Eleven years ago, I came to work at the Gardens. At that time David Pearce had already been here 17 years. I knew from my first interview with him that he would make a great boss. During the interview he suddenly remembered something and with my permission, he called the Grounds Dept. to alert them to some leaves that needed removing outside a resident's window. I was astonished. Here was the Administrator who knew of a particular concern of a resident, cared enough to call about it and reported it using the resident's name. He knew these residents. Within a week or so of my first day on the job, David was leaving for a 3 week vacation. When I asked him what he wanted me to focus on while he was away, he said...

Changing performance metrics can catalyze a dramatic improvement. I recall the story of Walgreens in the book "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. Collins and his research team describe Walgreens as nothing more than a sleepy retail pharmacy chain that limped along for years before a dramatic rise to great results that lasted for over 15 years. The researchers examined what triggered the change and discovered that Walgreens had deviated from the industry norm of measuring their performance. All retail pharmacies, including Walgreens before their rise to greatness, had used one key performance metric to measure their performance - revenue per square foot per store. When Walgreens began measuring their own performance with a new measure...

June 15th was  World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.  Elder abuse is described by the Administration on Aging as any knowing, intentional or negligent act by a caregiver or any other person that causes harm or serious risk of harm to a vulnerable adult.  This can take the form of physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect or exploitation.

In a recent studies, 7.6%-10% of elders reported abuse in the prior year.  Only about 1 in 14 cases actually reaching the attention of authorities.  This means that the number of known elder abuse incidents is just the tip of the iceberg.  Abuse can also affect elders living in nursing homes.  In a study that interviewed 2,000 nursing home residents...