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June 2013

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My Pool got Hit by Lightning – Are You Next?

Posted on June 27, 2013 10:50 am by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

My swimming pool got hit by an adjacent lightning strike!   The lightning strike hit a tree about 6 houses down from my home in Maryland.  I heard the lightning strike at the time (midnight), and I still remember that it was so loud the beagles dived under the bed.

But the next morning, when I woke up, I looked out from my 2nd floor window and saw something that looked like two fried eggs floating in the pool.  It took me about 2 minutes to realize that they were the pool lights, floating in the pool, still tethered by the electrical lines.

The lightning strike was so sharp and close that it broke the lights out of their plaster enclosures and now there they were, fully electrified, floating right in the water.  It took me eight calls to find someone who would come and fix the lights, turn off the electricity and get the lights out of the pool.

If a lightning strike could do that from 6 houses away, what could it do to a person? Because it’s Lightning Safety Week, I looked up some interesting stats from the National Weather Service – check out these stats:

Your chance is being struck by lightning in your lifetime is 1 in 3000!

From 2006 – 2012, about 2300 people were struck by lightning and 238 people were struck and killed by lightning in the US.

2/3rds of the deaths were to people enjoying outdoor leisure activities.

82% of all fatalities were to men.

70% of the lightning deaths occurred in the months of June, July, and August.

Only 10% percent of people struck by lightning actually die, but 70% of those that survive

a lightning strike have serious long-term effects from the strike, including fear, depression and debilitating physical injuries.

STAY SAFER THIS SUMMER, and teach these tips to your kids, too.

  • Get out of pools, away from beaches, lakes or ponds.

  • Never stand by a tall tree during a lightning storm

  • Drop or get away from metal objects like golf clubs, umbrellas, etc.

  • Get indoors or into your car if you can’t get inside.

  • Stay indoors for 30 minutes after the last flash you see.

 

And have a wonderful, active summer?



Why HIPAA Risks are Growing Every Day

Posted on June 26, 2013 10:24 am by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

If you’re a healthcare employee, you already know alot about the HIPAA Rules. You’ve probably received training on how to protect Health information, and have heard about all the fines being levied against everything from small hospices to the largest hospitals (like Massachusetts General Hospital).
Because HIPAA is a federal law, there are expensive penalties involved in HIPAA mistakes (breaches). Fines have ranged from millions of dollars to $50,000. Here are just a few of the recent fines.

Shasta Regional Medical Center –            $ 275,000, June 2013

Hospice of Northern Idaho                         $ 50,000, January, 2013

BCBS Tennesee –                                 $ 1,500,000 March 2013

State of Alaska –                                   $ 1,700,000, June 2012

Phoenix Cardiac Surgery –                        $ 100,000 April 2012

Mass General Hospital –                         $ 1,000,000 February 2011

There have been dozens of other fines, many in the millions of dollars, and, with the passage of the new HIPAA Omnibus Rule, which takes effect on September 24, 2013, there will be many more.

If you are a healthcare organization, you need to address the risk of a potential HIPAA Fine. And the fines not the worst part, because the “resolution agreement” you sign, forces your organization to file all sorts of quarterly reports, meet with regulators for years to come, and those ongoing activites are even more expensive than the fine!

The Office of Civil Rights (part of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services), is self-funded from these fines, and they use the money from the fines to start even MORE enforcement activities.

The basics you need to have in place to reduce the risk of a HIPAA fine include 1) having a Risk Analysis done in the past 12 months, 2) having HIPAA Training conducted annually for EVERY employee, 3) Updating all your Business Associate agreements, 4) developing a robust security awareness program, just to name a few.

HIPAA compliance-related fines are a risk that should be considered by every healthcare organization, no matter how big or how small, because your bottom line, AND your reputation may depend on it!

 



Snowden’s Shameful World Tour

Posted on June 23, 2013 5:44 pm by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

Being a security person, and believing that extrodinary measures are required to keep us safe from
the increasing terrorist threat…   I maintain that Edward Snowden is a total coward, now that he has launched his travel from the US to China to Russia, and presumably, Cuba, Venezuela and Equador.

His judgement on many things is in question, especially in taking advice from another coward, Julian Assange, who’s been living in a small Embassy in the UK for a year.

Perhaps he could make a case that he thought US taxpayers had a right to more details about their tax dollars at work – the NSA’s surveillance programs, but he certainly DOES NOT have the right to disclose any classified program information to other nations, like China and Russia – just to name 2.

He DOES NOT have the right to stir up suspicions between nations, sort of a misguided meddler, basically selling out US secrets to a hostile world, and who knows who’s paying for all the international travel?  Is he handling out secrets for free, or is he selling out our country for financial gain?

His cowardice is illustrated by his total fall into the “What’s Good for Me” logic, which totally ignores issues of national security, destruction of trust between nations, and these actions compromise every statement he’s made so far.

He made himself into a 7-day media star.  He got his 15-plus minutes of fame, and now, he obviously has done a little more thinking about his choices, so he’s totally intent on protecting himself from any penalities, any recriminations, any dialogue with the US over the far-reaching implications of his bad choices.

For these reasons, and quite a few more, and mostly because I believe that he threatens our hope for a more peaceful world, I hope that other nations will grab him, return him to the US – to face the music he chose.

More distrust, more self-absorbed leakers, more lack of respect for the laws that govern civilized countries, is just not something we need right now.



NSA Hearings on the Hill

Posted on June 18, 2013 10:45 am by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

NSA is answering questions this morning about their mega data collection of phone call destinations, before the House Intelligence Committee.

Having worked with NSA for years, I decided to watch the hearings and hear what General Keith Alexander had to say.   Of course, I have a family history with congressional hearings.

For myself, I’m in total agreement with NSA that they should be LISTENING, COLLECTING and ANALYZING intelligence so we can know what is happening all over our complex world and be in a position to prevent catastrophic attacks by those terrorists using their religion like a free pass to kill, maim and attack.

My father died over ten years ago, but one of my favorite memories of him is that is, while he was suffering from cancer, he never missed a Congressional hearing.  He sat with a TV Tray in front of him, with a stack of monogrammed notepaper, envelopes and stamps.

As the hearings progressed (I especially remember him watching Iran-Contra), he would write to each of the congressmen and senators, telling them how he judged their questions, writing to them about mistakes he thought they made.  This was true democracy in action.  From his pen right to the powers-that-be.    And he took his responsibility in this very seriously.

I hope everyone starts watching, learning and taking their role in our democracy as seriously!  An attention-seeking junior technician is having his 5 minutes of fame, and I hope that the great work of the US intelligence community is not going to be slowed down or damaged by his thoughtless disclosures. He should start writing letters to HIS elected representatives.

 




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