Thanks retsof.................I didn't understand the scope of your awesome powers here
I'm not asking for miracles.
That's the bummer about it all *thinks.............do they have a swear filter here*

I'm sorry that you've had a bad experience with hospitals, and I'm also sorry that you lost your Dad.

Hospitals are not always bad. There are some good ones about. My wife is a Deputy Sister in our local hospital, and my eldest Daughter is a ward clerk.

to be honest, we do care already .

i sympathize with the cancer people but i think the projects here are very broad in possible applications, and i would not like to limit that view.

i am in agreement with posting a thread in the chat room, a team section or a project section.

An area/thread along these lines is never going to contain masses of post`s, none of us LIKE to dwell on these things. So it`s unlikely to get the postage that IBM may deem necessary for a seperate area.

Howether if you think of it along the lines of a hospital chapel, it is in my opinion a necessary place albeit only used by a few at a time. The ones that post will feel guilty that they are bringing others down, the ones that read will often not know what to say, so do not post. It doesn`t mean it`s not being used.

Graveyards are not the busiest place in town, they have their own quiet seperate area. They stand as a memorial to those that have fallen and although not frequented by the many all at once all will visit at least once. That visit is more important than all those to the other fun places.




Dying, Cancer etc., are not popular subjects, they`re not something you go out your way to talk of.

Of a million and one posts, a million are inane gags, one offers hope for the future, comfort, empathy, remembrance and fulfills a need to someone.

In our forum, we have an area called The Chapel it contains just one topic " Caring in the Community", it isn`t manic with people coming and going, the postee`s are often not Teddies. It is howether important, it has dignity, grace and is specifically set away from the jokes and the tech. It has purpose and it shows that not only by running this project and others that we care.

It's not the hospitals as much as the culture. The 40 hour days for the interns has to be part of the problem. Can't keep people alive if they are foggy all of the time. On the average, one mistake is made per day per patient in the U.S by the staff/nurses/doctors/whomever. Any patient could use someone from the family to ride herd on them and keep up with the diagnoses and treatment. It's a matter of life and death.

There is no incentive either. The more mistakes they make, the longer the patient stays there, and the more money they make. CNN is on that this week.

One hospital somewhere (I didn't catch it --- oops. A mistake) started flat fee pricing. The mistakes are WAAAY down since there is now incentive to cure the problem.

The post from carl.h made our overseers even more interested. They could do it. I'm not sure how soon. Remember, the motto of IBM is "THINK". They're thinking about it.

I would suggest that it should NOT appear in the Recent threads list, it would then be mixed in with all the jokes, chat etc., make it only available from the Main Forum Index list, then those that use it can go straight there.....it was the one place that I avoided at Grid, you can either 'get along' with these types of threads, or you cannot. I was one of the cannots.....