How Healthcare Works, LLC

The first half of my career, I worked in clinics, hospitals, and health systems. I led several teams, and it was always important to me to get the teams to gel right away. That helped the team work better together to achieve a common goal. At the beginning of every team meeting, we would have some sort of ice breaker that was specifically designed to show how important each person was and demonstrate what they brought to the table. One of the icebreakers I liked to use was "Tell me two special or unique things about yourself." The first time, in a team of 10, at least three people could not tell me anything special about themselves. When I became a faculty member, I found the same thing to be true. Adult students who were studying to be healthcare administrators had a hard time telling me what was special or unique about themselves or what they brought to the table. I asked myself, "How can these people get other people to believe in them if they don't believe in the...

I lived in the Midwest most of my life. When I didn't live there, I lived in New England and now in the Pacific Northwest. I spent hours sledding at the old golf course next to our house, building snow forts, packing snowballs, and crunching through knee-deep, ice-covered drifts as a child. As an adult, I spent hours driving, wearing out I-80 and I-35 visiting family and friends (me visiting them...never the other way around any time but summer). I remember those trips all too well. Driving alone in my little cars, singing to the cassette tapes and later the compact discs that I played, listening to music that I selected for myself, driving to see people all alone. I felt like an aimed traveler risking my life at times along treacherous roadways arriving to lukewarm welcomes. When I arrived, my Midwestern co-citizens would ask, "How were the roads?" I would always reply, "Oh, they were fine." If you don't know, when a Midwesterner (or pretty much anybody) te...

A teenage girl, her younger brother, and her younger sister stand outside a window peeking in on a beautiful feast. The white tablecloth barely shows through the many dishes laying on top of it. The table is adorned with turkey, ham, potatoes, bread, vegetables, desserts, candles, wine, and water. The people at the table are dressed well with diamond rings and gold necklaces. They are laughing and happy enjoying the fellowship of their friends and family. A fire burns next to them, and their designer coats hang in the cloak closet.  The teenage girl, her brother, and her sister are hungry. Their pockets have a bit of change. They are planning to use it to go to the store to buy some bread, eggs, cheese, and potatoes for dinner at home for the holidays. They dream about the day they can eat such a fine meal. For now, they can only watch others enjoy it through a window.  The teenage girl and her brother and sister are in tattered clothes. Their shoes, once white, are now browne...

Have you ever met some random woman and wondered what her past was? What is her story? Why did she move 1,000 miles from home to a place where she only knew a few people that she seemed to have strained relationships with? What is her deal, anyway? Is she a criminal? Perhaps, is she a serial killer? Or, maybe is she a domestic violence survivor? Although the Federal Bureau of Investigation states that there is no one single trait that identifies a serial killer, there are traits that are common among different serial killers. The Office of Justice Programs identifies certain traits that will be outlined below. In contrast, the traits of domestic violence survivors will also be outlined using statistics from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence .   *Serial killers are typically white males between the ages of 25-34. *Domestic violence victims can be any race and are typically between the ages of 18-24. *Serial killers tend to be intelligent or at least street smart. *D...

It's Gameday. You have everything ready for your tailgate. Crackers, cheese, beer, pickles, meat for the barbeque, baked beans, stuffed squash, broccoli cheddar balls, potato chip cups, dip, wings, and good old potato salad. Potato salad -- that delicious mixture of eggs, potatoes, pickles, and mayonnaise all served up to make the day. Of course, you have to be careful that the potato salad doesn't become a foodborne illness villain. Potato Salad and Foodborne Illness One of the first assignments in my graduate school epidemiology course was identifying the culprit of a foodborne illness outbreak from a picnic. The ultimate perpetrator....potato salad. Mayonnaise is often blamed for causing outbreaks, but that is not the case. Potato salad is a combination of many different ingredients (see my recipe below), and those ingredients put together create an environment for bacteria to grow. Many of the ingredients in potato salad have low pH. The pH registers the acidity level of di...

  Guest post by Brad Smith Image from Unsplash.com   The problem of cyber-attacks against the healthcare sector is not new. Over the past year, though, there has been a massive spike in the rate of attacks happening against this sector. This calls for serious concern from healthcare players and regulators lest they fall to this new wave of cyber pandemics coursing through their ranks.   What’s the Problem? Hackers going after the healthcare sector know that they can score a lot of good data and money at the same time. Data theft exposes sensitive details such as patient name, social status, social security number, credit card details, insurance information, and more. Selling such data in whole or parts on the black market can fetch a pretty sum for the hacker who lands it. In some other instances, ransomware attacks are the preferred mode. While hacks against this sector have been going on for a long time, the pandemic brought out the worst in thes...

Guest post by Reyzan Shali, MD   It’s summertime, and for most people, that means fun in the sun. Now I’m all for having fun, but I wanted to share some important information about how exposure to the sun can ruin the fun. In my years as a friend, sister, mother, and family care doctor, I have heard a lot of comments about the sun, and more specifically, about getting tan.  Stories people have told me I used to rub olive oil all over my skin and then go sit in the sun. I used to apply baby oil before I lay in the sun and had a shinier tan as a result. I grew up in Southern California and baked myself for years from lying on the beach. I went to the beach whenever I could, and who remembered to apply sunscreen? What? You’ve never gone to get a tan before? I don’t like tanning; I love tanning! Things I have been told about my tan (or lack thereof) Please cover your legs, or get a tan. You know, you would look better tanned. The impact of the sun, and artificial sun in the form o...