Mark Ray

Are you following best practices for environmental cleaning and disinfection?

In April, the Smithsonian Institution's National Postal Museum opened a new exhibition, "Baseball: America's Home Run," which features artifacts representing every era and facet of America's pastime. Nearly 300 people attended the VIP opening, including the son of the Pittsburgh Pirates' Hall of Fame right fielder Roberto Clemente and two grandchildren of the Brooklyn Dodgers' Hall of Fame second baseman and civil-rights advocate Jackie Robinson.

How can people who work for toy and game companies maintain a sense of fun while keeping an eye on demographics, market share and revenue projections? To find out, we spoke with three Bucknell alumni who know. Although they play different roles at different companies, they all agree on one thing: Fun is fundamental, but work is still work.

In the summer of 1981, Rees Hughes and Howard Shapiro, along with mutual friend Jim Peacock, set out to hike the section of the Pacific Crest Trail that runs through Washington state. It was their first encounter with the 2,650-mile PCT, which stretches from Mexico to Canada. Before kids and without major career responsibilities, taking time for a long hike was easy, even if the actual hiking was harder than they'd expected.

When audiologist Erika Shakespeare and her husband, Brian, moved into an old farmhouse several years ago, their relationship suffered. "My husband and I have normal hearing, but when we moved into that house, we were starting to argue all the time, because we weren't hearing each other as well as we used to in our old environment," she says.

Faced with declining reimbursement rates, many home medical equipment (HME) providers are looking for ways to increase revenue, sometimes by adding new product categories. Others are conducting patient population analyses to find ways to better serve their existing patients. Going deeper rather than broader lets them increase revenue while making patients' lives easier.

In many respects, John and Denise Gillard are luckier than most grandparents. Since they moved from Kansas to Washington state, in September 2020, they live only 70 miles from their 4-year-old granddaughter, Cora Nelson. According to AARP, most grandparents have at least one grandchild who lives more than 200 miles away.

As HME reimbursement rates drop, you can help boost revenue by focusing on patients, not just reimbursement codes. Here's how to make your HME the one-stop shop for patients needing continuous airway pressure (CPAP) and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) products.

Granular media, smoke residue and Australian bush tomatoes. Studying those disparate subjects has earned three Bucknell juniors a singular national honor: the 2022 Goldwater Scholarship. Receiving recognition were Michael Bolish '23 of Latrobe, Pa., April Hurlock '23 of Gilbertsville, Pa., and Claire Marino '23, of Victor, N.Y.

The decade-long growth of value-based care is affecting every area of healthcare — including the home medical equipment (HME) sector. To learn how the transition to value-based care models affects HME providers and about existing barriers to value-based care, we spoke with three experts.

From apples that are slightly dated to items returned by members, Costco takes steps to keep perfectly usable products out of local landfills. Through partnerships with various groups, these goods end up in needy communities where they’re put to good use.

Robeson County, North Carolina, ranks dead last among the Tar Heel State’s 100 counties for health outcomes and health factors like smoking and obesity. Diabetes, cancer, poverty and a lack of local medical specialists make it hard for the rural county’s residents to maintain and improve their health. But the situation is slowly improving, thanks to Marshirl Locklear.

Whether it's April in Paris or autumn in New York, someone right now is probably listening to a selection from The Great American Songbook. Maybe they're taking the A train to Harlem with Ella Fitzgerald or getting their kicks on Route 66 with Nat King Cole. Perhaps they're playing among the stars with Frank Sinatra or directing their feet to the sunny side of the street with Louis Armstrong.

Are you a comfort giver or a flu giver? That’s the question the UK’s South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust recently posed in a series of advertisements targeting its employees. In one advert, an elderly woman reaches out to a nurse, who shares a smile — and perhaps the flu virus. In another, a boy tightly hugs the neck of a caregiver who may well be infected even though she shows no symptoms.

Hospitals should be places of healing, but far too often, patients develop infections before they can be discharged. In fact, hospital-acquired infections are among the most common hospital-related complications, affecting 1 in 25 patients, according to The New England Journal of Medicine. And they're largely preventable.