As I see it, the recent Obama-administration's move on declaring federal emergency status for H1N1 will greatly help faster response in at least a couple of areas. First, the relaxation of the HIPAA rules will greatly simplify the collecting and reporting of patient cases between all the various healthcare information systems and allow regional roll-ups to manage the overall changing needs to the inevitable surge on a larger scale. Technology that provides real-time transparent communication...

There's an old adage that every day in healthcare is an emergency or a disaster. And to a great extent it is true that hospitals and healthcare professionals face a chronic challenge of managing the unknown. New challenges come in the door every day. It might be several staff calling in sick, a high acuity or census load from a major freeway accident or natural disaster, but the challenges must be managed.

Concerro has never been just a software vendor. In fact, we don't even sell software! Our...