by Tony Chen

I'm very excited to announce our newest blogger at Hospital Impact: Mr. Joe Wasserman.

Wasserman is the President and CEO of Lakeland Healthcare, a three-hospital system that includes two long-term facilities, an assisted living center, 3,500 associates, and 325 physicians located in Southwest Michigan. He has been in this role since 1985.

Joe received his Masters of Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. He is also a Fellow of the ACHE.

Joe: Welcome to the community and the team, and we look forward to working with you.

by Tony Chen

Follow Hospital Impact on Twitter. There, I'll be providing daily links, "recently heard" quotes, & commentary on the news of the day.

What is twitter, you ask? Well, think about it like a blend between a blog and an instant message. Entries are limited to 140 characters and show up on your "followers'" homepage. See wikipedia's explanation of Twitter.

At the end of the day, twitter is basically a new communication tool. You can blast information out, you can interact with like-minded followers and readers. And you can learn more about your market - real-time. Every day, I'm getting at least a couple of hospitals who sign up for twitter and start following us. More on how hospitals can use twitter in a later post.

In the meantime, head over to twitter.com/hospitalimpact and tell me what you think. Waste of time or useful communication tool?