Hospital, technology and being given a chance...

Since it's been a while that my dad is at the hospital, I couldn't help... The geek in me is eyeing those cool gadgets they have.

Sacré Coeur hospital, besides being my neighbourhood hospital (which at one time or another saw all of us, dad, mom and I for various ailments), it's also one of the best trauma hospital in the province. My dad couldn't be at a better hospital than this one.

It is also for this hospital that last September, I ran for a good cause. Little did I know... that it would pay some dividends.

Just a few weeks ago, the hospital opened its new ER (Courrier Bordeaux-Cartierville: Nouvelle urgence à Sacré-Coeur).

Since my dad spent several days there and they were in transition from the old emergency to the new one, I also saw the contrast!!!

Ultra modern multi-functional equipments of course. Also real rooms for patients. (At the old emergency, it was just a large hallway that got converted as an emergency. A pudic curtain delimits your "room" in the hallway. :)

So... I was looking at that monitor and the different wires. Howdy, an RJ45 jack. Wait a minute, this is a CAT5 cable? Is this... Ethernet?

A nurse came by... and caught me examining those wires closely. I explained that I'm a computer programmer and my unofficial job is to play with multi-million dollars technology. She chuckles. :)

Yup, Ethernet. All the fancy schmancy stuff are on a local LAN. She said that from her office, she can see on her computer the data coming from all these monitors. She can even reprogram them remotely if she wants to.

In the old emergency (as well in the rest of the hospital), where it would cost a bundle to run CAT5 cables... if you look closely at the ceiling, at regular intervals (say 100ft) you'll see... Wi-Fi antennas.

They have multi-purpose carts with laptops on it which obviously use that Wi-Fi feed. Some of their electronic gizmos also seem to run on Wi-Fi.

Quite a contrast when I was there the last time (in August 2000 for my mom). Also quite a clash, high tech in a century-old hospital... that is otherwise showing its age glaringly. Mhhhh...

(In case one is wondering, while there are still some big big question marks whether there will be any permanent aftermats of his fall, my dad is recuperating well... and he should leave the hospital by the end of the week).

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Now the giggle part...

My mom and I were at the Montréal bureaus of the Régie de l'Assurance-Maladie du Québec, aka the RAMQ. The mighty powerful people who will decide whether my dad will be insured again by the government... or not.

My mom noticed the music was playing in the background. A '60 oldie. "Donne-moi ma chance" (literally "Give me a chance") by Richard Anthony. We both chuckle. Indeed, gives us a chance, oh mighy bureaucrats!!!

I found this clip on YouTube so you could hear the song. What is striking, like many of the oldies of that era... They would play it over the radio again and again, and I'll never grow tired. I'll dance on it non-stop! Probably it's the same for you. :)

It's sad that today's songs... are so... forgetful, shall I say? Too mainstream? Mhhhh...

Let's dance! Donne-moi ma chance!


(*) I'm not _that_ familiar with the American culture. I've no idea whether that song existed in English first. However, if you listen to the piano, it's clearly Chubby Checkered and Fat Domino-esque, shall I say. :)

We would twist and twist and do the twist non-stop, I think. :)