When I saw the New York Times article illuminating the clever ways devious operators could inflate their Medicare star ratings, I had mixed emotions ranging from fury to rage.
Hand wringing about hand washing
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 12, 2013
Now that we know many nursing homes don’t meet hand-washing guidelines, let the hand-wringing begin. Hopefully with a generous squirt of anti-microbial sanitizer in the palm first.
Heroes bring us together
By
Gary Tetz
Oct 18, 2018
Ever tempted to lose your faith in the essential goodness of human nature? Worried that our country is irreparably divided? A flight across the country with a group of iconic war heroes from long-term...
Jumper cables and stethoscopes
By
Gary Tetz
Jul 14, 2016
After posing questions ever since the bitter childhood discovery that I would never be an astronaut or Bobby Orr, I finally got my answer this week. Why do I exist? To be the guy with jumper cables.
Sentenced to a nursing home
By
Gary Tetz
Apr 29, 2014
Here’s an innovative new way, and maybe the only one you haven’t already tried, to make sure more people visit your lonely nursing home residents. Sentence them to do it.
Senior sex — the lethal irony
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 08, 2016
Of all the forces in the universe, I fear irony the most. It’s lethal, and is eventually going to find and destroy me.
They’re here
By
Gary Tetz
Jan 28, 2016
We baby boomers think we’ll live forever. Data now suggests we might just be right.
Uninventing the wheel in the nursing home
By
Gary Tetz
Mar 27, 2013
Better watch your back, people. Gangs of angry, wheelchair-bound residents are screaming at high speeds through our nation’s nursing homes, pursuing their mobile vendettas with brutal demonstrations...
Meditation management
By
Gary Tetz
Nov 21, 2012
I start each day with half an hour of meditation. I find it gives me something to fail at first thing in the morning, which helps avoid dangerous surges in self-confidence.
Hey, did ya hear the one about the quasi-experimental humor therapy study?
By
Gary Tetz
Jul 31, 2014
Have you ever heard an eldercare researcher tell a joke? It can be a painful experience. No simple knock-knock. No guy walking into a bar.