How Healthcare Works, LLC

One of the most important lessons I learned early in my healthcare administration career was the importance of continuing to move forward even in a time of crisis. Even when times are tough and a crisis has to be addressed and everything seems like it is temporarily halted and frozen in space and time, operations must keep moving forward. Saying, "Okay, everyone stop where you are, so we can deal with this problem," just isn't an option. The thought of moving forward in crisis has been on my mind the past few weeks as the situation in Nebraska unfolds. Emergency needs have arisen for livestock, for livelihoods, for schools, for water, for safety, for health. Individuals, communities and civic organizations are responding in reaction mode to get the state of Nebraska up and running again. Still, for those individuals involved, each day has to be a step forward. They still must go about the daily business of their lives and even the daily business of business. We someti...

As I thought about this week's 12,000 steps and all that is happening in the Midwest right now, the song, "Walking in Memphis," kept coming to mind. The song is about the writer's stroll through Memphis as he greets the ghosts of the past who paved the way before him. As I walked this week, I thought of my own ghosts of the past as I walked through Nebraska. Only my thoughts were there in a different way. I thought about all the hours I spent nearly every day walking in Nebraska. When I lived in central Nebraska, I lived along a trail that was built above a canal. I can still see the still water laying maybe a few inches deep in the bottom of the canal. I can see the blue firefly riding along on my shoelaces, and feel the breeze of the trees by the lake where I first used a paddle boat. I can hear my friends from the hospital where I worked laughing as we met early on Saturday mornings at my place to go running/walking along the trail and then have coffee. I can see...

I was awakened the other night by howling winds in our area. My dog was frightened and woke me up. I told myself it was nothing, I had lived in Nebraska, and I had been through windier days than this one. Little did I know that very night, Nebraska, my former home, was being hit hard with a devastating blizzard, referred to as a "bomb cyclone," and was experiencing road closures, freezing, and flooding of disastrous proportions across the state. As I saw pictures coming in across social media and from friends, I was saddened by the destruction and devastation that was sweeping across the great state of Nebraska. It's difficult to see towns I had visited with friends or roads I took to work, or even highways I'm sure I drove on...destroyed, underwater, and chunks of ice lying in pastures where cattle were supposed to be grazing. Instead, cattle were running for their lives, as ranchers struggled to round up cattle that were the very essence of their livelihoods. Wh...

I first realized the concept of walking for an emotional release a couple of years after living in the Kansas City area. I had been out walking several miles one day after work. It was a beautiful evening, the sun was shining, walkers were friendly. Everything seemed picture perfect. Then, when I walked into the door of my home, I started crying. I wondered to myself, "Why on earth am I crying? What is this about? I just had a great day." I did, in fact, have a great day. I liked my job at the time, I felt like I was making a difference in the world, I had things to do, places to go, people to see. I also under the surface was upset about so many things. The tears that day weren't about my day, or even about that week, or especially about that walk...they were an emotional release I felt after having exercised. Exercise often can be an emotional release because the energy we usually use to keep it all together, we have used up in our exercise routine. Then, we are amazi...

This week, we are at 10,000 steps. I remember last summer when I first began tracking my steps every day. I thought at first that 10,000 steps a day seemed like a lot. However, I was quickly taking 10,000 steps in my daily workout. This, for some reason, was difficult for others to believe that I walk 10,000 steps a day....like somehow it was a goal I couldn't achieve. Maybe it was a goal they didn't believe they could achieve. First of all, 10,000 steps aren't as many as you might think. It's roughly a five miles workout, which I can do outside in less than two hours. My normal walking pace is about one mile every twenty minutes. I could complete a 10,000 steps workout outside in about 1 hour 40 minutes. I usually put in some earbuds, turn on my favorite walking playlist, and away I go. Before I know it, it's time to go home. Usually, I get home and find that I walked more than 10,000 steps. What if you aren't at that point, you ask? That's okay, too. T...

When I was in junior high, I really wanted to get straight "A's" one semester. The previous term, the only class I didn't receive an "A" in was science. As a result, I decided I was really going to study hard for this big test we were having in science over the cardiovascular system. I really focused and read the textbook, read over my notes, and answered the questions at the end of the chapter. Two things happened as a result. First, I learned that I had an incredible memory and could practically memorize chapters in the book (which I later used to my advantage in college), and I learned how amazing the human body, the cardiovascular system, and the heart truly are. It's not a mistake that our hearts are at our core, almost at the center of who we really are as people. The heart helps us feel relaxed through the autonomic nervous system, it tells us to feel excited through sympathetic responses and allows us to focus and feel relaxed through the paras...

A natural born klutz, when I was in my late 20s, I tripped down the stairs in my apartment building and broke my three middle toes. Not the pinky toe, not the big toe, the middle toes. I decided it took some real talent to do that. I scheduled a doctor's appointment and had my foot examined. My regular doctor wasn't in, so I went to see another doctor in the practice. I had worked for this group practice previously, so the physicians were well known to me, as I was to them. This physician examined me, looked at me, and said, "Huh. Your blood pressure is a little high. Let's keep an eye on it. It might just be because of your broken toe." I went on my merry way back to my go to school full-time during the day in a traditional university program and work full-time at night plus overtime life. I felt like I had to maintain an active social life, volunteer, have some semblance of a relationship with someone, and...study. My mantra at the time was "Rest when you...