It’s the end of the world, and I don’t feel fine

I try to keep myself from making rash decisions and try to live by the "sleep before you make a big decision" rule, but I don't think sleep will change the thoughts racing through my mind right now. I said all of that to give myself wiggle room to change my mind at a later date just in case what I am about to write is crazy.

Effective now, I will no longer be posting original thoughts and opinions on hospiceblog. I will continue to link to interesting third-party information and news. I would love to have people write posts on subjects of their choosing and I will put them on the blog for the world to see and evaluate. The days for me to do that have, unfortunately, come to an end.

I have written this blog anonymously in an attempt to keep other hospices in my market from being able to twist my words and use them against me. Many posts on this blog, if taken out of the context of the blog, could be used to make the author look bad. When I give my opinion that I don't think medical schools in general are doing a very good job of educating new doctors on how to prognosticate or communicate, my competition could easily run around telling every doctor under fifty that I don't think they are good doctors. When I give an equally honest observation that some older doctors are not as up to date on their medications as a hospice would like for them to be, my competition could run around telling every doctor over forty that I think they are dinosaurs who should retire. Neither of those opinions, when taken in context, are earth shattering or even close to being outside the mainstream opinion of most people in my position, but the rumors and innuendo that can be created from the opinions can damage a company. A twist of a word here, an out of context quote there, … before you know it there isn't a doctor in the community who would refer a patient to my hospice.

I knew those risks when I started the blog. What I failed to see was that, by remaining anonymous, I was actually opening anyone in the nation who vaguely fits my description to the same fate. Instead of opening myself up as a target, I have set up a situation where any male hospice Administrator can have my words used against them. As this blog has grown in readership, I have gotten a few e-mails asking me if I was this person or that person, but never thought much of it. Today, I got a story of a company that is having the words of this blog used against it by a referral source who thinks they know who hospice_guy is. I don't know what to do except say that I'm sorry to anyone who has ever been wrongly accused of being hospice_guy. I never intended for something like that to happen.

I think that the idea of hospice blog is a good one. There are things that need to be discussed. There are things that need to be said. My first thought when I knew I couldn't continue the blog as it is, was to take it off the internet. I later decided deleting the whole thing would be an overreaction. I don't see how to continue this blog as a single author blog though. If various people across the country want to contribute posts to the blog, then nobody can really use those words as a weapon. If this blog is written by people instead of a person, then we can continue without worrying.

I guess it is up to you the readers as to what hospiceblog becomes. I appreciate all the kind words I have received over the past couple of years. I have enjoyed this greatly and hope you have also.

Hospice_guy