Health Department Forms Folder 0065, 1999-2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

JAN-19-01 12.29 FROM: ID=2127191061 PACE 4/4

EDRS delay-continued from page 7. Issues of confidentiality and security surrounding death records, not until that )W6 however, that the City gave IBM along with Y2K prcpandons, may have the 523 mil- slowed the pee of the lion contract to develop the project. project they say. Mr. Ca ubis, the city official, said that when talks Cd Carubis, the Cityti assistant commissioner for Past management with the fittest directors in 1994. the Internet was not began information services, acknowledged that more work nee as highly done. But he said the city had to be developed "We always want to do [dings as quickly as reviewed needed guidelines with and tblags is the information technology world arc passible, IBM, so that men could not be registered as pregnant, for casette very fast paced," he aid "Bra how wo leverage the latest t to pie_ "it actually sounds a ]rote worse do bosi- than it IC be said_ ue;a, that% something that takes tine ' Meanwhile. New York Sure gave Sybuse Inc, a database soft "Until the system is in place, one $7•an- tatre company, 5200,000 in August 1997 to develop a molar hour clerk holds the reins of a $350 million aystcm, and in May 1998. Sybase began testing, a State Health industry in New York City." Depmtmeat spokeswoman mid. The irate project was delayed because its system iequitta users Chris Coilios, a spokesman for IBM. said: "There's been to sip their comes elcotronieally, and tmtil last year, no to use of giant probkcne.11% a very complicated system. Them arc clec¢elrue signatures had not been approved by the a lot of [egislatwe- entities involved and a lot of legal, medical and familial No date has yet been act for the system to begin operating. consid- cityy system Identifies users without relying on The erations' an elactronie signature, and so did not need legistadmt to moue forward. But fbacral directors, and some officials, are not so sanguine" By the time the about the cost and pace of the project, which one city demonstrated the system at the Harbour official who restaurant on City Island last winter, the fwraal dboeety were spoke on the condition of anonymity desetibed as -a colossal waste of money" to date. "sadhing at the opportunity to stop this nonsense," Mt: Ruggiero said While 60 were invited, 159 showed up. Ten years ego, each borough had its own burial desk where Weekn and then months rolled by with no wort,, as the project funrnl diru:tnra could bring the cenifuarq for approval. But in a wove of budget cutting in the spring a11994, the city stopped and started, and the prototype for the system changed closed and calls to the city went unretumed, ho Said. With a new dead- tour offices, leaving only the one at 12S Worth Street, opttn 24 line of August for the system to be tested, hope blooms again. hours a day. - Funcsal threuees began to drive Jewish families directly the Bra until the system is in place, one 17-ao-hour elate" holds the to rhos of a 5350 million industry in New 5brk City, as Me eenifc2m office on the way to The cpnetcry, do they could bury the deco sed within 24 hours as requited by Ruggiero said. Jewish law, said Mania Kasdaa president of Schwartz Brotheneielfer Memorial Chapel in Qu..xna Die article is rrprurred with peratialas just the Any limit of 7% New York Twur. Q And if a funeral director brought a batch of certificates to be processed, Mr. Kasdan said, the clerk would appede only five ccrdfaatess at a time, and then it was back to the end of the line — a problem solved when the pry opened a 'volume" window. That theft was the paperwork. Robert Ruggiero, president of F. Ruggiero & Sons, a funeral home in the Brans, nealhd waiting Don't miss the for hours ere night at 12S Worth Sc At 2 n.m., the clerk slid cenificate out from under his door with a big rut X through it. the TWO best conventions The foam had been tejoxaed baauaa the doctor had instead of"Fcmolc^ on it. written?' in the industry! In fact Mr. Ruggiero has calculated that each trip to the burial desk unit costs him $135 in office time, an esdmate that "does- NYSFDA Convention n't include towing or parking tickers;' be said. August 13-17 Thu problems were so great that in 1994, the funcrat directors Saratoga Springs assoxiation mat with city oft-trials and proposed an electronic death record system: the association even spent £40,000 for a fiasibi1ty study, soul Maryann Carroll, a spokeswoman. NJSFDA Convention The city crnbraaud the plan, and in letters to the association set September 18-21 a target date of June 1998 for on initial Li t of the system. it was Atlantic City

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