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How home care and hospice benefits people and communities

Community Voices

All the varied levels of health care help ensure that patients are in the best setting for their condition and recovery. In many cases, that setting is home — which is exactly where the majority of patients want to be. Did you know that the average length of stay in a hospital has decreased from 21 days in the 1960s to around five today? Medical advancements, like minimally invasive surgery, and the transition of more services from inpatient to outpatient are key reasons behind that shift. Inpatient hospital care is the most expensive setting. Also, home health has benefits that ...

Unhappy taxpayer

Letters to the Editor

To the editor: “News you might have missed” For those of you who rely on the mainstream media for your news, you probably have been missing what is going on in Minnesota. However, Newsmax is all over it, most nights there is at least one new item regarding the incompetence of the Walz administration. First there was the millions in fraud in the Feeding our Future scam, then millions more in Housing Development fraud, millions more in autism fraud, over a billion was diverted to Al-Shabaab-an East African terrorist group and who knows what else. Then today at Trump’s ...

Early ice gear check

Local Columns

With a sudden chill, first ice is fast upon us, but as local lakes and waters freeze up and anglers eagerly await the initial inches to form, now is an important time to take stock of those safety items that are as necessary at the beginning of the hardwater season as they are at the end of it. So, before your sonar is charged and you’ve test run your auger a few times alongside your snowblower after the recent seasonal shift, take stock of these important pieces of on-ice gear that will keep you safer all season long. Get a grip There’s an adage that no ice is safe ice. The ...

‘Tis the season

Local Columns

I want you to think about your favorite Christmas memory. We probably want to think our favorite Christmas memory is warm and pleasant, however, that is not always the way it is. Maybe there was a time when a cherished holiday tradition was dropped. Perhaps there was that time when someone was no longer with you to celebrate. Memories are a mixed bag. While serving in the Navy, I experienced my first Christmas away from my family. Not only was I in a foreign country, but everyone around me was a stranger. I constantly thought/felt something was missing. And it was. The people, places ...

Support local retailers

Editorials

Christmas is just weeks away and millions of Americans will be perusing for bargains at their favorite retailers. For those of us who have chosen to live in small communities the drive to a large mall or box store might be hours away and not very convenient when the roads are bad and daylight hours are few. Some will take solace in front of their computer screen while sipping their hot cup of coffee to shop from the convenience of their home and not venture out into the cold. Amazon is now the go to place for many when it comes to shopping. It is so successful that its creator ...

The feasting season

Community Voices

The collective groan arising from bathroom scales across this great land of ours signals that it’s the feasting season once again. This season kicks off with Thanksgiving, although one could argue that it actually begins with Halloween. Or Labor Day, or the Fourth of July, or Memorial Day, or Easter, or Valentine’s Day, or the Superbowl, or New Year’s Eve. Let’s face it, we’ll latch onto any excuse to feast, including Arbor Day. My family’s traditional cold weather feasts traditionally involved turkey. I have dozens of cousins, so several animals were needed to feed ...