How Healthcare Works, LLC

 It's early in the morning, and I'm sitting here with my little Pomchi, Mosie. I'm waiting for my coffee to brew, and she is waiting for me to make breakfast. Every day she hopes that she will get at least a small piece of whatever I'm cooking. It doesn't always happen, but she can hope. I love having Mosie around, and I love my other dog, Manny, who I haven't seen in two months now. It's no surprise that when a friend told me she wanted to get a dog that I told her to go for it. She was trying to convince her family members that she should get one. "Say it's good for your health! I'll write it up for you," I responded. Here I am, writing up for her how a dog is good for her health and yours, too.  1. Dogs Boost Your Mood. One of the things I love the most about my dogs is how happy they are. Every morning, they wake up and act like it's the best day of their lives. Both of my dogs are like that. It's like they are saying, "Yea

 One of my first jobs as a faculty member was as distance learning faculty. I taught healthcare administration courses online. The courses ranged from Human Resources Management to Principles of Marketing to Healthcare Finance and Accounting. I taught online for five years, and then I taught hybrid courses a few years later at two other universities, one that was historically online based. However, the classes I taught for them were face to face. As a faculty member using online platforms, I found that the following tips useful to ensure my students were successful in my classes. I thought I would share those tips with you. 1. Designate a workspace. When I was in graduate school, one of my professors told me that being a student was a full-time job. I had always treated it like it was one of my part-time jobs, and I had several. However, once I changed my mindset and treated school like it was my full-time job, I found it less stressful. For middle school, high school, and college stud

 Managed care can often feel like your health insurance plan is managing you. Finding your way through it can be like weaving your way through spider webs in a haunted house. Once you are done being entangled and entrapped in one web, you feel like there is another one to walk through. So much is happening around you that you don't understand. Once the lights are on, you see that everything wasn't as scary as you thought. Shedding some light on your health care plan, too, can make it seem less frightening. 1. Pay Attention When Selecting Your Plan. When providing you with information about your employer-sponsored, private pay, and even government-backed health plans (like Medicaid), you are usually given a grid. The grid shows what is covered at optimum levels and lower levels of plan payments and coverage. Take the time to read the grid. Reading it isn't fun or interesting, but it will pay off in the long run. Be honest with yourself about your healthcare needs. If you hav

It's late at night, and you have to work in the morning. After a long weekend of fun and supposed relaxation, you realize you aren't feeling the best. You decide to give it a couple of days and see if your symptoms get any better. If they don't, then maybe you will make a doctor's appointment. Before you check into the clinic, make sure you know the ins and outs of being your own advocate. 1. Do Your Research. We live in this great era where we have all kinds of information at our fingertips. Almost anything and everything can be found on the internet. Several websites also exist where you can check your symptoms and try to guesstimate what illness you may have. My personal favorite symptom checker websites are WebMD and Mayo Clinic . These symptom checker sites also usually have treatment options listed for each illness. Sometimes, you can treat yourself and your symptoms at home without going to the doctor. At others, you may need intervention by a medical profession

 As a faculty member, I taught a healthcare communications course. The students would walk in and say, "This class is going to be easy, because how hard can health communication be?" One of the many lessons we have learned from the pandemic is that health communication, especially effective health communication, is not easy. In fact, many healthcare experts say we have developed a form of miscommunication so monumental that we have created another problem of pandemic proportions. We have created an infodemic .  In public health and in other forms of health care, we look at health indicators or underlying factors that cause disease to determine how to treat it. So, how do we go about treating the infodemic ?  1. Follow the KISS philosophy. My high school chemistry teacher, Mr. Dieken, used to tell us he followed the KISS philosophy, Keep It Simple, Stupid. Even though we were all pretty sure that Mr. Dieken had the skills and the knowledge to probably build an atomic bomb, he

Millions of Americans are waiting with bated breath to see what will happen with the unemployment supplement provided during the coronavirus pandemic. However, the supplement end date has passed and no new legislation extending or even modifying the supplement has been enacted. As such, those millions of unemployed workers who were depending on their unemployment benefits to get them through the virus are now scrambling and flooding the job market. Without a doubt, possibly millions of resumes will be sent out this week in hopes of alleviating the financial pressure Americans are feeling this week.  If you are one of those Americans looking for a job, I would like to provide you with some useful tips so you only apply for jobs for which you are qualified. I know, there are stories about people sending out mass resumes and blanket resumes to companies, and they land jobs. However, in reality, those stories are rare. During my healthcare administration career, I have reviewed possibly

Okay, I'm sure you read the title of this post and thought I was going to say something about doing your research for papers or presentations. Or, you might have thought I meant to do your research before you post randomwebsite.com latest COVID-19 news on social media. No. That's not what I am talking about. Do your research on yourself. After all, part of what How Healthcare Works is about is personal and professional leadership development. 1. Google Yourself. I remember when I first started "Googling" myself. Actually, "Google" wasn't even around then. We were still calling the internet the "worldwide web," and I probably used Netscape or Internet Explorer to conduct my web search. But, the thing to do, just for fun, was to search your name and see if it came up anywhere. And, my name did...here and there. I thought it was cool, and I didn't think too much of it. As time went on, my name appeared more and more. Now, that I have a pret