Hub-Caps to H-CAHPS
As surely as the white-walled hubcaps on my in my father’s shark-finned ’59 Buick, which I drove when I was 16, would have been replaced with wire-rims (were it still running), the CAHPS (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and System) assessments have morphed into H(for hospital)CAHPS. (Say, “H-Caps.”) What does this mean? And who cares? You should, dear reader. The HCAHPS is the next generation, Ralph Nader-type of brainchild that healthcare consumers (i.e., all of us, eventually) conceived in the early 2000’s. It all started as a back-lash movement against the...
Read MoreMom’s Need to Nurture
My daughter, who moved home to finish a master’s degree in healthcare administration, will be taking off to Europe again today. She has lived abroad before, so I know she knows how to navigate in a foreign country. She is also going to meet up with one of her best friends, and they will visit one of our previous exchange students, so I know she’ll be in good company. She’s brushing up on her german, so I know she won’t starve. Then why am I fretting? If she were married, or in her own place, I wouldn’t be a part of the getting-ready process. Out of the...
Read MoreSo You Wanna Run Barefoot?
This really sounds like something you’d say to your toddler, with a wry smirk on your face. Be the interlopers rocks, glass, or just the random asphalty-hardness, what child hasn’t learned, as the punsters say, the hard way? Then what sense can we make of the newest adult-fad, barefoot running? Despite the much-touted book on the subject, there exists no reliable scientific evidence to cushion the fall. (Could it be a nefarious podiatrist’s plot to garner more customers??) Not surprisingly, sports’ medicine experts and cast-adorned would-be...
Read MoreHAPPY NURSES’ WEEK!
Hello, Readers! ‘Coming up for air after having finished a business plan for an interprofessional healthcare workshop for communication and team building, and I realized this is Nurses’ Week! Considering that in an annual survey, nurses have earned the highest ranked public trust for the 11th straight year,what does that mean to you? We function as patient advocates and professional healthcare providers, both at the bedside and behind the scenes. Since I have the distinct privilege of playing a part in several healthcare areas, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on...
Read MoreGotta Crow!
“7 Traps” article picked up by Reuters click here for Reuters article Hello healthcare leaders everywhere, Attending the California Action Coalition (a group of healthcare leaders) seminar today, the same day as the article about my healthcare speakers video series hits the press in > 2000 newspapers and media outlets! This is fortuitous and accidental timing, as the need for healthcare leaders to hone their critical speaking skills is never more paramount than now! The California Action Coalition is the first inter professional state group (funded by Robert...
Read MoreConnecting Worldwide
Dear Friends, Forty eight years ago today, The Beatles landed in New York (of course, they flew Pan Am). If you are old enough to recall that occasion (and the mass hysteria that followed), where were you? While watching them on the Ed Sullivan show, I recall being SO upset that no one could hear anything above the screaming fans! One thing’s for sure, though: They communicated a joyful, new sound to an international audience. Yes, there was poverty, inequity, and political turmoil in many parts of the world then, as now. However, their music and optimism set the...
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