Reminder of the Seven areas of focus for Rotary. One of which is "Saving Mothers and Children". Nearly 6 million young children die each year because of malnutrition, poor health care, and inadequate sanitation. We expand access to quality care so mothers and their children can live longer and grow stronger.
Geoff - Volunteer Coordinator
Window Dressers:
November 3&4th pick up the pieces so the process can start on the 4th at the Rec Center on Creek Road. Assembly will take 4-5 days and will need volunteers to help with assembly, cooking meals, and distribution.
Will need about 20 volunteers per day (Both Rotarians and participants receiving window inserts.)
Meals on Wheels - Age Well
Age Well is struggling to find enough volunteers to deliver and have moved to a drive-thru system.
In need of volunteers to help with this starting in October, once a week on Wednesdays for about 1 hour. (More to come)
Bocce Tournament - Sept 17
If anyone is interested to join as a team, please sign up now. Each team needs 1 captain to register
Need volunteers to help provide food at the event from 9-1. We will be serving Hamburgers and Hot Dogs
Buzz - Tent Take Down
Take down at Sheldon on September 1st and put up for
Eastview September 7 (tentatively) and CSAC’s Bocce event September 17.
Paul - Band Stand Project
August 24th - volunteers helped with the prep work for the paint
August 30th - need two volunteers to help paint
John Metcalfe - Vergennes Rotary - Projects in Mexico
Vergennes has been working on a water project in San Jose Monteverde, village where many of the farm workers come from.
Another need they have is transportation to Healthcare Services. They are in need of an ambulance service to transport people to outpatient clinics and to the hospital. A "WhatsApp" account has been created to communicate with individuals in Mexico to learn more about their needs. Additionally, this is a partnership that would be set up with the Mexican Red Cross and Rotary Club in the area.
Jason - District Information
District Conference is set to be in person at the end of April at Jay Peak.
Eric - DG Social
Tuesday, August 30th at 5 p.m. (Eric's House). Email Eric to RSVP
Spence - Social Media
Looking for a social media volunteer for the FB page. (Does anyone know who has admin access to the FB page. Please email Spence if you have any information)
Sargent of Arms:
Fines and Happy Dollars
Fines:
Fran - Late
Happy Dollars:
Nancy - Happy to be back after her first vacation since Sept 2019 (Finally Covid-Free)
Paul - Showed up to Eric's one week early for the DG Social
David - Attended the Annual Opera Weekend in Cooperstown and went to Poughkeepsie
Spence - Happy Steve is well! Spence heard about the fire in New Haven and contacted Steve to make sure it wasn't his apartment and all is well!
Steve - Happy to have snuck in the back to not be fined for being late
Liz - Happy to have seen friends and one was recently inducted into the Vergennes Rotary
Guest Speaker – Linda Schiffer and Tom Thompson (UVMHN Porter Medical Center)
Linda Shrier Schiffer joined the Porter Medical Center Board in 2014 and currently serves as the Board’s chair. Linda began her career as a radio news reporter at WDEL Radio and moved into public affairs in hospital settings starting at The Wilmington Medical Center (DE) - now called Christiana Care. She later joined the staff of Maryland Governor William Donald Schaefer’s Commission on Crime Control and Prevention where she worked on community programming. She expanded into marketing and new business development while living in Israel, working with newly emerging companies seeking venture capital funding. Linda returned to the U.S. to Vermont where she worked for Fletcher CSI doing marketing research for Fortune 500 companies, and later joined Middlebury College in residential life and programming. In addition to serving on the Porter Medical Center board, Linda has an extensive background in non-profit board participation both as a member and in leadership positions, including Jewish Family Services, Circus Smirkus, the United Way of Addison County, CropWalk, and the New England Center for Circus Arts. Linda is a graduate of the University of Delaware with a BA in History, and an MA in Communications. She lives in Middlebury, VT with her husband Ira, and, as of this summer, both their children and their partners are living in Vermont.
Tom Thompson serves as President / COO of Porter Medical Center, an affiliate of the University of Vermont Health Network. Tom has served in the President position in community health systems for over 30 years, often in roles involving new health system affiliates. Tom’s leadership interests and expertise are focused in effective governance practice, strategy management, community and employee engagement, and operational improvement. His professional experiences have included a variety of organizational models and with emphasis on organizations facing transition. Throughout his career, Tom’s leadership teams have a consistent track record of enhancing organizational capabilities, strengthening relationships, and achieving performance goals. Tom’s undergraduate degree in the Natural Sciences is from St. John’s University (Collegeville, MN), while his graduate degree in Community Health Planning and Administration is from Saint Louis University. Tom and his wife Lori, a university professor, have been married 34 years and have two adult sons and two grandchildren.
Porter Medical Center Updates:
Porter Medical Center joined UVMHN in 2017 along with other NY/VT hospitals. This affiliation was to help support the smaller rural hospitals and evolve shared services and share best practices amongst each other. One of the bigger investments include the use of Epic technology is all UVMHN location so that all information is integrated and can easily be accessed whether you are at Primary Care, ED, or UVM (Burlington).
Tom shared the strategic map for Porter Hospital - to maintain financial health and to serve the community.
Finances - focused on being good stewards of resources and to help grow in areas that will best serve the community and be sustainable
2 main issues with finances at the moment
1) Highly rely on traveling agency staff to help provide care (this cost 4x more than regular staff)
2) Increase in patient volumes since Covid and care settings are full
Porter is doing their best to help move patients through the care delivery system based on needs, but there is a lot of demand for procedures, diagnostic tests, and chronic conditions support. In order to address this, Porter is part of a "Test and Learn" Site to redesign Primary Care and services offered in the medical home.
Work Place Wellness - focusing on education for staff and support.
There have been significant efforts to be more competitive in wages for staff as Porter has been behind on the market for years.
Strategic learning efforts both in the field and around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Porter Auxiliary has helped fund a significant amount for a simulation lab for staff to help provide education
Adopt Best Practices - focus on providing highly reliable care
Wanting to provide care to underserved individuals and strengthen support with community partners
Safety huddles - report concerns on a regular basis to be preventative and not reactive to preventable situations
Community Health Needs Assessment and Improvement Plan (3 main priorities)
Access to Healthcare Services
Access to Mental Health Services
Housing
This is a major focus, especially around workforce retention and housing. Working closing with Summit and Middlebury College, as well as ACCT. (170 employees filled out an ACCT survey and based on the responses and income of staff - a new ACCT building could be filled with Porter staff alone)
Working with community partners to address issues (CSAC, ACCT, etc)
Governance Model - Board's involvement with strategic planning and local support
Network board is there to help streamline efforts and alignment from a network wide approach
Local Porter Hospital Board - oversee local funds, quality, and population health efforts for Addison County
Questions, Comments, Concerns:
Any changes in services in response to Roe v. Wade? No, services are still offered and working to raise awareness of services available. Similarly, after the closure of Planned Parenthood - the hospital worked hard to provide awareness of services in the area.
Express Care is staying around and it provides a happy medium to care between the Emergency Room and Primary Care
Porter Moral and Employees?
Turnover rate has been less than the previous years. However, Porter was impacted by the "Great Resignation" like many other organizations.
Staff are burnout - 10% of patients are being served in the hallways because we do not have enough space, there is no where to send patients with mental health needs - it is hard in the health care system right now!
Any new service lines like Kidney Dialysis? Cardiac Rehab was a great addition for the community! It is not likely that Porter will provide Kidney Dialysis as this is a highly regulated system and the network provides this across the state.
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