst of gathering data for the terms Emergency Medical Services and Ambulatory Care Centers. I thought I would post a few links to resources that some sites have found useful, so that other sites can benefit as well.

EMS is often offered through local fire departments. A great resource for looking up local fire departments is the FASNY website. The website breaks the departments down by region and even lists non-member fire departments. Check it out:

http://www.fasny.com/locate/

I’ve also discovered that Blue Cross lists all its participating Urgent Care Centers by county. This is not comprehensive because it does not include Ambulatory Care Centers that do not accept Excellus, but it does offer a large list. Take a look:

http://www.findanurgentcarecenter.com/

Keep in mind that resources can sometimes pop-up in unexpected places. Michele Shipley, for instance, kept her eyes peeled and found an article in the Democrat and Chronicle that had a very thorough list of all the Urgent Care facilities in and around Monroe County.

If you know of any other good resources for locating services, let me know so that I can share your good find with everyone. Happy hunting.

Quarterly Report and Steering Committee Minutes

unygolocal — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:36:50 +0000

Our Quarterly Report for the period of October through December of 2009 has been filled with NLM. The report summarizes our progress so far and charts a plan for the remainder of the project. You can access the report here: Go_Local_Report_NYDec2009 final

For our recent Steering Committee Meeting, six of the seven regions were represented. Committee members shared plans for the future regarding funding and promotion and updated the group on regional progress. Linda Cruttenden took minutes for the group. You can access our minutes here: minutes011210

A note regarding the plan outlined in the Quarterly Report. Volunteer Jess Lester brought my attention to the fact that there are only a handful of Poison Control Centers serving all of upstate, and that records for these locations are already in our online system. I edited and approved these Poison Control Center records, and so this term is no longer on the to-do list for any of the regions.

Quick Update

unygolocal — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:32:29 +0000

I am back from Oregon and am checking-in to give you a quick project update.

*The Steering Committee will meet tomorrow at 10 AM via phone.

*I have accepted an extension of my contract until June, which is almost to our soft launch in July.

*I am currently working on Quarterly Report for NLM, due the 15th.

*Over the break, 4 new volunteers began assisting the project as data locaters and data inputters.

*Most regions are still working on inputting hospital data. RRLC and CLRC are done with hospital records. WNYLRC and CDLC are nearing completion. NNYLN and SENYLRC are a bit behind schedule. RRLC and CLRC have moved on to do EMS and Public Health Services.

*NLM has agreed to let us begin submitting individual terms for approval as soon as we are ready rather than beginning our review in March. I have started submitting terms in December.

*Updated Record Count: Approved: 2245 Pending: 69 Incomplete: 2091 — These numbers show that I have uploaded almost all outstanding spreadsheets, and have approved about 150 records in the past 2 months. I will post total record counts by region soon, but a quick glance shows me that 5 of the 7 regions have already met the minimum total record count goal established in October. My focus from this point on in the project will be to fill in Priority Term gaps and approve as many existing records from the incomplete queue as possible.

Browser trouble

unygolocal — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:53:39 +0000

For the past few days I have been experiencing trouble accessing the Site Records dropdown menu in the Online Input System. If you are also experiencing this problem, the solution is to switch to browser that is not Firefox. Internet Explorer is currently working and does not exhibit this glitch. I have alerted NLM about this situation.

On another note, I hope you are having a happy new year so far. I will be flying back to New York on the 9th and look forward to getting back into my regular routine and being closer to you all and easier to contact.

-April Younglove

unygolocal — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:43:00 +0000

Good news. RRLC has been given permission by NLM to change its Go Local budget to extend the employment of the Upstate New York Go Local Database Administrator position through to the end of March. Previously, this position was expected to end at the beginning of March.

In related news, the WNYLRC Watch posted a blog entry in November referencing our project and linking to the HSL Periodical. You can read the blog post here: http://wnylrcwatch.org/newsletter/?p=1131

Project Update

unygolocal — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:07:21 +0000

Due to a family emergency, I have been in Oregon, and will be here throughout the next couple of weeks. I apologize if recently you have been waiting for me to respond to an email or approve a record. Several of you should be expecting hospital record reports and those have been delayed, but are still coming. I will begin working remotely here from Oregon tomorrow morning, and should get caught up shortly. Expect that the project will continue, but that I may take slightly longer to get back to you than usual. My phone number here is 503-320-8741 and the best time to reach me here is 2-4 PM EST. I will continue to be available via email as well. Thank you for your understanding at this time.

~April Younglove

Bilingual Services

unygolocal — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:48:48 +0000

It is my understanding, based on conversations with hospital librarians here in Upstate New York, that in New York State, hospitals must provide services to patients in the language of their choice. Because not all possible languages are available to check in the Online Input System’s language category, I have reccomended instead that the Local Service Term “translation services” be applied. I realized today that I there is no LST called “translation services” and that the term I meant to reccomend is “bilingual services.” For hospitals that I have already approved without the term “bilingual services,” I will go back in and add it in. For future hospital records submitted, please include this term. Thank you.

Health Provider Terms and Hospital Records

unygolocal — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:20:14 +0000

Recently, several different people have brought an important indexing issue to my attention. I’m grateful that we have such astute people working on this project and take feedback about possible problems very seriously.

So far, I have asked indexers not to include Local Health Topics that are health provider terms (for instance Cardiologist, Audiologist etc.) on the hospital records, but instead to list these terms on a separate Doctor Finder record. There are two issues with this. The first issue is that some Local Health Topics that one might like to apply to hospitals cannot reasonably be linked to any Local Service Terms that are not health provider terms ( for instance, heart disease really only fits with cardiologist). The second issue is that it seems strange to list Local Health Topics on Doctor Finder records at all. The health provider term by itself would suffice, but the system prevents people from submitting records without Local Health Topics.

I discussed this on the phone recently with an NLM representative. The good news is that NLM is actually aware of this issue already and is working on a solution. In the future, it sounds to me as if there will be fewer segmenting of terms in different locations and fewer restrictions on how terms may be combined. These are improvements that all of us would appreciate! The bad news is that NLM works on its own time schedule and this solution may not be implemented until September of next year.

So what do we do in the meantime? After some thought and discussion with the NLM representative and with some of my colleagues, I have decided that we should continue indexing records the same way we have been indexing them. It is my understanding that NLM will be able to work with us to find a solution like migrating the Local Health Topics from where they live on the physician finder records to their associated hospital records when it becomes possible to separate LHTs from LHSs. As soon as this capability becomes available (before September even, perhaps), we will be alerted and I will hopefully be able to solve the issue.

I know this solution is not ideal, but I believe that it gives us the greatest flexibility and will require the least duplicating of labor at this point. Thank you all for working with me to help make Go Local a more quality and user-friendly database.