The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles) (10 page)

“Is there any way for me to enter data
and actually see it get caught? I really want to see it work.”

Jim looked at David, “Dave, with your
approval I could make a test bed for Ryan.”

Then turning back to Ryan he said, “It
wouldn’t be able to actually send a treatment to the hospital, because it won’t
be on the network, but it should be able to let you do what you’re asking.”

“David, what do you think?” said Ryan.

“Sure, and I can help, but that’s going
to take a day or two, to set up.”

“Thanks guys, again I sure do
appreciate it. I’m sensitive to the time it’s taking away from your other
projects, so thanks.”

Jim smiled, “It’s okay Ryan, I’ve
always enjoyed a good mystery, and I really want to see you solve this one.”

“Thanks again, just let me know when
you’re ready guys; I’ll see you later.”

Ryan headed back to his desk wondering
if the work they were about to do was going to be another wasted effort. Still
though, it would help to rule out one of the two possibilities on the research
side. That alone was worth something.

Jim looked at David.

“Do you really think the answer could
be that simple?”

“No, but Ben said to help him, so help
him we shall.”

Ryan’s test bed would take some time to
prepare.

Jim remembered he had a date tonight at
the causeway, a redhead he’d been out with a few times over the last month. He
met her at work once when several vendors and suppliers were invited to some
sort of an appreciation dinner at IntelliHealth. He didn’t know what she was
selling, but he certainly explained how much he appreciated her coming. They
had been dating ever since, and tonight he didn’t want to be late.

“Dave, what would you think if I started building Ryan’s test-program tomorrow.
I would like to finish the network scans today.”
“I agree, I’d like to wrap up a script I’m working on this afternoon. Besides,
I wanted to get out of here a little early today anyway to get ready for a
network party tonight.”

“Yeah, that sounds great,” said a very
pleased programmer.

Ryan returned to his office, sat down
and checked his mail.

He had messages from Ben and Dorothy,
both wanting to meet with him.

He called Theresa, asked if Ben was
available, and after a quick check, Ryan made way upstairs to see him. When he
arrived, Ben was sitting at his computer reading something. Peering over the
top of the monitor, Ben said, “Ryan there’s been another incident. I need to
know what progress you’ve made so far.”

“Yes sir, no problem.”

Ryan went into as much detail as he
judged Ben was interested in hearing. When he got to the request he’d just made
of David and Jim, he wrapped up by saying, “I believe this test-bed will let us
see how errors are handled when the researchers enter them manually.”

“Ryan, do you really believe your
‘typo’ theory could be the source of this?”

“No sir, I don’t.”
”In fact, I recognize the time David and Jim will spend on this part of the
project is valuable, but it won’t be a wasted effort. It will prove
conclusively that no typo within the treatment entry, manual interface could
result in these errors. Ruling it out as a variable is equally important. My
intention is to identify and narrow the list of variables.”

“Thanks, Ryan. I understand. You are
being very thorough.”

Ben walked around his desk, and sat
down next to Ryan.

“I’m concerned about this project Ryan,
but I really don’t know what more to do from our end. It sounds like you are
working your way through with a logical, methodical approach. And you have some
of my best people assisting you,” he said, “Please keep me updated on your work.

Ryan stood up to leave.

“And Ryan, do not hesitate to contact
me if you need help, or additional resources.”

“Thank you Ben, I certainly will.”

Ryan returned to his office and called
Ms. Allen’s assistant, Cynthia to check on her availability. Cynthia said Ms.
Allen was with someone currently, but would be free in about thirty minutes. He
made the appointment and hung up.

Ryan looked over the notes he had
arranged regarding his upcoming test of the manual interface. He was going to
need a medical treatment to actually enter. Not sure where to go, he made a
note to remember to ask Jim.
 
Then he
headed upstairs to meet with Dorothy.

When he arrived Cynthia ushered him
right into Dorothy’s office. Cynthia motioned for him to take a seat facing her
desk. Typing at her keyboard, Dorothy stopped and turned her monitor around so
Ryan could see it. There was a picture of someone in a hospital bed with a host
of tubes going in, and coming out all over their body. The face was obscured
behind a control panel attached over the chest.
It wasn’t pleasant to look at.

Dorothy stood and walked to the window.
“We now have 145 documented cases of treatment error.
This is the first one that we failed to catch in time.
The person in that image will never regain consciousness. They were given
injections that permanently altered the cellular makeup of their genes. The
research department wants to review what has happened, and has requested that
we keep the patient alive, held in this state, for study.”

“Ryan, I’ve made the details of this
case available for you.”

She turned, sat back down and with a
controlled voice, she said, “What have you learned so far?”
 

Ryan explained as he had to Ben
everything up to the current point, where he was now waiting for the programmers
to arrange a test-bed for him to practice entering information for treatments.

“Ryan, from what you’ve done so far, what is your opinion? Do you believe the
error is generated on the research side?”

“No, Dorothy I don’t.”

“Do you believe it could be an information services error, or more
specifically, a programming error?”

He considered first what to say, and
chose his words carefully.
“I have first-hand experience with technicians who’ve overestimated their
systems. That factor will always be present. However, I’m wrapping up a test
that will likely prove there is no glitch from information services either.”

She was clearly frustrated, “Then
what’s your next move?”

“I wanted to ask for your help. I would
like to speak with someone from Patient Services about how they receive
treatment notifications, and how they are carried out,” he said.

“Of course, excellent.”

Dorothy pushed a button on her desk,
“Cynthia, please take Ryan to see Floor Master Lisa Evans.”

Quickly, Dorothy made a second call.
“Lisa, this is Dorothy. I’m sending Ryan Dane to visit with you now. Please
assist him in any way you can. He is helping us with the treatment errors you
and I’ve been discussing. Thank you.”

Cynthia arrived and cleared her throat
in the doorway.
Ryan stood and walked to the door.
Dorothy glanced at the picture on her display, and then back to Ryan.
“Please report to me again when you know more.”

He nodded and followed Cynthia out the door.

Cynthia led Ryan downstairs to Lisa
Evans, who was looking at schedules in the lobby area of the 6
^th
floor.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Dane. I’m the
Floor Master for this floor. Please call me Lisa.”

“Thank you so much for seeing me, Lisa.
I’m investigating the treatment errors that have occurred.”

“I understand, how can I help you?” she
said.

He explained in more general terms the
work he was performing on the research side. He went on to explain that now he
needed to look at the Hospital side.
“So I guess my first question is, who performs the treatments your patients
receive?”

Lisa began walking across the floor
with Ryan at her side.
“Well, we employee hundreds of bio-technicians of varying skill levels. Any
assigned treatment is usually broken down into a number of procedures. Each
procedure is assigned to a bio-technician who has passed a test, and has
therefore been approved to practice that procedure. So, each day the
bio-technicians arrive for their shift, and log-in to their accounts to receive
the list of procedures they’ve been assigned to carry out on that particular
day.”

“Are there actual doctors here too?”

“Oh yes, we have them all. Our
physicians monitor the patients and provide feedback to the prescribing
scientists. It is a close knit collaboration between patient care and
research,” she said.

Ryan said, “May I see someone’s
assignment sheet, to see what it looks like?”

Lisa nodded and walked over to a young
man at a computer terminal.
“Marty, could you print a hardcopy of your activity sheet for today?”

“Sure,” he said as he typed a few keys,
and a page printed on the machine next to him. “Here you go.”
Lisa picked it up and handed it to Ryan.

It had a list of bed numbers, and the
associated procedures listed next to each.

Ryan looked down the page. The
procedures were all written in medical terminology like ‘Pericarditis
U35rightSD’, ‘Hypoxemia BL108-108’ and so on. They didn’t mean much to him.
What he did notice was that there were no patient names or identifiers present
that he could discern.

“Can we follow you, to your first
procedure?” Ryan asked.

“If it’s okay with Mrs. Evans, it’s
okay with me.”

Lisa said, “Sure lets go.”

They walked behind Marty, following as
he began his day.

First, Marty led them around the floor
to the patient entry area and passed through what Ryan thought were the
hospital sterilizers.

It wasn’t his first time to see them.

He’d visited people in his family in
the hospital before, and seen these units around. They were intended to prevent
visitors from bringing in anything that might be harmful. Lisa was already clean,
but said that Ryan had to go through.

”It’s required before entry to the
patients’ rooms,” she said noticing his hesitation.

He eyed the large black booth with
trepidation, watching as other staff members passed through.
“What does it do exactly?”
“It sterilizes you, using ultraviolet light-waves. It’s very fast, and
guarantees you won’t be carrying any uninvited bugs with you when you enter,”
she said.
He shrugged and stepped inside.
He saw two lights in front of him, one red and one green.
The green light went off, the red light came on. Within a few seconds he felt a
slight burning sensation all over, and then a big whoosh of air. The door
opened on the far side, and he stepped out.

“Ryan, are you all right?”

“Yes,” he said, but he actually felt
like he had been in the sun too long.

Looking for Marty, they ran to catch
up.
He had grabbed a pushcart, and was walking up to a counter, which seemed to be
some sort of a medical supply room. Ryan watched as he held up a small
electronic tablet to one of several scanners, and an attendant brought him a
syringe, a small bandage, some gauze and few other small items.

Ryan said, “What’s he doing?”
”Oh, he’s just shown the supply room operator which procedure he’s going to
perform, and they have given him the necessary supplies.”

Marty looked everything over and
satisfied, moved on. Following behind, Lisa and Ryan soon found themselves in a
room watching as Marty waved his tablet over the bed frame. After it beeped, he
prepared to give the patient an injection. Ryan raised his hand and stepped
forward.
“Wait Marty, before you give him the shot, I just have to ask, how do you know
you have the right patient?”

Marty said, “Well, I’m looking for bed
number 655, and this is its location. Also, my tablet would indicate if I was
at the wrong bed, with a small alarm.”

“So, you verify that the bed you’re
standing next to, is the correct bed?”

Marty looked a little perturbed, “Yes.”

“So how do you know that the patient in
that bed is the correct patient?”