by Nick Jacobs

As we struggle on daily through the newly established higher fuel prices, several surprises have sprung up about which many of us have been oblivious. Corn, for example, had become the American epitome of green. If we could grow enough corn to make ethanol, life would be fine. Then, we were accused of causing food shortages world-wide because we used this precious food commodity to inefficiently produce a little extra enhanced gasoline product which, at least my oil distributor friends tell me cause your car to get less mileage. Why not sugar cane or grass or left over cooking oil from the fast food restaurants?

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Guest Post by Heather Johnson

Over the last several years, much has been done to attempt to “fix” health care, hospitals, and public health. With somewhat noble intentions, new laws like HIPAA have been passed, as have innovations in the way hospitals do business, treat patients, and promote themselves in general. One thing is missing, however: the public still lacks the necessary faith in hospitals as well as the health care system in general. The fact of the matter is many people still wait until it is almost too late to receive much-needed care and treatment.

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by Nick Jacobs

When the word quality was discussed back in the 80's, you often heard of the Baldridge Award or TQM, total quality management, as the programs that would take your organization to new heights. Today, more often than not, we hear about the Toyota Model of management or a more dated Six Sigma, 99.999999% approach to perfection. Recently, though, the government has taken over the quality quest in health care to push this industry to achieve levels of perfection.

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