Lantana Culture
An Expedition to Quality at Lantana
My healthcare IT journey began in 1988 when I accepted a clerical position in the Ambulatory Care department at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, Canada. The department was implementing a new computerized Patient Registration system, which I learned relatively easily, and I was intrigued with the accuracy and efficiency of this new process. The new system allowed for more precise patient scheduling and the ability to view all outpatient clinic activity. I wanted to learn more, so I took classes on Computerized Business Systems and Programming at Ryerson University in the evenings, while working at the hospital in the daytime.
Read MorePublic Health Analyst Series: Wendy’s Journey
I grew up in rural northern Ohio playing outside and exploring the countryside—rain, snow, or sunshine. I loved being outside, active, and just playing in the dirt. I also loved school, especially biology and art class. I was good at both. I was expected to go to college, while my best friend joined the Army.…
Read MorePublic Health Analyst Series: Amy’s Journey
As a teen, when people asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always said a doctor. In high school, my favorite classes were biology and human anatomy, and I enjoyed listening to and helping people. As a summer lifeguard, I enjoyed the feeling of saving lives and keeping people safe. (Yes, I did actually save people during my tenure! Learning to swim is a life-saving skill!) Becoming a doctor seemed like a logical career path.
Read MorePublic Health Analyst Series: Laura’s Journey
The me of ten years ago never would have predicted the career that I have now. Ten years ago, I was majoring in mathematics and economics at the University of California San Diego, on track to become a retirement actuary. I took a class on the US healthcare system to fulfill one of my general education requirements, and the professor assigned us a paper on a local healthcare organization of our choice.
Read MorePublic Health Analyst Series: Hector’s Journey
In the summer of 2001, I had one of those life-defining moments while interning at Harvard Medical School; I discovered the public health field. Up to that point, all I ever wanted to be was a family medicine physician with a dream of one day opening a private practice to help those in my community back in Peekskill, New York.
Read MorePublic Health Analysts: Who We Are and What We Do
The American Public Health Association (APHA) observes National Public Health Week during the first week of April each year. Each of Lantana’s public health analysts has a story to tell of their journey–we couldn’t let the nursing informaticists have all the fun. Keep an eye out for upcoming blogs about the individual journeys each of…
Read MoreNursing Informatics Series: Marla’s Journey
Over the past 25 years, my nursing journey has taken me down different professional paths. At each crossroad in my career, I used the Servant Leadership philosophy as my compass to guide my journey. During my master’s program in nursing, I read Servant Leadership in Nursing by Mary Elizabeth O’Brien. I was finally able to put a…
Read MoreWellness in the Workplace – The Social Dimension
Previous Wellness in the Workplace blogs covered the physical dimension1 of wellness. Today’s blog covers the social dimension in a virtual environment. Social wellness refers to cultivating relationships and connecting with others. In a distributed company like Lantana, this can be challenging since we are physically separated from our coworkers. As the map shows, our staff are…
Read MoreAnnual Retreat 2018
Fifteen minutes into the 2017 film Wonder Woman, my only thought was, “I want to work with them!”—the fictional Amazon warriors of Themyscira. While I haven’t ended up performing heavy sword work and archery, I believe I’ve come across the next best thing: Lantana. Like the Amazons, my telework colleagues are brilliant and ready to…
Read MoreNursing Informatics Series: Angela’s Journey
As a former home health nurse, I know firsthand the importance of real-time patient health information. Today’s nurses can easily document and upload information that is instantaneously accessible to other health team members. But it wasn’t always so. When I was starting out, documenting an initial assessment and care plan for a new home health…
Read MoreNursing Informatics Series: Lynn’s Journey
Today, as a Senior Nurse Informaticist at Lantana, I am part of a team of clinical, program and policy analysts, working with IT engineers to develop standards-based solutions permitting interoperable—platform independent—exchange of health information. Twenty-five years ago, I was a young nurse starting out—just look at me here at my “capping and pinning” ceremony! Here…
Read MoreWorking from Home (#WFH): How working remotely is one millennial’s dream job
Working from home, once an unimaginable idea, is a regular part of many professionals’ lives. Technology innovation and improvements enable many to work from their houses, apartments, and even RVs. The Millennial generation, having grown up with computers nearby and cell phones in hand, want to hop aboard the WFH train. Statistics show “68% of…
Read MoreNursing informaticists: who we are and what we do
All around the world, May 12 is celebrated as International Nurses Day. It marks the end, in the U.S., of National Nurses Week—a time to honor and recognize nurses for their contribution to health care. May 12 is also the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the nineteenth-century English nurse who became legendary for her work…
Read MoreExtreme Vacation
Lantana provides a unique benefit to its employees: after seven years of employment, an employee can take a two-month paid vacation—the “sabbatical.” I’ve now been working for the company for over seven years (over eight if you include my contracting time), and I recently finished my sabbatical, and it was amazing! Here are my…
Read More2017 Annual Retreat: My First Week at Lantana
I started a new job last month, joining Lantana Consulting Group as a Public Health Analyst, and my first week there was a little out of the ordinary. Lantana is a distributed company, which makes it easier to hire the best people no matter where they live. The tricky part of working remotely, with no…
Read MoreWellness in the Workplace – Powerlifting
How do you begin your day? If you’re like Crystal Kallem, Lantana’s Executive Director of Analysis and Policy, you begin with an intense weight lifting session.
Read MoreWorking from Home (#WFH): Wendy’s RV Office
Lantana’s distributed environment allows for some pretty exciting adventures. From international travels to unconventional living, that flexibility can make for some rather unique “offices”.
Read MoreWellness in the Workplace
In honor of National Wellness Week, we are kicking off our Wellness in the Workplace series. Over the next few months, you can read about Lantana’s spin on some of these dimensions of wellness. In this post, we focus on how Lantana supports physical wellness.
Read MoreNotes from the Field
Recently a team of Lantana clinical analysts had the opportunity to go out in the field. As part of a national field test related to electronic reporting from clinical systems, our team was instrumental in providing hands-on training through site visits, collecting and assessing data on approximately 150 data elements, conducting focus groups, and providing feedback to the client.
Read MoreWorking at Lantana: Annual Retreat
We traveled to Oracle, AZ for our last retreat. We hiked, hosted an employee cocktail competition, sang karaoke, toured an artist commune, explored Biosphere 2 (my personal favorite), and stargazed from a certified dark sky park.
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