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Feedback Part Two

Feedback is the return of a portion of the output of a process or system to the input, especially when used to maintain performance or to control a system or process.

My friend Pam got an electronic activity tracker for Christmas, and like I’ve done with other good ideas Pam has, I decided to copy her and get one too. My husband got a different brand and we’ve been testing and comparing our models. Both offer feedback on how many steps we take each day, the number of stairs we climb, the number of miles we walk, and the number of hours we sleep. Mine even calculates how long it takes me to get to sleep. Using the numbers that are calculated, our trackers estimate the number of calories we’ve likely expended, based on our age, weight, and height, information you put into the system when you set it up. I’m sure motivations to use these systems vary but here are some of mine.

  • Monitoring the progress of one of my most important goals, to move more. I’ve read about the health risk of inactivity as we age and no longer do work that requires physical activity and effort. As a writer, spending long hours everyday at my computer, I don’t want my obituary to read, poor dear, she died from sitting too often and for too long.
  • A reality check – I wanted an objective measure of what I actually do, because my own perception is not always reliable. Some days a mile walk in my neighborhood feels easy, but on other days it can feel like a hike up a steep hill.
  • Rewards – The five year old inside me still likes some version of the gold stars and “good job” my teachers wrote on my school papers. Knowing that my tracker is noting the steps I climb encourages me to climb more of them. It feels like I’m getting credit for my efforts.
  • Learning something I didn’t know – When I saw the estimation of calories I used during my eight hours of sleep, (420 or so), I thought the instrument must be broken. But checking on line, turns out we do use calories while we sleep. And maybe I use more than some other people because I get up often to go to the bathroom, and I turn from side to side fairly often during the night.
  • Accuracy – Sometimes my instrument doesn’t recalibrate correctly, when it switches over from daytime to nighttime analysis. Waking in the morning with the report that I have walked 400 steps in the night (which has happened) gets me to wondering if I walked in my sleep. I know how many steps it is from my bed to the bathroom and back, so that information is not likely to be accurate. Starting off the day with 400 steps gives me a head start on the number I hope to do each day. But I don’t need help in cheating; I can do that all on my own, without any help from a technological accomplice.

 

 

Published on Monday February 11, 2013 in Health, Personal Stories and Technology. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Happy Birth Day!

Enter the darkened birthing chamber. Nurses scurry around, a mother wipes her daughter’s brow, step-dad and the doula have cameras at the ready, the baby’s daddy massages and coaches the soon-to-be mom, while she follows the movements springing from her belly with her chant-like breathing.

Relatives and friends have been excited for months, looking forward to the miracle of these moments. There’ve been doctor appointments; scans and sonograms, prenatal vitamins and infant care seminars, parenting and breath classes. Baby showers and contest winnings have provided enormous amounts of baby paraphernalia, now all at the ready for this momentous event.

But the baby’s coming three weeks early from her expected date! Are we sure the carpets don’t need another cleaning? There are still some paper work matters we’d hoped to get handled before this time. The mural in the baby’s room needs a few more butterflies. And for added drama; one of the Grandmas is coming from across the continent. Will she make it in time?

What about this day and place is distinct and different from all others? The desert is exceedingly hot, as expected in August. The Zodiac sign is Virgo, the only one represented by a girl or woman. Qualities are creativity and a communicator. The day is Tuesday, and “Tuesday’s child is full of grace,” as the saying goes. This particular year, 2012, is the ending of a 26,000-year cycle according to the Mayan calendar. It’s a Water Dragon year to the Chinese, one that comes around only every 60 years. This auspicious year is one in which many Chinese couples hope and plan to have a child.

The doctors said this child couldn’t happen, family members though it highly unlikely. But love and longing win out and this child is born. Our family receives with gratitude, this gift, and later we realize that on this particular date, 29 years ago, our mother, (the baby’s great-grandmother) died. The day this child will come home from the hospital is the 13th anniversary of our father’s, (her great-grandfather’s) death.

So every year on this day we family members will celebrate this child, this miracle. Later, friends at school or camp may be served cupcakes on her behalf. Still later, Facebook friends will take the opportunity, on this day, to post good wishes, reminding this toddler, this child, this girl, this woman, “You were so deeply and widely loved, and you still are. Happy Birth Day!”

Published on Sunday September 9, 2012 in Personal Stories, Rituals and Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Nuns’ Bus Stops In Pittsburgh

The enormous graphically decorated “rock star” type bus pulled up in front of the office of Tim Murphy, (R) in Mt. Lebanon and stops before a cheering crowd. A couple of men in suits start a chant to welcome them. “The nuns on the bus say fairness now,“ fairness now,” to the tune of a children’s folk song.  Looking around at the crowd, I’m guessing many of them learned fairness principles from the nuns while they were in  grade school. It’s one of the principles they taught and one of the principles they live, as they operate social services agencies and hospitals around the country, serving the poor and disenfranchised.

Sr. Simone Campbell disembarks waving, along with several other sisters from Network, a social justice lobby in Washington DC. They’re on a two-week tour of the Midwest to highlight the need for economic justice in our country’s budget. They visit the representative’s staff and then talk with the crowd of mostly seasoned activists, holding signs that attest to the sisters’ moral authority -

 “Do Corporate Prophets help all people? Nuns do!”

The nuns have been in trouble lately, some say for their support of the health care bill. While the American bishops were worried about contraceptives in health care plans, the nuns worked to help the bill that would insure 40 million people will have health care.

The Vatican assigned a male representative to oversea these “radical feminist,” whose message is about economic justice. Their tour is to highlight the disaster to the poor and middle class of the Ryan budget.

Sr. Simone taught us their chant. “Reasonable Revenue for Responsible Programs, Reasonable Revenue for Responsible Programs.” Sister urged us to chant this message at the state and local levels as well.

Published on Friday June 29, 2012 in Health and Women, Girls & the Feminine. 0 Comments Tags: , .

The Business of Healthcare

After writing a letter to the editor of our local paper, in response to the downgrading of Highmark by the ratings firm Moody, http://tinyurl.com/d67964d I awoke with a strong memory from my own career in the health care field.  Between 1987 and 1997, my husband Richard and I fulfilled a dream of cofounding and co-directing a behavioral health care group practice, Iatreia, (named at our son’s suggestion, for “a place for healers” in ancient Greece.)

Not unlike what’s happening currently on healthcare’s medical side, by 1993, the number and complexity of third party payers, extended waits for reimbursements, increased paper work and requirements for quality assurance due diligence, and the refusal of some of our providers to accept the new financial realities of the marketplace, made running the business operations of our clinic a nightmare.

In 1995, in analyzing the clinic’s workflow, I identified 42 steps that were necessary, from the client’s first call for an appointment to the clinic eventually getting paid for services provided. If any of the steps were missing or done out of order, we would not be paid. In this environment where, as some friends suggested, “You’re doing everything right. It just isn’t working,” we began to entertain the possibility of being purchased

One of our first meetings with the company that did eventually purchase us, was held in their offices. The male executives of the company, whom we were familiar with, took this occasion to introduce us to their mid-level managers who were all women. In the opening remarks and introductions, one of the executives kept referring to our clinic as “Richard’s Place.” After his reference to “Richard’s Place” was repeated a half dozen times, the large group meeting broke into smaller groups and I could finally stop biting the inside of my mouth and exhale. One of the women in the smaller group turned to me and asked, “And what do you do at Iatreia?” I responded, “You’ve probably been in health care long enough to appreciate this – I am the co-founder and co-director of “Richard’s Place.”

Published on Sunday April 8, 2012 in Health, Personal Stories and Women, Girls & the Feminine. 1 Comment Tags: , .