The Short Names

Research conducted by professor Herminia Iberra at Insead, The Business School for the World,(r) has revealed some interesting insights for female executives in home health care.

Studies by professor Iberra show that in almost all measures of executive performance women are equal to or outperform men, with one exception: vision. Ibarra’s review of the 360 degree reviews of nearly 3,000 women revealed that, in general, they were seen as less visionary. What could explain this? Ibarra offers three possibilities:

1. Women may have a vision but they may be using a different process to develop their long-term strategy.

2.Women may have a vision but may be hesitant to make audacious statements.

3. Women may not value visionary pronouncements.

Whatever the reason for this perceived lack of vision, Ibarra suggests that those women wanting to climb the career ladder not simply wait around for visionary inspiration. She tells ambitious women,to get out and not think about how to set strategy in the safety of their own office, but how to start networking in a way that gives them a broader vision of the future. The way you envision the future is by being out there and trying to understand trends in the industry, in society and talking to people.

At Leading Home Care, we have been talking about Vision and Leadership in Home Care for the past 25 years. We even conducted a research program that revealed The Top Ten Competencies of Highly Effective Home Care Executives. The Number One competencies is, “Seeing the Bigger Picture.”

Where does Vision come into play in the leadership of your home health agency? Do female executives in home health care demonstrate less vision for the future that their male counterparts? What do you do to see the bigger picture and develop your vision for the future?

Give us your comments below.

Perhaps this is an easy way to build a multinode grid computer. If you do not have enough plug points you can get those monstrous power extenders and plug in 10 or 20 of Sheevaplugs.
Marvell®’s SheevaPlug™ is a plug computer — an embedded computer that plugs into the wall socket and can run networkbased services that normally require a dedicated personal computer. Featuring a 1.2GHz Marvell Sheeva™ CPU with 512MB of flash memory and 512MB of DDR2 memory, the SheevaPlug provides ample processing power and resources to run any embedded computing application. Network connectivity is via Gigabit Ethernet; peripheral devices can be connected using USB2.0. Software for the SheevaPlug includes multiple Linux distributions and follows the open-source model, making the SheevaPlug an ideal platform on which to develop or port any application. The SheevaPlug development kit contains the SheevaPlug as well as all of the software tools needed to develop applications for the platform.
Marvell
Tags: SheevaPlug, plug computer, Marvell, Grid Computing, Linux

File extension .pps most likely stands for Microsoft PowerPoint Slideshow, but it could stand for one of three types of files that you may either find on your computer or receive. You may find you have trouble opening a file with this extension. What should you do? That will depend on which type of file it is and which programs it is associated with.

If you need information on file extension pps, you can go to the link provided for full definitions of all possible file types and reasons why you may have difficult opening them as well as how to fix any problems you’re experiencing. This file extension library has an extensive list of file extensions that the average computer user will run across in the course of computing. Helpful information and suggestions are given for every file type imaginable at the File Extension Library.

Mystic Mine is a game with simple controls but requires quick thinking and strategy. It has the potential to be both appealing and challenging. Your tasks involve mining for coins, gold and diamonds while guiding your car through ever-changing track configurations. Whatever you do, don’t pick up the dynamite!

Each level sets you a specific task, like collecting a certain number of coins or gems. Getting your gold car around the track involves switching the track rails correctly at each corner, so that your car picks up the required number of coins or diamonds and delivers them within the set time limit. This is deceptively easy at first, and you may find your player ranking to be quite impressive. However, as the levels progress, the track configurations become more complex. Add to that the fact that you can only travel down, and you cannot increase your speed, and you will find that the game does become more challenging as you move up through the levels. Occasionally, there will be the odd stick of dynamite to either avoid or pass to another car before it explodes.

The graphics in this game won’t over-awe but they are drawn three-dimensionally, creating the illusion that your car is traveling down. They are simple, yet clever.

The background music has an Old West feel which is appropriate for a gold mining game. There’s a bouncy and insistent beat that keeps you on your toes without being too intrusive. There are also various sound effects for the cars bumping, the dynamite exploding and successful delivery of required coins and gems.

There’s nothing astonishingly new here but the game takes simple concepts and makes them fun. It combines the elements of a maze with the tasks of acquisition. The ability to have six players at once on one keyboard is a neat feature and allows for some healthy competition. Another nice feature is the way the game adjusts the difficulty to your proficiency, making it a perfect game for the younger child.

This game has the ability to appeal to everyone in the family, regardless of age but is more likely to be popular with the younger player. The levels don’t vary much in their goals and gamers who like more story and action may find it too simplistic – but overall, it’s fun, challenging and a great game for both young and old. Download the 60 minute free trial, you’ll probably find it worth its $19.95 price. I would recommend it as a pleasant way to pass the time.

I saw a letter to the editor of the Casper, Wyoming Star-Tribune on February 18, 2009 written by a home health nurse by the name of Wanda Jones. She says,“For every hour I spend with a patient in Home Health, I spend another 2 to 3 hours or more writing, documenting every required aspect of patient care required by Medicare and patient care in general. Although I agree with Medicare on these standards of care and that these must be documented, the time involved is costly to my agency financially, to me in the aspect of fatigue and stress, and more than likely one issue that burns out so many of our much-needed nursing staff in America and probably on a global scale.”

Wanda goes on to comment that, “IT Health would affect the patient care in our health system across the board of physicians and other professions, institutions, hospitals, nursing facilities and others. Fast and complete transfer of information facilitates better patient care and treatment, frees up professionals to focus on patient care, feel less burned out than they would spending so much time dealing with paperwork.”

I recall working with one of our clients, a very large home health agency in Alabama that was experiencing high turnover of nurses. As the leaders of this very successful company explored the causes of this high turnover, they discovered that nurse dissatisfaction and frustration with their information technology system was the cause. They made a major financial and strategic decision to purchase an entirely new system with a modern point of care computing capability.

Although the conversion to the new system was time consuming, expensive, and frustrating, the outcome was worth the investment. Not only did the new IT system improve there ability to capture and access clinical data, but the level of nurse frustration and burnout improved. Although this technology solution did not solve all of their problems and totally eliminate turnover, it made a significant contribution to the company.

As we move toward Home Health Care 2020, and the Agency Of the Future, more and more agencies will make significant investments in Information Technology to improve productivity, AND, to improve employee satisfaction with their work.

What do you think? How is this factor affecting your agency? What do you think about the Federal Government’s economic stimulus plan and the provisions for health care IT?

Give us your comments below.