Alliance Community Hospital in Ohio has publicly done what most marketers think about secretly but never do. They have outrightly asked their community members to share information on the prices and charges that they have encountered as patients at their competitors. And they have offered a bribe, I mean payment,...
Author Archives: anthony
Institute of Medicine Study Warns Boomers Better Take Care of Themselves
The Institute of Medicine released a report Monday on the health care outlook for the 78 million baby boomers about to begin turning 65. It was not rosy. In short, there aren’t enough specialists in geriatric medicine; insufficient training is available; the specialists that do exist are underpaid; Medicare fails...
Doggie Robots Just The Thing To Relieve Lonliness?!
I recently wrote about dog nursing homes and here is another dog story. A Saint Louis University study suggests that a robotic dog works equally as well as a real dog in alleviating loneliness and causing nursing home residents to form attachments. To test whether residents connected better with Sparky,...
Going to the Dogs
I always said I wanted to come back as my brother-in-law’s dog. In the pecking order in his house it is my sister-in-law then a tie between their son and the dog then my brother-in-law. So here is another great reason to be a dog. When you age you too...
When The Patient is the Doctor
ColumbiaUniversity psychiatrist Dr. Robert Klitzman has written a book entitled ÛÏWhen Doctors Become Patients.’Ûª ItÛªs based on his own experience as a patient and interviews with more than 70 physicians. He discovered to no surprise that when doctors get sick, they discover cracks in the health system that they didnÛªt...
Residents Out of Wheelchairs
There is a group I just stumbled upon called the GROW Coalition. GROW stands for ÛÏGetting Residents Out Of Wheelchairs.Û It is the goal of the GROW Coalition that residents residing in nursing homes use regular seating devices in situations where sitting in a regular chair is considered the norm...
Race and Nursing Homes
According to a study to be published in a medical journal Health Services Research, black nursing home residents in Maryland and Virginia are more likely than white residents to be sent to hospitals for dehydration, poor nutrition, bedsores and other ailments because of a gap in the quality of in-house...
No Country for Young Men
I just read an article today by Megan McArdle that looks at the Baby Boomers’ retirement and how it will change the texture of society. It is one of the best articles I have read on the subject. Check it out here.
Paying for Long Term Care
The majority of baby boomers have not planned accordingly for long-term care expenses and mistakenly believe they have the resources to cover such care. According to a survey released earlier this week by AmericaÛªs Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) among boomers nearing or at age 60, only 25% say they are...
Nursing Home Heroes
I had the opportunity to attend the American Health Care Association annual meeting in Boston last month where I spoke about marketing issues at their assisted living day. Afterwards I attended a luncheon that recognized long term care heroes. Benjamin Thacker of Charlottesville, VA has been volunteering in nursing homes...