Why Disney should run healthcare

My oldest daughter’s competitive cheer team qualified for the World’s Cheer competition in Orlando, FL. The competition was held a couple of weekends ago at Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports. There were teams from all over the world; Czech Republic, Canada, Japan, China, Mexico, New Zealand the US, among others. It was big, really big and Disney handled it without incident.

Here are some observations:

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Some friendly advice for pharmacy recruiters

I get a fair number of emails and phone calls from pharmacy recruiters. The number has decreased over the past couple of years secondary to the change in demand for pharmacists, but I still get them. Lately I think it’s a byproduct of having a LinkedIn profile, which makes me wonder if LinkedIn is worth the time, energy and effort of keeping an online work profile up to date. That’s a post for another day.

Regardless, most of the recruiters that contact me offend more than intrigue me, and here’s where they make their mistakes.

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All good things must come to an end, and so goes the pharmacist shortage

The pharmacist shortage was both good and bad for the pharmacy profession. On one hand it created demand which drove up salaries and improved work environments for some. On the other hand it created an environment of apathy where competition to become better dipped because frequently all you needed was a pulse and a license to get hired and/or keep your job.

Well, times are changing. I noticed a slight change in pharmacist demand during my last two years in the hospital and many people that I’ve talked to across the country confirm what I’ve been thinking – the pharmacist shortage is over.

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Data visualization and dashboards

A wise colleague of mine once told me that lots of people collect data, but few people know what to do with it. I didn’t understand what he was talking about at the time, but I’ve come to have a better understanding over the years. It basically boils down to the difficulty that many of us experience when it comes to the best way to handle information. Our brains do some amazing things, but fail to “see” things when the perspective is all wrong.

Data surrounds us. It’s in everything we do, from the bank statements we receive in our personal life to the mountains of data collected by every healthcare institution. Regardless of the data collected, there are basically three things that can be done with it. Data can be ignored, it can be archived or it can be used. Unfortunately only one of those three things is truly useful; using it. Many people chose to ignore or archive data not because the information isn’t valuable, but because they are overwhelmed with the amount of information they receive and the way that the information is presented.

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