Healthcare, Senior Living, Economics
The title may jog memories for some readers. During the 1992 election cycle, advisor to then candidate Bill Clinton, James Carville, (running against George H.W. Bush) used the phrase for campaign workers as a charge to focus on. He wanted people to pay attention to the economic issues (inflation) affecting how people were feeling about … Read more
After a few days of mid-summer weather (90s, humid), my calendar says fall is right around the corner, even if the weather doesn’t. I love fall. It’s my favorite time of year. Living in the upper-Midwest, fall can be just spectacular. Soon, the days will be warm and the evenings chilly. Woodfire smoke (not the … Read more
Happy Hump Day! Another Wednesday with news too heavy to ignore. I’ll try to return to some levity and light in future Wednesday features. For a number of years, CMS has been playing with developing a staffing level mandate. The first CMS study from 20 years ago recommended a 4.1 hours per day benchmark. Recently, … Read more
Usually I try to add some “light and levity” to my Wednesday features as the content on this site is pretty heavy health policy and economics, regulatory in nature, etc. In my work, my usual Wednesday messages internally are “fun” – a bit of Hump Day humor or whimsy. By title of this post, readers … Read more
There is an age-old adage that laughter is the best medicine. I concur. We as a society, have lost our sense of humor (and our collective common sense). We take everything too seriously. No wonder depression is “up” along with loneliness. There used to be sitcoms on TV that were really quite funny. Not much … Read more
Last week, in a message from LeadingAge President, Katie Smith Sloan, she wrote about the epidemic of loneliness. Her words reflected on how leaders are prone to loneliness and how the same concept or concepts were addressed by Arthur C. Brooks in his book, “Strength to Strength”. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy back in May, alerted … Read more
Every once in a while, something sends me down memory lane. The other evening while sitting on the porch with my wife, she mentioned, “remember when, during the late news, a public service announcement would say, it’s after 10:00 pm, parents, do you know where your children are?” We both laughed and bantered back and … Read more
This past Monday, I played golf in a charity event, the proceeds of which, went to Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. The event, however, wasn’t sponsored or produced by Children’s Hospital. The event, now twenty-three years (next year, twenty-four), is the creation of a good friend of mine and ongoing business colleague, Jim Lombardo. Jim is … Read more
There is an old saying that goes like this: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” That is a succinct definition for relentless incrementalism. Doing the hard stuff in life is rarely a quick accomplishment. I’ve never run a marathon, but I know people who have, and I know they don’t … Read more
Happy Hump Day! Within less than a week, America’s most significant holiday will occur – Independence Day. Celebrated on July 4th, this day commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the assembled U.S. Constitutional Congress, in Philadelphia, declaring separation and independence from English (King of England) rule. The 4th of July became the … Read more