I started my career adventures in healthcare information technology 20 years ago this week, when I began work as Programmer/Analyst at Burnham City Hospital in Champaign, IL. I was put in charge of the hospital’s pharmacy system, and served as backup on payroll and accounting. My proudest career achievement was taking a system loathed by pharmacy technicians and successfully flipping their opinions in the span of 20 months by heavily customizing it to more precisely fit their needs.
At first, I was not sure I’d be up to speed, as I had graduated college nearly a year earlier and my programming skills were rusting. Since I didn’t have a job lined up before graduation, I had been living with my parents in Newburgh, IN, working part-time at K-Mart and attending Southern Indiana University to halfway seriously pursue a second degree, in Accounting. I was not exactly thrilled with what I was doing. So as my good friends Colleen and Wilfred (and newer friends Mary and John) lived in Champaign, on a lark I responded to a newspaper ad Colleen had sent me, interviewed during one of my Champaign visits, and a few weeks later (after a wonderful sendoff by K-Mart friends) found myself moving into Desolation Alley to room with Wilfred for a while.
I had a lot of fun at that job. The co-workers were great… the ones I still remember fondly include Bob, Rhonda, Tony, Mike Warner (who stayed in touch for a few years), Pharmacy director Harold Wolf, rowdy computer room workers Rose White, Marilyn, Pete, and Leon, and also Carrie Bryant, the pretty girl in Accounting I liked but never spoke to.… One time some of the guys were sitting in the hospital cafeteria on our afternoon break, and I was eating my sugar cookie. We saw Carrie in line, so I said, “I wonder if she’s getting a sugar cookie too?” which prompted dirty old man Leon to mutter, “She is a sugar cookie.”
The best friend I made on the job was Cindy Wagner, with whom I shared an office during much of my tenure. We quickly discovered a mutual love for Star Trek, so with husband Dale’s permission, we set off on numerous trips to fun and geeky conventions… this went on for over a decade, as Cindy and Dale moved to Indianapolis a few years before I did. Mike and I used to kid around with Cindy, contorting her last name to Nagner and dubbing her the Nagster. The funniest was the time we three were walking over to the hospital for break. We usually smelled something funky walking in, as we had to pass by the crematorium on the way. Well, the first time we did this after Cindy had returned from sick leave to have her spleen removed, we smelled something really foul, and either Mike or I said “that must be Cindy’s spleen!” She had been feeling queasy all day as it was, and this comment almost made her hurl.
Eventually Cindy, Mike, Wilfred, Mary, and John all moved away from Champaign, and Colleen began dating her future husband. The hospital had been consumed by Servantcor (eventually closing, with the main building and office building razed), so the remaining workers did not know what lay ahead. I had that pharmacy system whipped into shape, so in all regards it was time for me to leave. I moved back to Evansville briefly for a non-healthcare job, then set off for my biggest career move to Humana’s corporate headquarters in Louisville, and I’m still in that city working elsewhere in healthcare. But it all began for me at Burnham City Hospital, which I will never forget.
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At first, I was not sure I’d be up to speed, as I had graduated college nearly a year earlier and my programming skills were rusting. Since I didn’t have a job lined up before graduation, I had been living with my parents in Newburgh, IN, working part-time at K-Mart and attending Southern Indiana University to halfway seriously pursue a second degree, in Accounting. I was not exactly thrilled with what I was doing. So as my good friends Colleen and Wilfred (and newer friends Mary and John) lived in Champaign, on a lark I responded to a newspaper ad Colleen had sent me, interviewed during one of my Champaign visits, and a few weeks later (after a wonderful sendoff by K-Mart friends) found myself moving into Desolation Alley to room with Wilfred for a while.
I had a lot of fun at that job. The co-workers were great… the ones I still remember fondly include Bob, Rhonda, Tony, Mike Warner (who stayed in touch for a few years), Pharmacy director Harold Wolf, rowdy computer room workers Rose White, Marilyn, Pete, and Leon, and also Carrie Bryant, the pretty girl in Accounting I liked but never spoke to.… One time some of the guys were sitting in the hospital cafeteria on our afternoon break, and I was eating my sugar cookie. We saw Carrie in line, so I said, “I wonder if she’s getting a sugar cookie too?” which prompted dirty old man Leon to mutter, “She is a sugar cookie.”
The best friend I made on the job was Cindy Wagner, with whom I shared an office during much of my tenure. We quickly discovered a mutual love for Star Trek, so with husband Dale’s permission, we set off on numerous trips to fun and geeky conventions… this went on for over a decade, as Cindy and Dale moved to Indianapolis a few years before I did. Mike and I used to kid around with Cindy, contorting her last name to Nagner and dubbing her the Nagster. The funniest was the time we three were walking over to the hospital for break. We usually smelled something funky walking in, as we had to pass by the crematorium on the way. Well, the first time we did this after Cindy had returned from sick leave to have her spleen removed, we smelled something really foul, and either Mike or I said “that must be Cindy’s spleen!” She had been feeling queasy all day as it was, and this comment almost made her hurl.
Eventually Cindy, Mike, Wilfred, Mary, and John all moved away from Champaign, and Colleen began dating her future husband. The hospital had been consumed by Servantcor (eventually closing, with the main building and office building razed), so the remaining workers did not know what lay ahead. I had that pharmacy system whipped into shape, so in all regards it was time for me to leave. I moved back to Evansville briefly for a non-healthcare job, then set off for my biggest career move to Humana’s corporate headquarters in Louisville, and I’m still in that city working elsewhere in healthcare. But it all began for me at Burnham City Hospital, which I will never forget.
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Funny how the years change one’s perspective on things. The booming metropolis of Champaign-Urbana now seems more in line with my earlier small town homes. I’ll be visiting again in a few weeks to attend Ebertfest 2008. Each time I go back, I’m amazed at how I can get anywhere in about five minutes. I also kick myself for not looking into postgraduate study at University of Illinois when I lived there. And I remember various pre-Burnham college era visits with Wilfred, including that fateful weekend of the first Farm-Aid….
1 comment:
All subsequent jobs of mine were acquired through newspaper ads, just like that first one. However, I'm not sure that is going to work for me anymore.
Thought of two more stories from that era which I will post tomorrow.
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