Long-term care operators have a unique opportunity, and I’m encouraging everyone to take advantage of it. Here’s how: Complain.

Really.

A Wharton School of Business professor is assembling a powerhouse meeting of the minds to parse “no-brainer” regulations and practices in long-term care. But first he needs to better know what should be discussed. The collection of nominations is ongoing, as McKnight’s earlier reported.

It sounds simple, and submissions can be as basic as desired. This isn’t meant to be formal proposal writing.

John Whitman, the aforementioned academic — and a former nursing home administrator — needs your help.

Here’s the ask: What regulation bugs you because it doesn’t lead to the best quality situations or because it costs the healthcare system more than it should? Or perhaps there’s a clinical or operational practice that doctors or others continue but shouldn’t, due to the above quality or cost considerations.

Whitman puts the weight of a top university and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics behind this effort. He’s assembling a respected group of top providers, regulators, third-party payers and others that will give it even further legitimacy.

On Nov. 30 they’ll meet and agree on a list of “No Brainers” that should be changed. Then they’ll collectively bring pressure to get as many as possible altered or eradicated.

“We’ll probably pick the top 10,” Whitman told me Tuesday at the LeadingAge annual convention in Philadelphia, which is where the summit will take place next month. “We’ll say, ‘These situations are wasting our healthcare system “X” billions of dollars.’”

He believes the big number should grab the attention of key movers and shakers, and he could be right. The absence of more telemedicine, for example, is costing the healthcare system $1.3 billion a year, he said, citing studies that he personally has conducted for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

We at McKnight’s have heard you call many regulations and practices unjust or nonsensical through the years.

Now it’s time to fill the ears and inbox of someone who has pledged to make a difference and has the pedigree, power and drive to do it. It would be a shame for providers to pass up on this opportunity.

Give Whitman your observations and, yes, complaints, if you want to call them that. You deserve to do so — and deserve to continue to suffer with whatever bugs you if you don’t.

In other words, it’s time to stop talking about the weather and start doing something about it. Because you can.

Submissions can be made to Whitman by Nov. 9 at [email protected]. Inquiries can be made to (484) 557-6980.

All submissions will receive a confirmation email and a copy of the full report generated from the invitation-only summit. Talk it over with some colleagues, if you wish, and then let it rip.

It’s for the good of your residents, and the health of the system business you work in.

Follow McKnight’s Editor James M. Berklan @JimBerklan.