Great post here Bill....really good post! I'm sure many here got a mouthful from a real pro!

Quote:
Originally posted by Bill in Dayton:
From doing this 14 years or so, I have some thoughts on this...

1) Being left alone: We should never, ever be left alone during an activity. When I'm left alone, I make sure to alert the AD that I'm not comfortable with it.

2) Inattentiveness of Activity Staff: usually I'll just calmly announce over the mic that "Joe" needs a hand getting back to his seat, can you help him?" Usually does the trick...

3) Attendees talking loudly/interrupting the show: if its just two employees gabbing rudely with each other, I'll point them out and invite them to come up front and help me out.

4) Serving of food: Doesn't bother me in the least.

5) In the US, we have something called "HIPPA" which protects patients privacy. You should know that it is a violation of the HIPPA code for a nurse to administer any meds to a resident during an activity.

6) Billing: Yes, this isn't nearly as efficient as it should be. Any payment rendered within 30-45 days is very reasonable. The important thing for me is an awareness of how a particular client processes check requests. If I'm told it'll be in my hands in 30 days, that's great-I'll plan accordingly. If the standard is to hand it to me that day, and then you tell me "Oh by the way, I don't have your check, because XXXXXXXXX...." Well, I'm not happy about it. Contracts can help sometimes. In my area, most clients will throw up on their shoes if you start asking them for contracts. In other areas, like where Mr. Diamond is, contracts are common.

For most of the issues you mentioned, a cordial chat with your activity director should help...

Cheers-



1)That's going to be my first "change" by necessity at this point!

2)How on Earth did I not think of something as simple as that? Another change coming up!

3)With this situation, I'm going to do what one of my friends does. He raises his voice and forcefully asks them to stop talking...that they're interfering with his performance!

4) Bill, the "jury is still out for me on this one"...been wrestling with it for a while now! My attitude on this is: Why should the residents only have 60 minutes of music and then it's all over? Why shouldn't they have 60 minutes of music and then 30 minutes of ice cream and cake for a total of 90 minutes? I'm still interested in hearing opinions on this.

5) That's very interesting. I wasn't aware of that. That IS one of my "annoyances." Often enough they think nothing of meandering through my audience looking for "victims."

6) I just have one thing to add about getting your check. It's becoming a nightmare trying to keep track of them. First you leave an invoice or FAX it over, it sometimes gets lost due to inattention, you don't find out your check is "not in the system" for another month when you don't get it! Then you have to start the whole process all over again. Where I live they're very sloppy about the whole thing, and you can't tell the AD's where to get off if you value your rest-of-the-year bookings.

Lucky