Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Invest now!

I've written about my enthusiasm in our current economy before, but never have I had such a desire to put my money in the market. There are deals all over the board. Hundreds of good solid companies are being slammed by the market and they are selling at record levels. The return on the companies is going to be through the roof 10, 20 and 30 years from now.

If you don't like dabbling in individual stock put your money in an index fund, but do it now. Unless you are trying to get out from under credit card debt you should be putting any available money you can into the market. The S&P 500 peaked out just under 1600 in 2007. It currently sits at 850. I'm not saying it won't fall further. I can't predict the bottom and if anyone says they can you need to steer clear of that person.

If you were in the market for a 50 inch LCD that was $1600 and got slashed to $850 would you wait to see if it goes lower? I wouldn't. I would buy the thing and enjoy the Super Bowl on Sunday (speaking of which the best time to buy a TV is the week following the Super Bowl because of all the discounts).

If you believe that American business is out of luck and we are going to falter as a country and as an economy then by all means buy some land, build a cabin, dig a well and go be happy, but if you are like me and feel that the economy will rebound sometime and things will be business as usual in the next 10 years then get some money in the market.

Personally I think Microsoft is a great buy right now. The announced layoffs hammered the price of the stock, but that just shows me that the company is in the business of making money. Harsh as it may sound I'm not looking for a feel-good company to put my money in. I want a company that can make the right decisions when it needs to. Microsoft is suffering because the public isn't buying new computers or new software, but do you think that will last? The economy will rebound and I'm betting that when it does a lot of people will be upgrading their computers. When that time comes Microsoft will shoot up again. That's a boat I want to be on.

I also think there are some good banks out there that are going to come out of this recession like champs. The banking industry is getting hammered and because of it some very good businesses are selling for cheap. Check out Wells Fargo.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Inauguration: A sign of things to come?

As we are now in the midst of the worst economic downtrun of my lifetime many are looking to the highest office in the land to make the policy changes to bring us out of this recession. Yet as we begin this historic term we are asked to swallow an inauguration party with a bill of $140 million.

I'm not about to say this isn't a moment that should be celebrated. Barack Obama being sworn in is a wonderful moment for all Americans not just African Americans. Maybe we need this party as Americans. Maybe we need to splurge for a weekend during these hard times. Maybe it's important to let your hair down every once in a while. Or maybe our president elect should have said "hey we've got to tighten our belts as a country" and start with his own party.

I, for one, hope this is just a splurge for a momentous occasion and not a sign of fiscal irresponsibility for this administration, an administration for which I voted and fully support. Washington resembles Hollywood more and more each day and I believe this blatant disregard for taxpayer funds is just another example of the disconnect between the powers that be and the powers that make them be.

Not even president yet and the man has already disappointed me.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Electronic Medical Records

President elect Obama wants to computerize all the nation's health care records in 5 years. I'm not going to go into how much this will cost or whether or not it is feasible, but I will put my support behind it. I work in a hospital and clinic that are both almost entirely paperless. We still have some paper floating around for things such as MRI because the MRI is owned by two hospitals and the radiology group and not all are on the same EMR (electronic medical record).

I love electronic medical records. The transition from paper records to computer records is going to be very difficult for many physicians, but for those of us who are now being trained, computers are second nature. The errors that are avoided by not having physicians write their notes or orders are just the beginning. In addition you also have the accessibility to patients records whenever you need them. When I'm on call I can review labs, read consultant notes, and put in orders all from the comfort of my own home at 2 AM. When a patient of one of my collegues calls with a request for a prescription that was written but never called into the pharmacy I can quickly bring up the chart and read the note from the visit earlier in the day.

IHC in Utah has one of the best EMRs I have seen. In addition to being a very competent program it is also used by all the IHC facilities in Utah and thus it is possible for a physician in Southern Utah to see the results of a test done at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake minutes after the test is reported. Physicians can share common drug formularies across the state to increase the speed of the paperwork required by the healthcare industry.

My hospital went paperless less than one year ago and it has not been easy. Many of the older docs complain (loudly and rather unprofessionally) every day about the system, but I love it. I enjoy being able to read what my consultants have to say rather than spending my time translating the chicken scratch of the cardiologist.

When I was in medical school I was very worried about the regulations that were coming down the line to prohibit cursive writing in prescriptions and to eventually requiring all prescriptions to be printed or phoned. Since graduating from medical school I have not written one prescription by hand and in that time I have only received one call from a pharmacy requesting clarification on an order.

I think Obama has a good idea here and we would be smart to get behind it.