introductions?

[Tony]

hey everyone, just wanted to encourage everyone to utilize this social network. it's new, and it's been a little slow going, but don't be shy! Start a conversation and see what happens. introduce yourself to others. this could be a great way to get progressive thinkers and do-ers in healthcare to find new solutions, ideas, and perspectives.

Also, wanna introduce yourself to the community? Do it here in the comments.

I'll start - I'm the founder of the hospital impact blog and work at a hospital system in the midwest as their new idea guy. I'm always looking for new ideas, new businesses, new partnerships, and new acquisitions that my hospital should be involved with to serve our patients better. I started this social network as a way to exchange ideas/perspectives, to rub shoulders with those who have different perspectives than me, and to catalyze real multi-perspective collaboration. Also, we in hospitals face a lot of problems, wouldn't it be great if you could talk to those across the country who are exactly in your shoes?

[Mike]

My name is Mike. I currently reside on Cape Cod in Massachusetts and have been a registered nurse for some twenty years. I work in emergency medicine as a shift manager,and also carry out some middle management functions at my hospital periodically as a nursing supervisor. I have spent several years in U.S. Navy and Marines as a healthcare officer. From a regular staff nurse to an Intensive Care Unit Manager, to the second in command of a 120 bed combat medical facility in Okinawa, and now working n the civilian sector I have been around a bit. I have my own blog - Mike's Viewpoint which I have recently started back in November of last year that Tony has been very gracious in providing some feedback for. Thank you Tony. Like Tony my interest is to improve healthcare, do some networking, make some friends, and hopefully together improve our respective organizations.

[Shannon DeMarco]

Hi everyone. My name is Shannon and I'm a nurse consultant for medical-legal cases in California. I'm a registered nurse and am currently working on my master's degree in community health nursing. I'm currently doing a study on financial savings for healthcare organizations. I would like to hear from anyone who is willing to share ideas and or success stories of financial sucess within a healthcare ogranization. I'm specifically interested in the possibility of hospitals improving upon their current systems/policies vs making cuts (employee layoffs, reducing supplies, etc). However, I'm open to any information that is supplied. I previously worked as a clinical nurse manager and have some experience in that arena. However, I don't have the exposure to management at the executive level.

[Niladri majumder]

hi all !!! i am Niladri from Kolkata(India).I have done my bachelor's and MBA in Hospital Administration from Institute of Health Management Research(IHMR) (www.iihmr.org)which is a institute of international repute in the field of healthcare management in India.Currently i'm working as an Associate Consultant with Medica Synergie(www.medicasynergie.org) which is a healthcare and hospital consultancy located in the eastern part of India.
This idea of sharing and exchanging information with the sole mission of improving our healthcare system globally has really fascinated me a lot.Thanks a ton to Tony for such a wonderful initiative.

Looking forward to some fruitful discussions in this regards.

[Michael Vela]

Hello, my name is Mike. I'm a pharmacist in the Midwest, practicing in various areas from hospital to home health. Most recently I've been in leadership positions from clinical manager to Director. Right now I'm a Medication Safety officer with a health system in Northeast Wisconsin. I'm interested in everything and I'm always eager to learn. Currently I'm immersing myself in JUST safety culture principles as well as LEAN Six Sigma principles and as I've also been watching the many Heparin hearings occurring on Capital Hill I can't help but think this issue is a perfect case study in showing the need for JUST Safety Culture and LEAN.

[Niladri majumder]

hi mike......its interesting that ur areas of interest coincides with mine.Some good hospitals in India such as Hinduja Hospital (Mumbai,India) have implemented Six Sigma in some of the key areas.But still application of these techniques are in a nascent stage in this part of the world.Infact,lean theorey have also been implemented by some but not in an appropriate manner.

I am eager to the situation in your part of the world.It will be beneficial if you could send me some case studies so that I can get an insight of the same.

[Albert Maruggi]

Tony, I love your blog. I am a senior fellow with the Society for New Communications Research www.sncr.org. I also have produced the Marketing Edge podcast since February 2005.

I am neck deep in research about how healthcare,and hospitals in particular, are being impacted by social media. So in addition to reading all of your posts, and that of other contributors, excellent. I'd like to get you and others on a podcast, perhaps a joint conversation.

I want to get into the issues of "Report Card" medical care and innovative therapy are they at odds or can they coexist?

What will be the impact of HCAHPS going public, no big deal or a race to score high?

Is a patient's experience too serious and private an issue to blog about? e.g. thehealthcarescoop.com

Will there be an attempt to game the healthcare blogsphere just like has been reported in the travel industry?

OK enough of my rambling, I'm excited to read more here and there (www.hospitalimpact.org)

all the best,

Albert