Communication

I often write about the importance of communication. I spoke about this in my blog called “Monday Morning”, because that is when I find my e-mail box full (I receive more than 135 messages daily).  Reading these starts my day in a most positive fashion.

"Communication" is a difficult term to explain. To me it is simply means “passing information” from one to another. We are in the health care provision segment of the industry and all of us face similar problems. When we talk or write to peers our communication messages normally are telling how we have coped with difficulties. Topics range from Medicare, family caregivers, customers, staff and any or everything that happens every day.

In the nearly 35 years I have been attending the Medtrade Exhibitions it has invariably been the venue where “communication rules”. I walk the floor and speak to as many providers possible and what I learn is amazing. Providers in California and Maine all have answers they share with how they approached and resolved a problem. They, at opposite ends of the country, responded to the same nuisance in a different fashion and have good results.

Whether you stroll the exhibition floor, attend a seminar, a lecture or participate in the multitude of activities available at Medtrade this year in Atlanta, come prepared with a pen and paper pad, laptop, or iPad. Don’t trust your memory to recall all the information that passes from one to another. Write things down. Last year I spoke with two different providers, one from Missouri and the other from Alabama. Each had a small recorder and recorded everything I they heard of value for their company.

When you return home, you will be able to remember much of the communication. Armed with that information you will be able to put into effect many new changes. This is when you realize that Medtrade is a most important opportunity to communicate with peers and educators.