Author

Gail Walker, Editor-in-Chief

  • Operations

    Size May Not Matter

    If you missed Dr. Timothy S. Mescon’s rousing presentation at Medtrade last month, you missed a real humdinger. Dean of Kennesaw State University’s Michael J. Coles College of Business, which runs one of the nation’s leading entrepreneurship programs, Dr. Mescon unleashed 45 minutes of enthusiastic motivation for success in business. In the process, he told providers that it is possible not only to survive but to thrive — no matter what their size — in the industry’s unsettled environment. According to Dr. Mescon, the pace of change in business is increasing at an exponential, even a Malthusian, rate. He readily admits that embracing change, much less figuring out how to deal with its consequences, is a daunting challenge. In fact, just thinking about Medicare reform,...

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  • Providers

    Answering the Call

    What a year this has been — and it’s only October. We’ve watched our troops pull out for war with Iraq, and then watched that war on television. Mysterious diseases like Norwalk (the virus that’s stalking cruise ships) and monkeypox (what the heck is that?!) continue to be worrisome, and medical professionals tell us to prepare for SARS The Sequel this winter. A string of corporate financial scandals has littered the headlines. Even kitchen diva Martha Stewart has been charged with insider trading, not exactly “a good thing.” Our computers have been invaded by scourges like Blaster and SoBig, which were, in fact, so big that for a few days they threatened national business. In August, we experienced a blackout that left 50 million people...

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  • Rich in Rewards

    Super chef Emeril Lagasse cooks up $7.2 million annually. Tom Cruise made a reported $65 million on Mission Impossible 2. And Alex Rodriguez of the Texas

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  • No Crystal Ball Necessary

    Where's Carnac the Magnificent when you need him? If he were around, the late-night seer (courtesy of TV host Johnny Carson) might be able to answer the

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  • Give and Take

    It's a town of history and current events, of patriots and politicians a place where promises seem more easily made than kept. Washington, D. C., is a

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  • Aging in Place

    The Second Line

    How lucky you are. Since this is my first column as HomeCare’s editor-in-chief, I was going to talk about some serious industry issues. I could have chosen the state budget crisis, inherent reasonableness or competitive bidding, among many. But the weather is glorious, spring fever has hit, and I’ve decided to tell you instead about a recent family celebration in New Orleans. More than 200 relatives and friends gathered there in March for a wedding, the first for any of our family’s grandchildren. We sat at the Cafe Du Monde, where you can spend hours people-watching and sipping café au lait. We rode the Garden District streetcar, explored the French Quarter’s back alleys and browsed the shops. And of course, we ate, sampled those famous...

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