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ne of the many benefits of attending this year’s Symposium on Regulatory Issues for Management in Long-Term Care (SORIM LTC) in Tampa, Florida, was my opportunity to meet attendees and ECPN readers face to face and get a feel for the issues and trends that really matter to them. Their opinions and feedback will help guide the journal throughout 2007 and onward, and it reminded me of the value of personal perspectives.
       It is in that spirit that I invite all readers interested in sharing your opinions and knowledge with your peers and fellow readers of ECPN to write to the journal. Whether it’s a letter to the editor in reaction to one of our articles or your own by-lined article to be considered for publication—anything from a conversational essay on a topic of interest to a research-based article on a key topic in long-term care—is up to you. Additionally, the July/August issue will introduce a new department, “Commentary,” to provide a specific forum for unfiltered, first-person takes on issues impacting your jobs on a daily and/or long-term basis. Think of it as an opportunity to sound off and spark a dialogue with fellow readers.
       We will continue our efforts to make ECPN as useful and informative to you as possible, and the more voices we can present along the way, the better.

In This Issue

       As promised, this month’s issue features an article, “Using Medications Appropriately,” based on a presentation at this year’s SORIM LTC, as well as a news report on the conference itself. Also included are the fifth article in the “MIST Therapy^® System: Thoughts on Therapy” series, news on the the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’(CMS) proposed fiscal year 2008 Medicare payments for nursing homes, and articles on the following topics: bed safety and entrapment, fall risk and Alzheimer’s disease, wandering/fall management technology, the progress toward electronic prescribing, the importance of a Quality Plan of Action, the power of protein, and the chain of command for the Minimum Data Set (MDS).
       As always, thank you for reading ECPN.