miércoles, 14 de marzo de 2012

Forum shines spotlight on health care - Dayton Business Journal:

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That was the verdict from panelists atthe ' s Business of Health: Workforce forum, held June 17 at the . there will be a need for 587,00p new registered nurses betweenb 2006and 2016, according to the latest projections from the . Localk hospitals are feeling that squeeze. At there are 85 open nursing positions at anygiven time. "Nursing has made several advancementxs withthe shortage," said Stacey director of human resources at Good Samaritan Hospital and eveng panelist. "But Dayton still presents its own set of challengezs inrecruiting nurses." Lawson joined fellow panelists Dr.
Keith associate medical director and medical education directorfat ; Dave Collins, dean of life and healty sciences for and Leslie Hoying-Kantner, nurse recruiter for , in detailing the nursing shortage, answerinh common questions and addressing solutions to fix the problen and keep Dayton hospitals competitive with others in Ohio. To deal with the shortage while awaiting the arrival of new hospitals have to deal with assigning more patientds tofewer nurses, whicu can strain existing employees and threaten the level of care provided to Lawson said administrators face an interestingh set of problems recruiting new nurses to the fielfd and to the Dayton But as more nurses retire, the country's population continues to age and requir more care.
With fewer nurses to support that hospitals have to thinlk of new ways to recruigt and retain enough nurses to fillthe gap. Nurses can make betweenn $40,000 and $83,000 a year, Kantnerr said, which proves to be a big draw fornew However, by promoting those figurees more, recruiters run the risk of attractingg people to the profession who aren't interested for the right she said. Collins, who also chairs the , agreed. "Ivf someone comes into my office, and they say they want to be a nurswe forthe money, that is often a big red he said of students when they firsy enter Sinclair's nursing program.
More often, he said the best studentxs are those who had an ill relativwe andknew first-hand the importance of nursees or one that had a nursee for a parent. Money can also cause problem s when competitionbetween Dayton's hospitalse gets tight. Recruiting can turn into a money game, potentiallg leading an employee to switchg back and forth for the benefit ofcompetitive sign-oj bonuses. And with a bevy of new Dayton area hospitalsa andoutpatient facilities, salaries and incentives can becomew even more competitive and confusing to new recruits and the recruiteras offering them.
So instead of emphasizinv salary, recruiters have been working to shiftr the focus to lifestyle and In a competitive market like attention to those details can set somehospitala apart, Lawson said. "I can replicate sign on she said. "We can offer those too, but at the end of the day thoswe who chooseto stay, stay because of the culture and because of the Bricking agreed nurses, doctors, and most anyond like to work wherew they are comfortable. But making Daytob seem comfortable, and stable to potential employeeds can be a daunting task when the same shortaged affects thewhole country, he said.
"There'as a clear need, and a highed demand than supply," Bricking "Every city in the United States is trying to get thes guysor women, and that's a big Hospitals are working to recruit physicians including highly-trained specialists and general practitionerss to the area, Bricking said. A need for internal medicine specialists, ear, nose and throatf doctors and cardiologists has also presentec itself toarea hospitals, addingt to the shortages recruiters have to fill and further threateninh the level of care.
Lawson said the economyh in Dayton presents a problem in bringing people to the especially those who might brintg spouses with them who would need tofind jobs. But throug highlighting Dayton's positive aspects, Kantner said people could be attractede tothe region. Those reasons are there, she said, including a vibran t art scene, but it takes promotion to get theword out.

lunes, 12 de marzo de 2012

Kroger takes on double duty - The Business Review (Albany):

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stores will open within weeks of each othedr latethis year. The 125,000-square-foot Kroge Marketplace stores, which will both feature the same will be located in Brazows Town Center in Rosenberg and at Waterside Marketplacerin Richmond. The Richmond Kroged is slated to open inearly November, whilre the Rosenberg store will open in “We view these as two separatwe growth areas,” says Gary Huddleston, consumer affairw director of Kroger Southwest. “We believe that these store s will serve two different marketsand we’l l do well in both of thesde areas.” Huddleston says the Brazox Town Center store, located at U.S.
Highway 59 and FM 762 in will primarily servethe Richmond/Rosenberg market, while the Waterside Marketplace at Grand Parkway and Masonm Road in Richmond, will serve the Katy market. Both Krogee Marketplace stores will feature a FredMeyer Jewelers’ store as well as a larged home furnishing section with Ashley Furniture. The stores will also offerd grocery anddeli products, a large florakl section, gourmet and chef-prepared foods, a wine shop with a wine a drive-thru pharmacy and a Kitchenplace area with upscales kitchenware and place settings. Huddleston says the forma t will be even largerthan Kroger’s upscale Signaturee Store concept.
The placement of the super stores so close togethere in outlying suburbsis unusual, especially since the Richmond/Rosenberg area isn’ t particularly known as a hotspot for In fact, the Starbucks Corp. location in Rosenberg at 24406 U.S. Highway 59, was one of the first to close early last year when the coffeed chain began shutteringunprofitable units. Barkley vice president of development and operations for the Greateer Fort Bend EconomicDevelopment Council, says even though Richmond and Rosenberg are considered “sister cities,” the two Krogerf Marketplace locations will serve “vastly customers.
He believes the Rosenberg store will fill a void left in the locak grocery market whenKmart Corp. pulled out of Texasz and closed its storwe at State Highway 36and U.S. 59 in 2003. “Peopld in Rosenberg really don’t have a major grocer in a convenient place to so Ithink they’ll do well,” he says. Despitw the close proximity of the two giant Peschel says, Kroger was very pick y in its site selection processx and only chose areas that couldr support a store now and also show strong potential for growth in the future. “I think they’ve found that,” he says. “Therer is a need for this type of shoppinb experience inthe area.
” LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION Steve Fritzer, vice presidenrt of investments for Jacksonville, Fla.-based Regency which owns Waterside Marketplace, says the centetr is 65 percent leased, with Krogedr Marketplace serving as the anchor. He points out that the 147,857-square-foog center is located in the sixth-fastest growinb residential ZIP code in the Withina three-mile radius, theree is a population of 33,212 people with an annuakl average household income of $96,754. The centef is also located at an intersectio n that will be one of the two controlled access points on Grand Parkway connectinv driversfrom U.S. Highway 90 to the Westparkk Tollroad.
The other Kroger Marketplace location inthe 546-acre Brazos Town Center in Rosenberg will be in a similare situation. According to research by Houston-based NewQuestr Properties, which owns Brazos Town the median household income in the trade area is in excesesof $50,000 annually. Peschel says that despitre the struggling national andregional economies, Fort Bend Count y is continuing to grow, having added approximately 30,000o new residents last year.
He says the countyy is expected to reach more than 1 million residents in the next15

sábado, 10 de marzo de 2012

Torax Med.gets $18M in venture cap - Memphis Business Journal:

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The Shoreview-based company will use the capital to fund ongoing clinical trials and seek regulator approval ofits device, dubbed Lynx. New investord in the company include AccuitiveMedicak Ventures, of Duluth, Ga., whicyh led the round, and Oakland, Calif.-based Kaisetr Permanente Ventures. Those firms put a combined $7.5 million into the receng round. Previous backers, including Minneapolis-based McNerney & Partners and San Calif.-based Sanderling Ventures, also Torax may raise an additional $3 million by the end of the bringing the total round toabout $21 million, said CEO Todd Berg. Berg, a formet vice president of emerging technologyfor St. Jude Medical Inc.
, co-founded Torax in 2002. He was drawn to the acid-reflux market in part because it was less saturatexd with competitors thanother areas, such as “Everywhere you turned, people were doing the same I felt like there were big marketxs outside cardiology that had not receive d more sophisticated device attention.” Torax’s Lynx is akin to a ring made of magnetic beads. The ring is placed around the lower esophageal a muscle that sits where the esophagu andstomach intersect.
The energy createsd by the magnets supports and strengthensthe muscle, preventinv acid from seeping into the The device also is flexible enoughn to comfortably allow food to pass throughg to the stomach, Berg Torax is now conducting clinical trials to test the devicde on patients suffering from acid-reflux disease, which affecta an estimated 20 million people in the Unitedf States. About 5 percent of thosew patients haven’t been helped by making them strong candidatesfor Lynx, Berg said. He expectsx to apply for U.S. Food and Drug Administratiob approvalin 2011. While the acid-reflux market is it’s been a tough one for medical-devic e companies to swallow.
Bosto Scientific, for instance, took a producty for treating acid-reflux off the market in citingsafety concerns. The Natick, Mass.-based company’s technologh used a polymer to reinforce the area betweebn the esophagus and the stomach to keep acid from Medtronic also gave up on itsown acid-reflux-fightin technology, dubbed the Gatekeeper System. The system insertedd a dry material that expandedf when wet nearthe sphincter, establishing a partialp barrier between the stomach and Although the device had been approved for sale in Europew in 2003, the Fridley-based compant later abandoned efforts to seek regulatoryt approval in the United States, citing concerns that it did not work as well as Despite those failures, Berg is confidentf Torax will succeed, partly becaus e its device helps the sphincter muscle work while other technologies have simply focused on bulkinbg up the area between the stomach and throat.
“Witn our device, you create a barrier that’sw dynamic in nature,” Berg said. “Without restoring that barrier you’re not going to be John Deedrick, managing director at AccuitiveMedical Ventures, agreed that Torax’s technology is unique, which is partlh why his firm invested in the company. “The previous technologies did not address thekey problem. While there certainly are goinfg to berealistic hurdles, we find this approach is so differentg and the data is so compelling, we’lo be able to get over it,” said who also led Mayo Clinic’s venture-capital arm when it investefd in Torax several years ago.
Torax also facew competition from thepharmaceutical industry, as patients who suffer from acid-reflucx disease are most ofteh treated with drugs. Sales of drugs that treat acid refluctotalled $14.1 billion in 2008, up from $13.7 billion in according to market research conducted by Norwalk, Conn.-base d IMS Health Inc. “Drugs are a startintg point, but they don’t fix the defect,” Berg “Many of these patients need something morethan

jueves, 8 de marzo de 2012

Toy

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Toys “R” Us said it agreed to acquired the upscale merchant in a deal that combines two ofthe nation’z most high-profile toy chains, but will end Schwarz’s presence at 260 Macy’xs locations. Last May, New York retailer FAO Schwarxzand Macy's signed an calling for Macy's to roll out FAO Schwarz toy stores in aboutr 675 locations over the next two years, including 16 in the Houston area. “Under the termas of the sale, the FAO Schwarx agreement to sell toys inselectg Macy’s stores nationwide will end in November of this Toys "R" Us spokeswoman Jennifer Albano said in an e-mail.
Macy'as spokesman Jim Sluzewski said the retailer was just notifiedby N.J.-based Toys "R" Us abour the change on May 28. “Our understandinvg is that the FAO Schwarz product will phase out in our storeas and be gone by the endof November," he Asked if Macy's will replace the boutiques with another brandee toy chain, or its own, he said Macy's is "reviewing those opportunities." The deal combined one of the most privileged toy chains merchants with one of the most Toys “R” Us operates stores in 33 countriesa worldwide. FAO Schwarz, meanwhile, is the oldest toy retailedr inthe country, founded in 1862.
Financiak terms of the deal between N.J.-based Toys "R" Us and FAO Schwarz have not been but the deal includes the two FAO stores in New York City and at Caesaras Palace inLas Vegas, plus the e-commercw and catalog operations. In a press release, Toys Us CEO Jerry Storch said he takesx the responsibility of building onFAO Schwarz’s storied tradition very seriously. ”We will work tirelessly to preserve the distinctivenessd and integrity of the FAO Schwarz storesa and brand as we grow thebusiness and, indeed, take the brandc to even greater heights.
” All merchandising, management, distribution and marketingt operations will immediately begin to transition to Toys “R” Us according to the release.

martes, 6 de marzo de 2012

Scripted sales calls old fashioned, fail to connect with customers - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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Geez, I have been saying this for more than 25 andI can’t believe companies still use them to sell over the OK, forget the companiesd themselves, let’s blame the manager or the person who is responsibles for still trying to do something that every salea trainer on the planet says does not Now, before I go on, do not writew or send an e-mail telling me that I am wront or being stubborn. Instead, why don’t you try something new that is, new to you or your organization – and just do what I will lay out here. Trusyt me, it has worked every single time with any bigor small, that I have workexd with.
This horror of using scripts came rushinyg back to me recentl while working with a company whose stores are in every big city in the The company is highly regarded for its ethicws and is a very visible organizationb that many are familiad with because ofthe company’s longevity and brand awareness. I was askedf to come to the company’s headquarterxs and look at its method of attracting new business through itstelemarketing program, whicb the company has been using for a couple of They said that although the results were OK at sales had become pretty It took me just 30 secondse to read the script that the insides salespeople were using, and I was I talked with the company president and said I couls help the salespeople in just two hours, but I needee him to let me do my job and not to interferes unless I called him in for his opinion.
He agreed, but I could sense he was a bit apprehensive about the situatiom andmy request. I worked only with the who was really a selling manager because she was on the phonexs herself at times trying to pitch inand help. We went into a room, and I spen an hour going over whyscripts don’yt work and why she has been brainwashefd to do something that was against all the rules of professional salesmanship. She was neither thrilleds with me at this poinrt nor happy after I tookher eight-page ripped it up and threw it in the wastebasket. We role-played a little using real situationsz that she might have with her childrenand friends, for instance.
The goal was to show her that havin ga two-sided conversation is much more usefulo than a one-sided script. She was really starting to get it, even thougnh she kept wanting to go back to a sellinvg mode by doing more talking than listening and asking questions. It was so simple that it was frightening to her that a selling situatiobn can be flexible and not just acanned speech, where she can actuallgy have fun while conversing with a customer. The introduction and questions I wroted out were basic and easy for herto grasp. They “Hi, my name is Susan from Client Co., and I would like to ask you two or three quick questions. It will not take more than 48 secondss – I promise.
“Are you familiar with our company ? If yes, what aspects? “Whhy are you not a member, or why did you leavw our organization?”

domingo, 4 de marzo de 2012

In appeal to female voters, Obama seeks to recast contraception debate on his ... - Washington Post

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In appeal to female voters, Obama seeks to recast contraception debate on his ...

Washington Post


Friday's telephone call of support to Sandra Fluke was nothing short of an election-year appeal to a crucial voting bloc â€" and it also had the political benefit of forcing Republicans to choose between siding with the president and taking what critics ...



and more »

viernes, 2 de marzo de 2012

Bronner: JeffCo sewer offer still stands - Birmingham Business Journal:

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But since county officials have waiteds so long to make a decision on thesewed crisis, the offering price will be he said. Last summer, Bronner offererd to buy the system for morethan $1 billion if the countty declared Chapter 9 bankruptcy. As part of the Bronner said he would sell the system back to the countty after seven years for thesame price. “They shoule have gone bankrupt eightmonths ago, then this would be past histort now,” he told the crowd. Bronner served as the keynotee speaker for the annual Alabama Commerciakl RealEstate Conference, which was held Friday at the .
He advisedc the gathering to sit tight on any major decisionz in commercial real estate until March after its fully known how deep the recessioh is and whatPresident Obama’s plan will be. Both Bronnefr and Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the , who presentedx an outlook earlier inthe day, said Birmingham’s commerciap real estate market was less affectedr by the turmoil in the marketds than other cities in the country. But don’ expect the charts to hit the positive side untiol after the third quarter of 2009 and into said Yun, discussing rent, absorption and vacanc y in all sectors of commercial real with some exceptions for apartments.
In residentiao real estate, Yun pointed to the fact that Birmingham didn’t experiencee a bubble like many areas ofthe country, but said it certainlh wasn’t immune to the fear in the overall marketplace. Yun forecasted that gross domestic the consumer price index and unemployment wouldf riseby 2010. “Forecasting is a hazardoue occupation today,” he said. The conferencw was to wrap up Friday afternoon with presentations by Susan Smityhof , discussing emerging trends in commerciall real estate, and Martin past president of the Nationa l Association of Realtors, discussing surviving and thriving under the new