For Royal Baby and long-term care profession, spooky coincidences abound
By
Gary Tetz
Jul 29, 2013
That poor Royal Baby just can’t catch a break. What were the odds of His birth occurring within hours of an inebriated Amanda Bynes being accused of trespassing at a Los Angeles long-term care community?...
It’s time to observe Dependence Day
By
Gary Tetz
Jul 03, 2013
Sure, let’s celebrate the Fourth of July. Gorge ourselves on commemorative carcinogens and empty carbs. Blow stuff up day and night. Do whatever we always do, for as long and as loud as we like....
Lost in a nursing home elevator — and lived to not talk about it
By
Gary Tetz
Jun 20, 2013
Here’s one that slipped through the cracks, and I’m beating myself up about it. How did I miss the McKnight’s story about Rosalie, the 87-year-old nursing home resident who was trapped...
A not-so-joyful noise
By
Gary Tetz
May 01, 2013
I’m sure you remember the old joke: “Why are nursing homes so noisy? Because we forget people actually live there.” Oh sorry, that’s not a joke. My mistake.
Swallowing a ‘Bitter Pill’
By
Gary Tetz
Apr 11, 2013
The best med aides I’ve ever seen have an almost spooky knack for getting nursing home residents to take their medicine. It’s an art form, really. A mystical mix of command, humor and good,...
Uniform conformity
By
Gary Tetz
Mar 14, 2013
How widespread is the adoption of uniforms within the long-term care profession? According to a rigorous and scientific phone survey I conducted of the one nursing home administrator who would take my...
Ahhhhhhhh, there’s the rub
By
Gary Tetz
Mar 04, 2013
In all the tumult over the Time magazine expose of pervasive and obscene healthcare billing excesses, you might have missed the almost as exciting discovery that foot massages at work lower blood pressure...
Cashing in on grief
By
Gary Tetz
Jan 03, 2013
I know being cynical is bad for me. I’m sure it’s even worse for my health than all the arsenic in my rice. It’s probably killing me slowly and softly, as its tentacles snake into my...
Investing in distraction
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 20, 2012
I’m concerned that some nursing home administrators don’t seem to have enough to do. You would think that with survey and census and deer crashing through windows, they’d be able to keep...
Things I think: Windmills of change
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 02, 2012
I’ve driven up and down Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge roughly 486 times, give or take a thousand, for the past three decades.