The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles) (24 page)

Like a boy
with a package in the mailbox, he almost ran to the elevators.

Across the
floor, Ryan was just standing up to go to Ben’s office for his big meeting.

Gathering his
files together in a nice bundle, he walked slowly upstairs.

He was
nervous.
He didn’t know the IntelliHealth administration well enough to guess what
action they might take. He thought he’d done a good job so far, and both Ben
and Dorothy seemed to appreciate it, but still anything could happen. But mostly,
he was happy and comfortable with his work, and wasn’t looking for any changes.
When he got off the elevator, the floor seemed quiet and colder than usual.
Maybe it was his imagination. Ryan heard voices as he walked up to Ben’s door.
Dorothy was there, and maybe someone else. He knocked on the doorframe.

“Good morning
Ryan, please come in and have a seat,” said Ben waving towards the door.
He walked inside and saw Dorothy, rising from the couch.
She walked to Ryan, “Good morning, Ryan.”

“Good morning,
good morning,” he said taking a seat across the desk from Ben.

“Ryan let me
introduce you to our Facility Director, Dr. Cohen.”
Ben motioned to someplace behind Ryan.

Confused, he
turned around to find a huge screen displaying the face of a man, presumably
Dr. Cohen.

“It’s very
good to meet you Ryan. I am Dr. Eric Cohen, Director of this Facility.”
Surprised, he said, “Good morning, Dr. Cohen, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“I’m sorry I
can’t be there in person, I’m actually in London today.”

Ben motioned for Ryan to take a seat and said, “Ah, very good. Shall we begin?”

Dr. Cohen
said, “My understanding is that Ryan was hired to examine in detail a problem
within this facility regarding patient treatments. Specifically, a percentage
of our patients, albeit very small, received treatments in error, and with no
apparent explanation. Is this correct Dorothy?”

“Yes,
Eric.
 
We believe that the research
scientists who were prescribing the treatments, did so correctly.”

Ben added,
“Yes, and the records from the Research Network confirmed this.”

Dorothy
continued, “In the cases of error, the treatments the technicians received in
the hospital were accurate from their perspective. Correct in how they had been
submitted and received, but changed and with terrible consequences.”

Ben added,
“The Hospital Network records confirm this point as well.”

Dr. Cohen
began again, “I understand that Ryan, you have explored all possible avenues of
human error both on the research and hospital sides.”

“Yes sir, I
have.”

“Moreover, I
understand that you have, on your own initiative, explored the possibility that
this has occurred elsewhere, at other IntelliHealth Facilities, and discovered
that indeed it has.”

“Yes sir,
London and Sydney.”

The camera on
the screen panned out as Dr. Cohen leaned back in his chair.

“And what do
you conclude from this new evidence Mr. Dane?”

This was one
of those moments when he knew his next words could change everything.

Taking a deep
breath, he stood up and faced the screen.

“Dr. Cohen,
the conservative response would be to say that this has proven nothing yet.
However, I believe otherwise. I am given to understand that the System Networks
and interfaces in each IntelliHealth Facility are identical. Therefore, if the
problem is mechanical in nature, there is every likelihood it is occurring to
some degree, in every facility in the IntelliHealth System.”

“Then why Mr.
Dane, are they not reporting it?”

“Perhaps the
percentages are so low as to fall below the radar, so to speak. Perhaps many of
them simply do not want to admit to having a problem; and maybe, as I am
starting to suspect, not all of them are being caught.”

Dr. Cohen
paused, and looked briefly at some papers on his desk.

“Mr. Dane, I
understand that Dorothy and Ben believe your results are valid.”

After a short
pause, he said, “and so do I.”

“Therefore, I
am requesting that a commission be formed to investigate this
anomaly
.
Mr. Ryan Dane will head the commission, and will report to me for the interim.”

“Ryan, I want
you to pick people to support you on this commission. Send your list to me for
approval. Also, send me a list of immediate steps you intend to take. I want to
understand where you’re going with this. Wait for my approval to begin, do you
understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Very good.
Thanks everyone.”

The screen
went black leaving the IntelliHealth logo floating in the middle.

Ryan half sat,
half fell back down into his chair.

Ben was
smiling, “So how are you, Mr. Dane, our new ‘commission lead’?
”
Dorothy was smiling, too.

‘Yes,’ he
thought, ‘ things are definitely changing.’

Once he got
back to his office, Ryan began work on his list of steps to take.

As he was
writing, he realized his list was also describing the support he needed on the
commission.

For comparison
of the research treatments prescribed, he needed a researcher familiar with
comparing and analyzing data. To investigate user access on the hospital
network, he needed someone familiar with the IntelliHealth computer systems. He
would probably need some sort of assistant at least part-time, and access to
the people in Patient Services as well.

He finished
his list of steps, and then went back to talk with Ben about adding Jim to the
commission. Ben wasn’t exactly happy to give away one of his best programmers,
but he agreed that they could share Jim’s time without causing too much
damage.
 

Ryan went back
to his office, and wrote a request for support from Dr. Jim Safe, in
Information Services, and Dr. Jeff Sarin from Dr. Leonard Bender’s research
group. He added some friendly language about sharing their time with their
respective departments. He also recommended that Patient Services identify
someone as his official liaison, indicating that he had worked with Lisa Evans
and found her to be completely acceptable.

Before
submitting his request, he called Jim and Jeff and asked them to come to his
office. He wanted to talk with them before drafting them.

While he was
waiting, he logged in and checked his mail. He had just received a memo from
Dr. Cohen. It read:

‘To the
Presidents and Facility Directors of the IntelliHealth System,

Please be advised that I have appointed Mr. Ryan Dane to lead a commission
charged with investigating an ongoing series of incidents wherein treatments
are enacted in error without a known cause or explanation.

These cases
are documented, and have caused injury most dire to IntelliHealth patients.
This anomaly extends to multiple IntelliHealth Facilities, and cannot be
ignored. Please assist the newly formed, ‘Dane Commission’ with any information
they may require.

It is my
direction that the Dane Commission accomplish this charge post haste, and help
us return to our primary mission which is of course to help our patients for
the betterment of all mankind.’

The memo continued,
but the rest was a lot of legal-speak giving Ryan access to people, resources
etc. As he read, he could appreciate the full burden of what was now upon him.
Ryan was fully responsible for the results, whether they were successful, or
not.

Jim and Jeff
arrived, as he finished reading the memo.

Ryan said,
“Thanks for coming, I know you're both busy.”

Ryan stood up
from behind his desk, and said, “Well, I met with Dr. Eric Cohen, Dorothy Allen
and Ben James earlier.”

Jeff said,
“How did it go? Should we bring you some boxes for your things?”

Jim started
laughing, Ryan too.

“Not yet, but
I am making a note that you offered. Here, have a read.”
He spun his monitor around so they could see the memo.

Jim spoke
first, “Wow, Ryan; ‘
the Dane commission’
that sounds awesome.”

“Appointed by
Eric Cohen himself, that’s pretty cool,” said Jeff.

“Both of you
contributed to this project, but there’s still more to do. Now
we
get to
the real mystery; discovering what’s happening across the IntelliHealth
System?”
Ryan emphasized the word
‘we
’ and sat there smiling at them.

Jim looked
sideways at Jeff, and said, “I think I know where he’s going with this, and the
answer is
‘No’
. I have installers in the Zimmerman lab right now putting
together my project for the next six months. Two new-tech super computers that
call to me, Ryan. They’re asking me to play with them. Ryan, I can’t say no to
Loki and Thor.”

Jeff said,
“Actually, I don’t really mind all that much. My lab has two lab directors now,
and it only really needs one. Besides I could use a break from the constant
headaches for a while.”

Ryan sat back
down, and smiling, he turned his monitor back around.

“Jim, you’re
right,“ he said, “I would like to request both of you join me on the
commission. If you refuse, I won’t press the issue. But I believe we can
certainly work with the time you want to spend on projects in both of your
departments. My next steps include projects for each of us.”

“Jeff, I need
your help with a comparison of the treatments that were changed. Not just here,
but across all the affected Facilities. I want to know if there is a trend when
we look at the System-wide collection of incidents. I’m betting there will be.”

Ryan
continued, “I want to change how we’ve been looking at this problem. Jim,
consider the point where the treatments are changed. It happens after the
research scientist has entered a prescribed treatment, but before the
corresponding hospital technician receives it. Let's call it the ‘critical
point’. So first we need to define the critical point in practical terms. Is it
on the Research Network, or the Hospital network, or is it elsewhere? Now
imagine that someone is changing the treatment at the ‘critical point’. We need
a list of users who have adequate access to be able to do that.”
“You see gentlemen, I’m suggesting that we have failed to solve this problem,
because our perspective was flawed from the beginning.”

“You think
someone is doing this on purpose?” said Jim.

Pausing for
just a moment, Ryan looked at him.
“Yes, I do.”

They agreed to
join Ryan on the ‘Dane Commission’ but both wanted to keep their positions and
ties to their respective departments.

Jim had some
additional requests; some might call demands, before agreeing.

First he
wanted an office, and it had to make him ‘feel alive’ when he was in it. Ryan
wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, but he was going to ask for a suite where
the three could be together anyway, so no problem there.

Second, Jim
wanted to keep working on his new supercomputers. From the way Jim spoke, Ryan
thought they seemed more like pets to him, than computers.

Hell, he even
named them.
He could see that there would be no tearing Jim away from them.

Lastly, Jim
was intensely interested in the hospital network intrusion, and wanted to
continue to be responsible for that, too. No problem there, because Ryan was
also interested in this, and would have requested anyway.

The only
request from Jeff was that someone else would tell Dr. Bender. Ryan chuckled at
that, realizing that he didn’t want to have that conversation either. They
would let Cohen make the request. Problem solved.

Jeff and Jim
went back to their areas, now with a lot to prepare for. With his team on
board, Ryan submitted his list of action items, and people requests to Dr.
Cohen. He also added that he needed a suite for the three of them, and if
possible some additional support equipment such as wall monitors, and
additional electronic storage.