Semi Ecall This Morning

It didn't take long to get this day started. At 5:15 AM Josie jumped up out of bed and said we had to go upstairs to help one of our residents. Woody (short for Woodburn, his last name) was yelling out for help. When we arrived in his apartment he was lying on the floor, under a small table by the window, and he said he fell while trying to pick up something from the floor. He was too far away from the ecall cord to pull, so if she hadn't heard his cries for help, he may still be on the floor. He is so weak that he couldn't move himself and we gave him the use of our hands to pull himself up. He is one of many residents that are like that - very weak and unable to help themselves in these kinds of situations. I commented to Josie just last night following dinner that he looked like an ecall waiting to happen. He uses oxygen tanks and a wheelchair to boot.

There was a change - short term - in the responsibilities yesterday. Charlie was told to work only on sales and Terri was told to manage our Sales Leader whom we thought has been under performing. Anyway, the heat is building in the kitchen and we aren't too happy about all this increased sales pressure. It seems like anybody that walks through the door can be a resident whether they can afford it or not, or whether they are barely able to breathe. Our opinion is that we have so many ecalls already as a result of having too many residents that should be in assisted care and not independent care. My responsibilities have been changed a bit also, I have to contact all the "lost leads" from the last year - 366 of them - and find out if they may be candidates once again. The emphasis seems to be on getting bodies to move in, regardless of qualifications. The problem is, aside from the health issues, is that these people become Accounts Receivable problems almost immediately because they can't afford the rent.

We are getting ready to head out this morning for one of our shorter days. Our schedule says we should be off at 3 PM, but we hardly ever get to leave on time. We will make an extra effort to leave on time now since our free time is getting to be more valuable. There is another conference call scheduled for 11 AM this morning, the one we have once a week with the whole region. It will be interesting to see if there is a change in the tone of the meeting with all of this increased sales pressure. We're still hangin' on...