Healthcare Quality & Analytics, Personal

Updates: Annapolis, Bats & More!

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Where to begin?

Maryland Association for Healthcare Quality

I flew to Annapolis on Wednesday to speak at one of the semi-annual educational conferences of the Maryland Association for Healthcare Quality. I’ve known the MAHQ president, Monica, for several years; in fact, she keynoted the Michigan Association for Healthcare Quality conference I hosted in Traverse City two years ago. Lovely lady.

The MAHQ event lasted one full day. My colleague Gayle ran the morning session — about advanced Excel tips and an introduction to some intermediate-level statistical concepts — and I led the three-hour afternoon block. My session focused on the “why” of health data analytics; I presented a list of characteristics of a high-performing team, then I presented real-life use cases illuminating the value of each characteristic.

I also presented what’s increasingly my personal call-to-action about health data analytics:

Health care is in a value crisis precipitated by suboptimal structures and misaligned incentives. We’ve mostly eaten the low-hanging fruit from IOM/IHI. The sole remaining path for driving improvements in cost/outcomes/access/satisfaction rests in data-driven PI initiatives. Yet, our industry’s capability is still in its infancy. Until we get smart about data, costs will go up — and we’ll continue to inflict avoidable harm or even death on the patients we serve.

On a personal note, it was lovely to have dinner with Gayle and Stephanie at the Severn Inn on Wednesday. Our table overlooked the Severn River, immediately across the water from the United States Naval Academy. The cover photo for this post, in fact, was taken from the Inn’s parking lot. And on Thursday, Monica took me to the Fleet Reserve Club, where she’s a member, to enjoy drinks and to see the sights along the Ego Alley (Spa River) waterfront. A lovely experience.

This trip also marked my first time flying United Airlines. Good experience. The planes were in clean condition. The flight attendant on the ORD-to-BWI leg was wonderful. However, the biggest lesson is that despite how often I shuffle through O’Hare — a dank, crowded place that reminds me of Dallas-Fort Worth — United operates Concourse C at Terminal 1, which is beautiful, tall, light and airy. American Airlines hangs around Terminal 3, which is a much more depressing place.

Bat in the Bedroom

The morning after Memorial Day, I was awoken by the sound of my feline overlords chasing a bat in my bedroom. I caught the bat safely. I then deduced that neither I nor the kitties had been bitten or scratched by the little winged devil. So I carefully released the bat back into the wild.

Good idea, right?

Well, later that week, a co-worker came across a story on NPR about bats in the bedroom. And thus began a Seinfeldian journey of ridiculousness. For starters, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people seek post-exposure treatment for rabies if they awake to a bat in their bedroom, even if they’re confident they weren’t bitten. Accordingly, I use the MyHealth app to leave a “non-emergency medical question” with my physician. His medical assistant calls me and basically says: “We don’t know nuthin’ ‘but no bats; you better call the health department.” So I did. And the public-health nurse on the other end of the line — besides having a delightfully morbid sense of humor — suggested that there wasn’t any real risk and that Canada has abandoned the CDC’s strict rules because the CDC’s recommendations followed from a decade-long observation period with a total N count of five infected humans. Then she said the only two bats in Kent County that tested positive for rabies so far this year are both from my street, so maybe I should consider it anyway. Which … well, my street is very long. So then there’s the “do I go to the E.R. for shots, or not?” question, which boils down to this: Do you spend a ton of money to go to the ER for injections, knowing that you have an infinitesimally small risk of acquiring a virus that’s effectively 100 percent fatal, or not?

It’s the Precautionary Principle run amok, and an excellent case study in why we have so much waste in the health care industry.

And then, of course, the “what about the kitties?” question.

I figure I’ll take the cats to the vet this coming week, but I’m not going to get poked, myself. So if you see me frothing at the mouth later this summer — you’ll know I chose poorly. And that you should stay out of biting range.

Miscellaneous Morsels of Misanthropy

  • Although I’ll keep the victims (and their loved ones) of the Orlando shooting in my thoughts and prayers, I’m disappointed — but not surprised — that the immediate reaction circled around gun control. In Kalamazoo earlier this week, a crazy man plowed into a group of cyclists with his truck, killing five, but no one’s calling for a ban on automobiles. As long as we’re polarized about firearms, we’re going to continue to miss the point about the triggers of social decay that make mass-violence episodes occur in the first place. And more will die as a result. This is, foremost, a cultural problem, which requires solutions that transcend legislation.
  • Our writer’s meeting went well on Friday. We’re going to Ann Arbor next weekend to sell books at the Ann Arbor Book Festival. I’m excited.
  • I nearly forgot to mention — a few weeks ago, my friend Jared stopped into town for a visit. He used to live/work here, but he and his wife took up employment in Abu Dhabi. It was nice to connect. I’m going to interview him, and a few others, for the next issue of The 3288 Review. And I’m probably going to take him up on his offer to visit him in the Middle East.
  • Speaking of The 3288 Review — it’s on sale. Buy now, before we sell out! Copies arrived this past Wednesday. It’s a lovely volume. As usual, my column appears in the back; this time, I wrote about the literary representation of rape.

Personal

Observations

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With forlorn heaviness, my eyes absorb the tranquility of Plaster Creek as I sip my coffee and lament the untimely passing of a five-day holiday weekend. On the bright side, though — I have stuff to share.

In no particular order:

  • I’ve pretty much finished the consolidation of my social/Web platform. When I started Gillikin Consulting nearly a decade ago, I split my personal and professional social media and Web into separate properties. I’m now healing the divide. This blog has everything, as does my Twitter account and my still-mostly-dormant Google Plus page. I’m putting professional stuff on LinkedIn and my Facebook fan page; personal stuff will go to my normal Facebook page for the usual friends-only audience. And although I have a buttload of email accounts that all go to the same place, I’m streaming them into this domain. In fact, “jegillikin” is pretty much my handle everywhere, now. Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, blah, blah ….
  • My experiment in self-publishing has been realllly interesting. About three weeks ago, I uploaded a novella (roughly 23k-ish words) to Amazon. This project, which I started in February, was designed to validate a specific hypothesis that I encountered while reading Jane Friedman’s Publishing 101 — basically, that genre trumps platform in terms of sales generation. So after doing some careful research, I picked a niche genre of erotica, I wrote the novella, then I uploaded it. (Of course, I used a pseudonym; the story can’t be tracked back to me.) The results so far have been intriguing. I’ve managed to sell 16 copies of the Amazon e-book with literally no promotional activities and with a totally made-up author name that has no built-in readership. In addition, through the Kindle Direct Publishing program, I’ve made the novella free to read for Amazon Unlimited subscribers. I see that as of this morning, I’ve had 4,962 normalized page reads. Given that the novella clocks in at 128 normalized pages, I’ve had the equivalent of 38.77 additional readers. My royalties payable so far are $22.67 + £3.54 + €1.72. It’s difficult to infer the compensation off the Kindle Unlimited program — Amazon puts X dollars into a monthly pool, then it’s divided by total page reads, which becomes your multiplier — but if the rates today are similar to what I’ve seen published about a year ago, then on top of sales royalties I should see between $25 and $30 additional in KU revenue. Not bad, really. And it puts into perspective the amount of time and effort we’re putting into promoting literary fiction and poetry, at Caffeinated Press. I am toying with the idea of expanding the experiment by writing five more, similar novellas — but then creating a social platform de novo for the author pseudonym and seeing if it makes a material difference. And after that, collecting all six novellas into a Createspace print volume. The chance for passive residual income, even if it’s just a couple hundred bucks per month over the long run, is too tempting to pass up.
  • This past week, Scott, Richard, Tony and I met for a cigar night at Grand River Cigar. Tony had to get home early, but the rest of us went back to Scott’s condo at Riverhouse. He has a to-die-for view, as evidenced by a brief video of the evening G.R. skyline I shot from his balcony:
  • Speaking of Tony, he and I were able to knock through a whopping six back-to-back-to-back episodes of Vice Lounge Online last week. Talk about a marathon! At one point we took a cigar break on my front porch. Then we noticed the ginormous swarm of bees in the tree line on the other side of the street. See this video? Those little dots aren’t pixilation.
  • Whilst cleaning out the living-room closet yesterday, I discovered I have a Snuggie. Huh.
  • The feline overlords have been mostly content to let me write in peace from the living room, instead of demanding to sit on my arms or chest every time they see me approach a keyboard. It helps that they have soft places to rest:
    IMG_0021

OK, all for now. Chores await.

Personal

November: The Busiest Month — A Recap & Reflection

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Hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day of the month. Over the last few years, the Eleventh Month has become the Busiest Month, much of it related to writing-related activities. This year was both more packed, but more manageable, than most. Herewith a recap, in no particular order.

  1. Library election. With all due gratitude and appreciation to the 17 people who wrote me in for the Nov. 3 election for the Grand Rapids Public Library’s Board of Library Commissioners, another candidate managed to get more than 450 votes. Wow. I am considering running on the formal ballot in 2017, because I still believe GRPL is far too parochial and antiquated in its thinking, particularly about local writing talent. The Kent District Library far outpaces GRPL on that front. Doesn’t need to be that way.
  2. Caffeinated Press update. Speaking of GRPL, we presented at the KDL fall writer’s conference in October, to a group of probably 200. We (John, Brittany, AmyJo and I) had 40 minutes to talk about the gotchas of moving a manuscript from your desktop to a publisher’s desktop. Likewise, I’ve been working like a mad demon on book projects. In the last six weeks, I’ve wrapped up production on A Crowd of Sorrows, A Broken Race and The One Friend Philosophy of Life. I also completed our corporate catalog and helped John with final proofing on The 3288 Review (vol. 1, issue 2). We even managed to hold a well-attended kickoff for National Novel Writing Month, here in the office, and to nominate six worthy pieces for the prestigious Pushcart Prize. Next on the list: Edits on Letters lost then found, final production on Grayson Rising and proofing and production on Brewed Awakenings 2.
  3. The Children of St. William’s. My own NaNoWriMo novel, The Children of St. William’s, recounts the tale of Sarah Price, a young progressive woman who, although she had known she was adopted, discovers that she has several siblings. The novel addresses her shifting motivations for tracking each of them down — and how connecting all these people together both hurts and helps them all, while her parish priest struggles to understand how and why the adoptions happened in the first place. Currently at just a hair above 40k. On track for a NaNo “win.” I like the story and will continue to work on it; the current storyboard targets around 85k words. More to come.
  4. Treks to the Windy City. This coming week, I drive to Chicago for NAHQ’s State Leaders’ Summit. Then in January I have back-to-back NAHQ-related Chicago trips, both by air — the first for the quarterly board of directors meeting, and the second for the inaugural meeting of the Recognition of the Profession Commission (which I chair). Interesting professional-growth opportunity. Looking forward to the National Quality Summit in Dallas in the second week of May.
  5. MAHQ Conference 2015. Our October conference went off well — more than 60 attendees and fairly good results. I spoke about the health policy climate in the state government, as well as serving as overall conference chairman. Our venue, the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids, served lovely food, but wow … horrific service standards. I expected better from the Amway. Did receive, however, solid support from ExperienceGR.
  6. Requiem by Brahms. AmyJo and I went to see German Requiem by Brahms earlier this month. The performance, guest conducted by Rune Bergmann, was a delight; the symphony was wonderful, as usual, and the chorus was well-balanced relative to the symphony. Before the performance, we stopped at Reserve for wine and cheese. In all, a great way to de-stress after a rough month (for each of us, individually). I have so few folks who enjoy fine-arts performances, so slipping out with AJ was awesome. (And I’ll have to book another opera trip with April soon.)
  7. Fully staffed! I now have a completely staffed department at Priority Health. A few weeks ago, two of my new hires — Jen and Maria — joined the team. A few weeks before that, it was Gabriel. And now we have Patrick. Focus will be on predictive modeling, quality improvement analytics intended to transform the care model, and ongoing support for our employer-group reporting team. Exciting time to be a leader in health data analytics.
  8. RIP Abbey. My classmate at West Catholic, Abbey Czarniecki, passed away recently. She was a lovely lady; may her soul find eternal rest.
  9. Hell = Frozen Over. I ended up buying an iPad Mini 4. The device makes work at Priority Health so much easier, since Spectrum Health’s IT department apparently only understands iOS. That said, although the device is conveniently portable, I still prefer my Surface 3. The way I see it, the iPad is great for quick, single-focus tasks, like answering an email or browsing something on the Web. But iOS falls far short compared to Windows 10 regarding multitasking and true productivity work. On my Surface 3 (not even the Pro model), I can do pretty much the same stuff I can do on my CafPress laptop. For context, the CafPress box is an HP laptop with a medium-high-end AMD processor and 8 GB of RAM. On the Surface 3, I can use Scrivener and the full MS Office suite. On the iPad … I can use simple versions that look and feel like Web apps. I’d give iOS the edge in core OS stability, app availability and ease of executing single tasks; Windows 10 wins in terms of sheer power and versatility and harmony of design. (Yes. Design harmony. You have no idea how hard it is to find basic settings in different iOS apps; some are in the app, some are in the Settings app. Geez. And writing with a stylus? Astonishingly infantile on iOS, smooth as butter on Win10.)
  10. VLO 250. Hard to believe that a weekly 30-minute podcast dedicated to casino gaming, premium cigars and fine adult beverages would last five years and 250 episodes, yet yesterday Tony came into town and we recorded through episodes 247 through 249 for The Vice Lounge Online. Wow. In December we’ll hit the quarter-millennium mark. We’re planning a “VLO Anniversary Party” for April 1-3 in Louisville, KY. Basically, distillery tours, the Urban Bourbon Trail and fine dining. And a cigar-related event. Probably no gambling, though, unless we do something minor at the Horseshoe Southern Indiana. More details to come. And I believe VLO is doing something fun as a scheduled activity in this summer’s 360 Vegas Vacation III in Las Vegas.

All for now. Have a lovely December, y’all.

Personal

November: The Busiest Month — A Recap & Reflection

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Hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day of the month. Over the last few years, the Eleventh Month has become the Busiest Month, much of it related to writing-related activities. This year was both more packed, but more manageable, than most. Herewith a recap, in no particular order.

  1. Library election. With all due gratitude and appreciation to the 17 people who wrote me in for the Nov. 3 election for the Grand Rapids Public Library’s Board of Library Commissioners, another candidate managed to get more than 450 votes. Wow. I am considering running on the formal ballot in 2017, because I still believe GRPL is far too parochial and antiquated in its thinking, particularly about local writing talent. The Kent District Library far outpaces GRPL on that front. Doesn’t need to be that way.
  2. Caffeinated Press update. Speaking of GRPL, we presented at the KDL fall writer’s conference in October, to a group of probably 200. We (John, Brittany, AmyJo and I) had 40 minutes to talk about the gotchas of moving a manuscript from your desktop to a publisher’s desktop. Likewise, I’ve been working like a mad demon on book projects. In the last six weeks, I’ve wrapped up production on A Crowd of Sorrows, A Broken Race and The One Friend Philosophy of Life. I also completed our corporate catalog and helped John with final proofing on The 3288 Review (vol. 1, issue 2). We even managed to hold a well-attended kickoff for National Novel Writing Month, here in the office, and to nominate six worthy pieces for the prestigious Pushcart Prize. Next on the list: Edits on Letters lost then found, final production on Grayson Rising and proofing and production on Brewed Awakenings 2.
  3. The Children of St. William’s. My own NaNoWriMo novel, The Children of St. William’s, recounts the tale of Sarah Price, a young progressive woman who, although she had known she was adopted, discovers that she has several siblings. The novel addresses her shifting motivations for tracking each of them down — and how connecting all these people together both hurts and helps them all, while her parish priest struggles to understand how and why the adoptions happened in the first place. Currently at just a hair above 40k. On track for a NaNo “win.” I like the story and will continue to work on it; the current storyboard targets around 85k words. More to come.
  4. Treks to the Windy City. This coming week, I drive to Chicago for NAHQ’s State Leaders’ Summit. Then in January I have back-to-back NAHQ-related Chicago trips, both by air — the first for the quarterly board of directors meeting, and the second for the inaugural meeting of the Recognition of the Profession Commission (which I chair). Interesting professional-growth opportunity. Looking forward to the National Quality Summit in Dallas in the second week of May.
  5. MAHQ Conference 2015. Our October conference went off well — more than 60 attendees and fairly good results. I spoke about the health policy climate in the state government, as well as serving as overall conference chairman. Our venue, the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids, served lovely food, but wow … horrific service standards. I expected better from the Amway. Did receive, however, solid support from ExperienceGR.
  6. Requiem by Brahms. AmyJo and I went to see German Requiem by Brahms earlier this month. The performance, guest conducted by Rune Bergmann, was a delight; the symphony was wonderful, as usual, and the chorus was well-balanced relative to the symphony. Before the performance, we stopped at Reserve for wine and cheese. In all, a great way to de-stress after a rough month (for each of us, individually). I have so few folks who enjoy fine-arts performances, so slipping out with AJ was awesome. (And I’ll have to book another opera trip with April soon.)
  7. Fully staffed! I now have a completely staffed department at Priority Health. A few weeks ago, two of my new hires — Jen and Maria — joined the team. A few weeks before that, it was Gabriel. And now we have Patrick. Focus will be on predictive modeling, quality improvement analytics intended to transform the care model, and ongoing support for our employer-group reporting team. Exciting time to be a leader in health data analytics.
  8. RIP Abbey. My classmate at West Catholic, Abbey Czarniecki, passed away recently. She was a lovely lady; may her soul find eternal rest.
  9. Hell = Frozen Over. I ended up buying an iPad Mini 4. The device makes work at Priority Health so much easier, since Spectrum Health’s IT department apparently only understands iOS. That said, although the device is conveniently portable, I still prefer my Surface 3. The way I see it, the iPad is great for quick, single-focus tasks, like answering an email or browsing something on the Web. But iOS falls far short compared to Windows 10 regarding multitasking and true productivity work. On my Surface 3 (not even the Pro model), I can do pretty much the same stuff I can do on my CafPress laptop. For context, the CafPress box is an HP laptop with a medium-high-end AMD processor and 8 GB of RAM. On the Surface 3, I can use Scrivener and the full MS Office suite. On the iPad … I can use simple versions that look and feel like Web apps. I’d give iOS the edge in core OS stability, app availability and ease of executing single tasks; Windows 10 wins in terms of sheer power and versatility and harmony of design. (Yes. Design harmony. You have no idea how hard it is to find basic settings in different iOS apps; some are in the app, some are in the Settings app. Geez. And writing with a stylus? Astonishingly infantile on iOS, smooth as butter on Win10.)
  10. VLO 250. Hard to believe that a weekly 30-minute podcast dedicated to casino gaming, premium cigars and fine adult beverages would last five years and 250 episodes, yet yesterday Tony came into town and we recorded through episodes 247 through 249 for The Vice Lounge Online. Wow. In December we’ll hit the quarter-millennium mark. We’re planning a “VLO Anniversary Party” for April 1-3 in Louisville, KY. Basically, distillery tours, the Urban Bourbon Trail and fine dining. And a cigar-related event. Probably no gambling, though, unless we do something minor at the Horseshoe Southern Indiana. More details to come. And I believe VLO is doing something fun as a scheduled activity in this summer’s 360 Vegas Vacation III in Las Vegas.

All for now. Have a lovely December, y’all.

Personal

Processing

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I’ve been in something of a funk lately. I though I was just stressed from being very, very busy, but I don’t think busy is the problem. And I know I have to take better care of my physical health, but also I don’t think I’m about to be admitted to the ICU, so to speak, despite being quite under the weather recently.

Processing, maybe. What, I don’t know. But little things, mostly news stories, are sticking with me, tugging at forgotten memories. It’s like feeling as if I’m facing a decision, and I’m deliberating about the decision, but I have no clue what the decision actually is.

Anyway. Highlights of note:

  • Last week saw the successful completion of the annual educational conference of the Michigan Association for Healthcare Quality. I chaired the conference, again, and also spoke at one session (about health policy trends in Lansing). The two-day event went well, and the food at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel was nice, although the final bill for MAHQ was really quite large.
  • I’ve now hired three new staff at Priority Health. It’ll be nice to not have to be a three-quarter-time manager and half-time analyst for much longer.
  • Caffeinated Press has been busy. In the last few weeks, I’ve wrapped up production on a poetry collection, a novel and our semiannual catalog, with another novel and a novella still to finish by the end of the month.
  • The weather has suddenly turned crisp; we’ve been down into the low 30s at night, already.

 

Personal

July’s Already Gone!

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August, already? Cripes, where did the time go?

Been thinking a lot lately about priorities. The things that matter most to me, or are genuinely important, aren’t necessarily enjoying the lion’s share of my time — the Tyranny of the Urgent, and all that.

Updates:

  • Enjoyed the wedding reception for Gary and Jessica yesterday. Held at Jessica’s parental-unit home in Grass Lake. Great time. Traveled there with Other Jason (who drove) and Jen, our resident Adventure Heroine. Happily, Lianne/Stephen and Mary/Ben also showed up. It’s clear the bride and groom spent a lot of time fussing about details — the whole event came together nicely and, as they say, “a good time was had by all.”
  • Tonight’s another board meeting for Caffeinated Press. Things are looking up; whispers of revenue tease us from across the autumnal divide. I’m wrapping up a textbook project today, then we have a few other items — including a very powerful collection of WW2 letters and a poetry collection — in the hopper. Should have two releases in September and two in October, plus one in November and one in January. Much-needed infusion of capital into a company currently funded by board members.
  • Later this month, I’ll be in Seattle for the Joint Statistical Meetings. Nothing to present, for once — just a pair of section-officer meetings. Emma is going, too, and I think she’s going to get us reservations for dinner in the Space Needle. My little intern is all growed up. 🙂
  • Enjoyed a great podcasting session with Tony and our friend John from PA last weekend. He was in the area for a conference, so he took the time to come to mid-Michigan. We dined, we drank, we enjoyed cigars at The Corona … good times.
  • In mid-July, the maternal family trekked to Indiana for a cookout and poolside recreation. That was pleasant. Learned that my cousin Nicole is pregnant — yay! I’m trying to convince her to hold the baby a few extra days so she can be born on my birthday, but I don’t think Nicole finds the prospect especially appealing.
  • Attended a day-long analytics conference in Mount Pleasant a few weeks ago. Hit-or-miss regarding content.

Personal

July's Already Gone!

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August, already? Cripes, where did the time go?
Been thinking a lot lately about priorities. The things that matter most to me, or are genuinely important, aren’t necessarily enjoying the lion’s share of my time — the Tyranny of the Urgent, and all that.
Updates:

  • Enjoyed the wedding reception for Gary and Jessica yesterday. Held at Jessica’s parental-unit home in Grass Lake. Great time. Traveled there with Other Jason (who drove) and Jen, our resident Adventure Heroine. Happily, Lianne/Stephen and Mary/Ben also showed up. It’s clear the bride and groom spent a lot of time fussing about details — the whole event came together nicely and, as they say, “a good time was had by all.”
  • Tonight’s another board meeting for Caffeinated Press. Things are looking up; whispers of revenue tease us from across the autumnal divide. I’m wrapping up a textbook project today, then we have a few other items — including a very powerful collection of WW2 letters and a poetry collection — in the hopper. Should have two releases in September and two in October, plus one in November and one in January. Much-needed infusion of capital into a company currently funded by board members.
  • Later this month, I’ll be in Seattle for the Joint Statistical Meetings. Nothing to present, for once — just a pair of section-officer meetings. Emma is going, too, and I think she’s going to get us reservations for dinner in the Space Needle. My little intern is all growed up. 🙂
  • Enjoyed a great podcasting session with Tony and our friend John from PA last weekend. He was in the area for a conference, so he took the time to come to mid-Michigan. We dined, we drank, we enjoyed cigars at The Corona … good times.
  • In mid-July, the maternal family trekked to Indiana for a cookout and poolside recreation. That was pleasant. Learned that my cousin Nicole is pregnant — yay! I’m trying to convince her to hold the baby a few extra days so she can be born on my birthday, but I don’t think Nicole finds the prospect especially appealing.
  • Attended a day-long analytics conference in Mount Pleasant a few weeks ago. Hit-or-miss regarding content.

Personal

Saddle-Breaking the Whirlwind

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Well, the last few weeks have certainly been eventful. Where to begin?

New Orleans

I co-presented a session about the emerging professional competencies for health data analytics at this year’s RLPalooza, the annual vendor conference hosted by RL Solutions. I had been invited by the leadership of the National Association for Healthcare Quality to attend, given that I had co-led the rapid-cycle performance-improvement team that developed the HDA competency framework. Great professional experience, and I really enjoyed returning to The Big Easy. Haven’t been there since before Hurricane Katrina.

I give RL Solutions a ton of credit: They know how to throw a party. Not only did they bring in some really engaging speakers, but the food was excellent and the open bars served top-shelf spirits. The “Secret Dinner” — an annual tradition whereby they transport the entire group of conference attendees to an undisclosed location for an evening of revelry — was at the Superdome. RL bought out the Superdome, erected a sound stage and a dozen food and drink stations … then brought in Drew Brees, quarterback of the New Orleans Saints, for a brief talk and then photos. Plus a local band, plus the hilarious 610 Stompers performers. Each of us had our picture taken; the photos were edited by RL staff and then displayed, in rotating alpha order, on the jumbotron. Rather fun, especially as the vodka tonics flowed freely. The alligator sausages were extra tasty.

The scene as we entered the Superdome. A sound stage and food/alcohol stations circled the screened seating area.
The scene as we entered the Superdome. A sound stage and food/alcohol stations circled the screened seating area.
My photo card, as it appeared on the Jumbotron display.
My photo card, as it appeared on the Jumbotron display.

My flights connected through Dallas. Although I did text Roux with a good-natured “complaint” that DFW needed to mow the lawn around the runway, I was saddened to see the flood devastation in north Texas — even now, the carnage is obvious, with entire structures still just poking their heads above engorged lakes and scenes like golf courses where half or more of the landscape remains underwater. Surreal, and a reminder to be grateful for what you have, while you have it.

Chicago

The week before Memorial Day, I flew to Chicago for a NAHQ focus group dedicated to optimizing the relationship between the national group and the various state-level affiliates across the country. As president-elect of the Michigan Association for Healthcare Quality, and as NAHQ’s co-lead for its State Leaders Team, I enjoyed the opportunity to review and then suggest improvements to the current legal murkiness of affiliation agreements, 501(c)(6) requirements and transference of liability to the folks with the deepest pockets. The day-long meeting was quite useful and utterly fascinating.

Other Travel Plans

The rest of the year looks calmer. I believe I’m going to the Joint Statistical Meetings in Seattle in early August. I am also aiming for a Vegas trip in late August, to see my friend Jared who’ll be back from overseas. I opted at the 11th hour to skip the Bonaire diving trip because the conference in New Orleans presented an intriguing professional opportunity, and because flights to and from the island, on the weekdays, connect through Amsterdam. So, yeah. Plus a Middle East trip is still on the table, and I have toyed with the idea of doing VIMFP in Sin City in October, but October abuts, at present, several scheduled release events for Caffeinated Press as well as a CafPress-related speaking engagement. Speaking of which ….

Caffeinated Press Update

The house anthology for Caffeinated Press, Brewed Awakenings, passed its May 31 deadline for new submissions. We’ve received 67 unique contributions from about 60 authors. Fun stuff. Now the review work begins! Progress continues for The 3288 Review; our submission deadline is June 30 and we’ve got design work underway plus we’ve already received our ISSN from the Library of Congress.

Speaking of the LoC: Inasmuch as it’s easy to mock the relative incompetence and/or inefficiency of government, I’ve had to work with the LoC twice this year, and both times, they delivered early and gave me everything I needed to know in one comprehensive and accessible package. Perhaps librarians (or archivists) ought to run the world?

Oh, and the big news: We’ve leased an office. Later this month we move into 1,150 square feet located off Ken-O-Sha park, at the intersection of Kalamazoo Avenue and 32nd Street. The walls and carpet are being redone. We’ll have space reserved for the board of directors plus a few of our more high-volume editors, then open collaboration space for other editors and for any local authors who want a place to decamp for a writing session. We’ll have a coffee station, snacks, a microwave and refrigerator, some futons, etc. We can use the space for small writer gatherings and for getting work done. I’m excited.

If you’re in the mood for an additional read, I’ve posted to the CafPress blog our “Editor’s Toolkit for Assessing Fiction” and “Vanquishing Vexing Verbosity.” I wrote them, so you know they’ll be good.

And if you support our mission, consider a financial investment. We’re currently accepting short-term funding from our allies in the community. Write us a check, we’ll pay you back quarterly — plus 10 percent. Better than a savings account!

Quick Hits

Other thingies:

  • Enjoyed a tasty breakfast last Sunday at Wolfgang’s in Eastown, with Steve, Brittany and April. Mmm, breakfast.
  • Took my first Uber ride. My flight from New Orleans landed well after midnight, so I fired up the app and off I went. Much cheaper than a taxi. Plus, the driver was already at the airport, so I literally walked non-stop from the jetbridge to his Escalade. Driver was a semi-retiree who liked to keep busy. Charming fellow. I fully expect that future G.R. trips will feature me getting to the Gerald R. Ford International Airport by municipal bus, then home by Uber, to avoid parking fees.
  • Tony has lately managed our podcast edits, and he’s done a good job with them.
  • Planning for the October conference of the Michigan Association for Healthcare Quality continues apace. Looks like a solid program is shaping up.
  • The Jimmy is down, and perhaps for good this time. The search for a replacement vehicle begins again. *sigh*
  • I think I have a cold. If I do, it’s one of the mildest I’ve ever had.

A Reflective Postscript

You know the old saying: You can’t shove 10 lbs. of manure into a 5-lb. sack. As far as conventional wisdom goes, this slogan is fairly conventionally wise. But when you have 10 lbs. of “stuff” and just a 5-lb. sack to put it in, whatcha gonna do? Because shrugging your shoulders and quoting homespun maxims really isn’t a viable long-term solution.

I cast my mind’s eye back a full decade. I was about four months into life after grad school and the newspaper, and five months into a spartan diet-and-exercise regime. My existence at that point consisted mostly of a 40-hour day job at the hospital and nothing else. So I’d come home, exercise for an hour, then retreat to my desk to mindlessly surf the Web or tinker with the online political simulations I had joined. I’m astonished, in retrospect, at just how little of my time was occupied with meaningful, strategic pursuits in the period of roughly 2005 through 2012.  In 2006/07, I did karate and ran a lot. In 2008 I got my dive certification but the only diving I did was into the dating pool, with sitcom-like results. From 2009 to 2011, I went through a rough patch and foundered on the shoals of self-inflicted helplessness dotting the Sea of Ennui, bouncing from domicile to domicile and going nearly two years without a car after the disaster of totaling my Grand Cherokee.

It wasn’t until 2013, when I got more involved with professional groups and got more serious about writing, that things picked up. By Thanksgiving of that year, I had reached capacity. I thought the tide of busyness would recede, but it never did; November 2013 was an inflection point of sorts. By focusing on a “win” for National Novel Writing Month — and succeeding! — I threw many of my long-established habits to the wayside, and my old way of doing things never really recovered. Instead, more task-generating opportunities came into the mix: Additional contract writing. NAHQ and MAHQ and the ASA. The WriteOn! writing group. Podcasting. Caffeinated Press. Cigar nights. &c.

For a while, particularly last year, my stress levels remained fairly high. Too much to do, not enough time to do it. Then I’d get people asking me to do social activities on short or no notice, and my default response was irritation: Don’t they know how busy I am? Those rare days when I had a “night off” with no fire drills usually translated into me ordering pizza and crashing with Netflix for hours on end, just to recharge. There’s an upper limit to how long, and how intensely, you can burn the candle from both ends, until all you have left is ash.

But being busy is a choice, not a condition. The solution to the 5-lb. sack problem is to downsize or otherwise reconfigure your 10 lbs. of stuff. As Lady Thatcher said: “There. Is. No. Alternative.” We must always cultivate the serenity to accept the world as it is and to adapt our response to it in light of our natural capacities. Trying to be all things to all people, or over-committing and under-delivering, marks an untenable strategy that inevitably leads to failure, depression and curmudgeonhood.

Life is a lot like the weather. One day, you have fair skies and favorable winds. The next day, the skies darken and the gentle breeze transform into a whirlwind. An immature person gets caught in the whirlwind, letting circumstance control his destiny, until he’s been so bruised and battered that he cannot endure. A mature person, by contrast, throws a saddle on the whirlwind, trying to direct it as best he can but knowing that his real goal is to avoid being bucked off and then trampled underneath.

We can only do what we can do, and we either need to surrender those other things that don’t fit into the 5-lb. sack, or delegate them. I think I have been slow to accept that I’m not really omnipotent. So now, as I look at my Roadmap and think about the second half of 2015, I have to think about what’s important, what’s an optional good and what’s an unnecessary distraction.

I’ve been busy, but I’ve let myself become busy for no good reason, such that important but not time-sensitive goals keep getting kicked down the road in service to the tyranny of the urgent.

But like I said: “Busy” is a choice. Time to saddle-break that whirlwind.

Personal

Catch-Up Day

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I took a vacation day today. The last few weekends were packed with agenda items, and the evenings have been larded with sundry activities that leave me wishing for a few extra hours each night. Now I need to do a little catch-up, which is harder to do when you’re sitting in your office chair with a tasty cup of coffee and a cat gently snoring on your lap.
Updates follow.
Workplace Transitions
Life in the office has been interesting. My department — Quality Improvement Analytics — is now simply called Clinical Analytics, because the QI function has been pulled from my boss and given to a different leader in the organization. So instead of having a subject (QI) and a competency (analytics), we are now simply a competency. I lost two current staff members in the transition, but I am hiring a new senior analyst right now and can hire a new entry-level analyst in July.
The upside? I can still do QI, but subsumed under the larger umbrella of care-model transformation. If we play the cards right, my boss and co-manager and I will re-shape our shop into a clinical analytics center of excellence. I mildly grieved for the loss of the “quality” designation, but in the long run, this transition may free us to do more work of greater significance than when we were boxed into the QI space.
Caffeinated Press Launch
Our first publication — the Brewed Awakenings anthology — has already turned a small profit after its March 2 launch … despite not yet even being widely available on the Ingram catalog. So we’re pretty happy about that. If you haven’t yet purchased your copy, go here. 🙂
On April 6 at 7 p.m., we’re holding an event co-sponsored by Schuler Books and Music, the area’s largest independent bookseller. All are welcome to join us at the 28th Street store. We’re planning a roughly 90-minute session targeted mostly to writers. We’ll also have a book-signing table.
And our literary journal, The 3288 Review, is starting to get a masthead. Yay for that. John has done yeoman’s work in researching the current state of the literary-mag universe.
Travel
Spring has sprung, and with it, my travel schedule begins to blossom. In about three weeks, I’ll be looking forward to dinner with Tony/Jen and PPQ/GoodDoctor at Dimondale Manor, followed by an afternoon at the opera in Detroit, with April. I’ll be in Philadelphia for a few nights, the week after that, and plan to be in Bonaire over Memorial Day week for a diving trip with Tawnya, Dave and Jen.
In theory, I have the 360Vegas Vacation II in mid June, but I’m not sure whether I can attend given other priorities stacking up around the same time. Then Seattle in early August for the Joint Statistical Meetings and likely the VIMFP in mid October in Las Vegas. Somewhere in the middle of all that is an overnight trek to Chicago, too. Mid-May, I think.
And lest I forget: I have an invite for an autumn visit to see Jared and Sarah in Abu Dhabi.
Fitness
The Bonaire diving trip reminds me that strapping a steel cylinder to your back and plunging 100 feet into the ocean is a much more pleasant experience when you’ve got adequate cardiopulmonary function. I’ve been hitting the exercise bike several times each week. I’ve discovered that my normal evening routine of “cigar + cocktail + news” actually has one element that’s truly important to me: the news. And hey, guess what? I can read the news whilst cycling away the pounds. Burning 800 calories is preferable to consuming 300 calories, I guess.
It’s actually pretty easy, now that I have a new routine locked. I can log 25 or so miles in about an hour on the bike and not even think about it, given how my attention is focused on the content scrolling across my tablet. I shall not be “that guy” on the dive team who forces everyone to the surface because he’s sucking down the nitrox like it’s candy.
What I’ve Been Reading & Watching
I rarely watch television. I cut the cord with Comcast in late December and haven’t looked back. On Netflix, though, I did catch the 13 or so episodes of the first season of Helix. Interesting program.
Books, though? I’ve resumed reading more than just the day’s headlines, usually grabbing a book while enjoying dinner. In the last few weeks, I’ve finished Roll the Bones by Dr. David G. Schwartz. “Dr. Dave” is a leading academic expert about casino gaming, from UNLV; I purchased a copy of his book from him in 2013. He even autographed it for me. Anyway, I’m done with it. Fascinating historical survey of gambling, from pre-history to today. And last night I finished a re-read of The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
Oh, and I also wrapped up Political Order and Political Decay by Francis Fukuyama. Fascinating theoretical construct there. I am, I think, largely persuaded that the biggest political challenge in the contemporary United States isn’t “partisan gridlock” or “ideological warfare,” but rather elite repatrimonialization of state institutions by conflicting groups of elites. If you enjoy political theory — and who doesn’t? — I recommend this book, plus the first volume of the two, The Origins of Political Order.
Sundry Observations
And for your grab-bag of short takes:

  1. Looks like our friends from Denton, Dallas & Beyond will be a headliner at the 2015 VIMFP! 🙂
  2. Tony and I had an unrecoverable glitch that affected two of the podcasts we recorded in late February, but now we’re back on track.
  3. The Michigan Republican State Convention went well. It was held in February in Lansing. I was pleased that Dave Agema doesn’t seem to be a mainstream character. Now, if only he’d resign or get removed ….
  4. Much of my free time has been spent on CafPress stuff, but I’ve had the chance to do some fun things, including hang out with Scott and Jeremy at Logan’s Alley for the KBS tapping a few weeks ago, and visit Tony and his wife at their new palatial estate in Dimondale, Michigan. Also got to enjoy a premium cigar with Matt at Tuttle’s and crash the “bestie date” with Brittany and April for South Pacific a couple Fridays ago. (I really should attend more performances at the Civic.)
  5. The 50-year-old Grand Rapids Press building is now tumbling down. A once-iconic brand is now outsourced to MLive Media Group, thus guaranteeing that we really don’t have a newspaper anymore in this town. It’s sad, really.
  6. Still planning — I hope — to do a weekend backpacking hike with my brother this season.
  7. Easter is coming. Already. I had some aspirations for Lent, but tempus fugit.
  8. I’m trying to write more. And partially succeeding at it.

— 30 —

Personal

Be Glad and Rejoice, for Grand Staycation IV is Almost Here!

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In just a few days, I begin the fourth annual Grand Staycation. With 16 consecutive days off, I will focus on end-of-the-year catch-up and planning for 2015. I’m much more excited for the vacation than I am about the holidays, but in fairness, I’m in generally good spirits about the holidays this year, so there’s that. Anyway, see below for general updates.
VLO E-200.  Today, Tony and I hit a four-year milestone with the release of episode 200 of our Vice Lounge Online podcast. The show ran roughly 45 minutes; we were blessed with five calls, plenty of pontificating, a Christmas Martony cocktail and even five minutes of outtakes I’ve accumulated over the last year. VLO has been a wonderful experience for us. Our program — a weekly 30-minute show about casino gaming, premium cigars and fine adult beverages — has grown to literally thousands of listeners each week. We’ve been fortunate to make great new friends across the country and even in the U.K. because of it.
Anthology. I wrote my anthology story; it clocked in around 11,300 words and will be the eighth submission to the Caffeinated Press All Goes Dark anthology project. I’m excited about this effort. We have eight fun stories crossing genres, written by authors local to the Grand Rapids area. Part of Grand Staycation IV includes final editorial prep for the anthology — last line edits to the manuscripts, production, ISBNs, cover art, etc. I hope to be done by the 31st of December, for release on the market by early-to-mid February.
[Intermission: Animals by Maroon 5 just rotated up. Am I the only person who wonders whether Adam Levine still has testicles? No adult human male should make noises that high-pitched.]
Literary Journal. Speaking of CafPress, it looks like our plan to launch a quarterly literary journal will actually succeed. I’ll probably serve as publisher and Lianne as executive editor, with Alaric and John as senior editors. I think — lots remaining TBD. Anyway, the journal presents a glorious opportunity to showcase local writers. As well as the sale of advertising or the acquisition of corporate or grant funding to support ongoing operations and payments to writers. The journal is intended to help grow a well-defined literary culture within the West Michigan market.
Novel. I’ve had two weeks away from Aiden’s Wager, and in that time, I’ve figured out how the story will end given the change of direction from the original plan that came through the writing process in late November. I’m excited about this project. I’ll wrap up the first draft over Grand Staycation IV and send it off to various beta readers. My suspicion is that some of the material is far enough askance from accepted West Michigan culture that I won’t try for CafPress publishing, but I think there are some niche markets where the premise makes sense.
Project Management. I did something fun at work. We’ve been swirling so much about which teams in our division will use what one-off project management tools (at one point, we were split among Excel, Project, QuickBase, Rally and Clarity PPM) that we needed to just do something. So last week, I wrapped up what my team will use — a home-grown tool with a back end in Oracle. I built seven fact tables, normalized against several more look-up tables, with quite a few foreign-key dependencies and a fistful of sequence/trigger pairs to generate unique primary-key values. I then imported the data model into Tableau, so reporting about investments, activities, updates, issues, stakeholders, file attachments and time allocations becomes transparent to anyone who wants to look. I don’t have a front-end for the tool — I figured I’d just manually update tables using Toad for Oracle — but it’s got a slick presentation layer with strong internal referential integrity. I’m happy with it.
Surgical Site Infections. This coming week will focus on one  major deliverable keenly desired by our corporate chief medical officer: An analysis of surgical-site infections undertaken in partnership with our largest partner hospital. The hospital’s infection-control team keeps registry data about SSIs, but they don’t have access to the same administrative claims data that I do at the insurance company. Literature suggests that SSIs cannot be inferred from claims data, so I’ll use the surveillance registry to brush it against claim histories to try to calculate the true cost of SSIs to the community. Fascinating stuff, and a great example of proving the value of analytics for health-care quality professionals.
Emerging Competencies. Speaking of analytics, I’ve been co-leading an initiative about the emerging professional competences in the field of health data analytics, through the National Association for Healthcare Quality. We’re wrapping up our final report. About a dozen leaders within the analytics field, who are NAHQ members, are a part of the project. Interesting insight into where the industry has been headed.
MAHQ. My one-year appointment as president-elect of the Michigan Association for Healthcare Quality has been extended into 2015 given a dearth of candidates for the role in the most recent election. That means I have to plan the 2015 conference, too — which is fine, given that I’ve already booked the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel for October. These things are easier to pull off when they’re in your own back yard!
Socializing. Been a fun couple of weeks on the social front. Yesterday I spent three hours eating food and drinking beer with AmyJo, at HopCat. Last week, we had the “Thank God It’s Over” party for NaNoWriMo. I spent time chatting with Lianne and Stephen a couple of weeks ago. We had our Write On! holiday party a week ago last Friday — the same day I went out to Founders Brewing with Cindy, Steve and Timothy from the office (Cindy bought — the rest of us are helping her as she wraps up her doctoral dissertation).
Texas, Ho! Looks like I’ll be killing two birds with one rental. The Thin Line film festival, in Denton, Texas, occurs in mid February. I also need to get to close to Dallas to bring Duane his stuff currently in storage. So I figure I’ll rent an SUV, pick up his stuff, drive to him, then spend two nights in the Metroplex. I’m looking forward to it!
Routine Disruption. In 2013, NaNoWriMo utterly wrecked my long-standing weekend routines. This year has dome something similar. Instead of having a nightly cigar and cocktail with the news, I’m reading the news every few days and I’ve had a whopping two cigars since Thanksgiving. I think I’ll use Grand Staycation IV to try to enculturate other habit changes. Maybe exercise. We’ll see.
Web Bifurcation. Although I’ll be keeping this blog active, I’m splitting my personal and professional Web presence. I’ll be retiring Gillikin Consulting and instead using one site (this one) for personal stuff, and http://www.gillik.in for professional stuff. Augmenting the new site is part of the vacation plan.
All for now.