AND!!!!!

It drives me insane that the CEO of Gillette Children's Specialty Services makes so much money! In 2005, she made $517,727 with revenues of $98.8 and an excess of $7.3 million. I don't dispute that they do good work, but they are TINY in comparison with other health systems and it has always made me nuts that they have all these fundraisers and radio-a-thons to raise money for "the Kids". They're not raising money for the kids - they are raising money to pay her salary!

Whew - got that off my chest.....it's been pissing me off since I worked at Regions and would walk through Gillette's area periodically.

Changes at Work

This is a sad week for us at work - the president of our caresystem is leaving for a job with HealthEast. It's a wonderful opportunity for her, but we are VERY sad to see her go. She was a wonderful leader, not to mention the only woman at that level. We have 7 caresystems and she was the only woman. I am hopeful they find another woman to take her place - I think it's amusing (or SAD!) that at least 80-90% of the workforce in my company is female, yet we have very few women in high-ranking positions.

One interesting item - in the Jan 14th Star Trib, the nonprofits in MN were ranked. They listed the revenues, excess (profit), CEO and their pay. Looking at Healthcare: First of all - for running non-profits, these folks do okay. Maybe I should apply for that open President job! Secondly, notice how Fairview's revenue is just slightly less than the revenues for #3 and #4 and more than #6, #7 & #10, but our CEO's salary is far less. (For those of you with Blue Cross insurance - now you know why they don't pay for anything - all the money goes to their CEO!)

Not to mention our CEO has an excess that is higher than all but one of those 5 organizations. Either our CEO did not do his homework when setting his salary, or he really felt the $$ should be going to providing care for patients. What a concept! He is retiring the end of 2007, so it will be interesting to see what the new CEO gets for compensation - if the trend continues.

Rank Organization Revenue (millions) Excess CEO Pay
1. Blue Cross Blue Shield of MN $7,115.3 $10.9 $3,365,811
2. Mayo Foundation $6,118.3 $512.2 $1,619,184
3. HealthPartners $2,459.6 $24.4 $1,140,194
4. Allina Health Services $2,279.6 $136.9 $1,575,955
5. Fairview Health Services $1,910.4 $83.1 $788,076
6. Medica $1258.6 $2.8 $1,012,510
7. Park Nicollet $1,069.0 $45.7 $956,123

10 HealthEast $685.6 $13.9 $1,029,323

Sick - but getting better.....

Sick

Conner is sick - bad cold. I got a call from daycare today around noon saying he had quite a disgusting diaper and a fever of 100.6. They put him down for a nap and said I could come get him in a few hours, which was nice. Apparently, one of the rooms at his daycare has had quite the stretch of illness - strep, flu, colds, one kid has been in the hospital for three days! I was a little paranoid when I woke him up - he gave a few barky coughs, which made me nervous. I had just read a fax from Dakota County Public Health saying a 3-year old had died of pneumonia. Yikes! But we got home and it appears to be just a bad cold. Poor thing! And have pity on his sweatshirt, which has several layers of snot on both arms where he continually wipes his nose. Kleenex is apparently just not good enough!

Future contest winner?

Dan and I are constantly trying to get Conner to eat - he seems so skinny to us and I REALLY want to get him a new carseat that goes in and out easier than the one we have, BUT he has to be 38-40 pounds before we can make the transfer. He's about 5 pounds shy of that.

The last few days he has had some nasty diapers (nope, not potty-trained yet!), so we're assuming his stomach isn't feeling the best and so he's eating even less.

There is a story behind all this - Dan said when he dropped off Conner this AM, one of his teachers said the day before, Conner had let out a belch that was louder than anything she had ever heard from a preschooler. Dan claimed he got it from me, but the intelligent woman knew better. So all I can think of is those really tiny people who always win the food eating contests - don't you wonder where the heck they put it all? Maybe Conner will someday win belching contests - lulling the much larger participants into a false sense of security with his skinny build and then blowing them away with the power of his gaseous might. What a proud mother I will be that day.

Mermaids???

Conner was taking a bath tonight and pretending a blue washcloth was a mermaid (I prefer to see this as an indication of a great imagination). I asked him what the mermaid's name was - he said "Marsha". Must be the memory of those turkey cupcakes??

Going to the Zoo

Dan and I took Conner to the MN Zoo today (I still call it the "new" zoo - wasn't it built in the 80's?). Clifford and StellaLuna were there - Conner loved both of them. Then we went outside and were pretty much the only folks silly enough to go out there. But if you want to avoid the crowds, this is the time to hit the outside trails! The meerkats have been moved in with the Aardvarks - we got into the building and the meerkats all popped out of their holes and stared at us the entire time we were in there, no matter where we went. I think they are lonely! Aardvarks are apparently boring roomies.

This last one is harder to see, but if you look hard, you can see the big fish eyeing Conner for lunch....

New camera! And baking....

At last! A new digital camera! Our old one died several months ago and we decided to wait for the xmas sales. My folks gave us a gift card to Best Buy, so that helped immensely! We went back and forth between the Canon A530 and the A620 (about $100 difference) and decided that the A530 was just fine for what we needed. It works quite well - although the shutter speed is a little slow.....

Here's a picture of Conner in the kitchen - we were making chocolate chip cookies - his favorite thing to bake. But this picture looks like we are making "funny" brownies....