For the third time I find myself alerting you to additional unprofessional journalistic techniques employed by your editors

My number one key to workplace survival is to keep a daily to-do list. Before I go home each evening, I jot down on a white legal pad everything I want to accomplish the next day. When I come in the following morning, I start working the list, crossing things off as I finish them. It keeps me moving forward. Today, the last item on my list was "dump the round-up file."

My Round-Up file is a hodge-podge of stuff that I think is interesting or noteworthy (facts, comments, opinions, etc.) but that may not quite qualify as a full-blown HME News story. I think the personal, informal nature of a blog is the perfect place to run this stuff.  So here we go.

1.    Someone sent this email to one of the big wigs around here recently: "For the third time I find myself alerting you to additional unprofessional journalistic techniques employed by your editors.  It is one thing to post stories about our company or industry on HME News.  It is quite another to refer to that posting on the Executive Editor's PERSONAL LinkedIn web page."  And that was the nice part of the email.  This person doesn't seem to understand that for better or worse (we always shoot for the better), the Internet is here to stay and will play an increasingly important role in how we report the news. It facilitates and speeds up the exchange of information. That is a good thing. To the author of this email, I also want to say this: Just because you don't agree with someone doesn't mean that person is unprofessional.

2. Peter Weill, chairman of the MIT Sloan School of Management's Center for Information Systems Research stated, "IT-savvy companies are 21% more profitable than non-IT savvy companies." This little nugget comes courtesy of Troy Venis, chief technology officer, at Brightree. "A provider's willingness to investigate and ultimately adopt new technologies will significantly contribute to his longevity in this industry," Troy said, and I agree. Technology won't lead you to the Promised Land, but it will help you get there.

3.    Team Invacare  had an impressive showing at Monday's 114th Boston Marathon.  Ernst van Dyk  won the men's race and Krige Schabort finished second.  In the women's race, Diane Roy place second and Amanda McGrory came in  third. That is awesome. Congratulations.

4.    Finally, here's something a very good HME provider told me recently: "I'm looking to diversify our company. I'm spending a lot of time figuring out the next level of assistance and positive intervention in the patient's life. I've got to look beyond our industry for solutions for that aging population that wants to stay independent." This provider is looking for HME-related business opportunities. He's trying to grow the pie. That sounds like food for thought to me.

Mike Moran