President Nathan welcomed us to the meeting and the new Rotary Year.
Rob Olson, as Minister of Funds, challenged us with some actual Family Feud questions and answers regarding the 4th of July. Lots of surprises here.
Happy Bucks
We had many happy Rotarians today, including one happy about the upcoming Vietnam Vets Car show this weekend, another overjoyed at Jim’s receipt of the Morse Award, three members who took the next step in their lengthy journey to find new shelter in Bellingham, one member returning from calm Scandinavian waters and vacation in Europe, another celebrating his new boat (and zooming in to this meeting from its deck), and another thankful for a fun weekend with McAllister’s.
Guests:
George Halsell brought his wife Melanie
Monty McAllister introduced his wife Donna, and the speaker, Dr. Rodney Anderson
Joseph Garcia introduced Monty's son Dr. Sumner McAllister
Rick Kaiser introduced Allison Ormsby with Whatcom Family & Community Network
Nathan introduced former member Jon Sitkin
Members on Zoom: Mike Mallory, Loch Trimingham and Mark Knittel
Club Events and Committee Announcements
IMPORTANT DATE CHANGE:
July 27th meeting is cancelled in lieu of a Summer Picnic Meeting July 25th at Dick Tucker's Chuckanut Rd. home.
Picnic at Dick Tucker’s
Saturday, July 25th
Chuckanut waterfront lot for a beach BBQ and picnic. We'll do some crabbing, burgers, hotdogs, kayaks, boats, etc.
President Nathan has started a weekly recognition of members and their service to the club. He brought back a scarf from the R. I. Convention in Taipei, Taiwan and asks the recipient to wear it during the meeting as a badge of honor.
This week he recognized Rick Kaiser for all the diligent work he does on the following committee's: AV, International Service, Music and Chairman of the Reception & Greeters and Membership, Attraction & Retention Committee's. He recently retired from 3 years on the Board of Directors.
He always says "yes" when asked.
Rick join RCOB in 2014 with the classification "Database Programming, is a Paul Harris Fellow and received the Karen W. Morse Vocational Service Award in 2020-2021.
Karen W. Morse Vocational Service Award presentation:
Rick Kaiser presented the Karen W. Morse Vocational Service Award and provided some back ground on Jim's career which has been largely in higher education, beginning at Lakeshore Technical College in Wisconsin, where he served as professor, dean, and president on it. Karen Morse was a member of our club, president of WWU, and an internationally recognized inorganic chemist and leader in higher education. There is a science building on WWU’s campus named for her and her husband Joe, a former professor.
This year’s Vocational Service award goes to James Lemerond, whose Rotary service has included our club and, before that, one in Wisconsin. With this award, Jim is recognized for his long-term service, high ethical standards, and respect for all occupations, Lakeshore Technical College in Wisconsin, where he served as professor, dean, and president.
Jim's career has been largely in higher education beginning at Lakeshore Technical College in Wisconsin where he served as professor, dean and president. He came to Bellingham Technical College in 2023 where he has launched major infrastructure and renovation projects. He is deeply committed to the success of BTC students as they pursue their various studies and careers.
Congratulations Jim
Weekly Payment Reminder
VENMO:
@RCOB- Bellingham.
Give Sandee a call if you need help. 360-734-5532.
CASH / CHECK:
Yes, we still take these and saving on fees is appreciated.
The introduction was handled by Monty McAllister, who was instrumental in recruiting Rodney to his medical practice in Bellingham, which later allowed Monty to retire.
Rodney studied finance and economics at Stanford. After working in that field for a few years, he pursued his childhood dream to become a physician. He studied medicine at UW where Monty set the hook that would eventually bring Rodney to Bellingham and to head up the Family Care Network (FCN), which Monty had cofounded thirty years ago.
Family Care Network
According to Rodney, the Family Care Network is somewhat unique: it is the largest independent clinician-owned and led group of its kind in the country. There are 125 physicians, two-thirds of whom are physicians, all practicing in Whatcom and Skagit Counties. Physicians appreciate such networks as it gives them more professional autonomy. There are no specialists in the network; only family medicine clinicians. FCN clinics across the region are not cookie cutters of each other. They serve a higher proportion of low-income than commonly thought.
Their priority is patient experience and care, a priority often cited but too often not a real priority within other health care groups.
FCN seeks growth in order to meet needs, not purely for profits. “We Take Care” is their mantra, meaning care for patients and for each other. The values they aspire to live by are stewardship, innovation, autonomy, and independence.
Understanding Healthcare Costs: Rodney’s presentation offered us a multifaceted overview of healthcare costs in the US today. He sees some of the challenges of health care as being:
Uniqueness of people
The complexity and change in science and medicine
The high stakes nature of the operations and decisions
Archaic and highly complex operational models
The eroding trust for science, authorities, medicine, etc.
The fragmentation of healthcare
Pressures to play the short rather than the long game
Profit weighed more heavily than quality care increasing(e.g., publicly traded for-profit hospitals and insurance)
Outside investors
Leadership turnover
Costs “Total Cost of Care”
The total cost of care is increasing rapidly, which he illustrated with a story, Monty Wants an MRI, in which an unnecessary test cascades into extra tests, unneeded procedures, etc. One takeaway is that “more care isn’t always better care.”
Costs are going up in part because more people are utilizing medical services and doing so more often. Concurrently, there are increases in per unit costs for care attributable to:
Wrong care
Wrong time
Wrong place (e.g. emergency room vs doc’s office)
Rodney mentioned a few fixes for these escalating costs.
Reduce barriers to care (e., tech, hours)
Given each patient a ‘quarterback’ who advocates and problem solves on their behalf
Reduce ER visits that could have been handled less expensively by the primary physician. ER visits are 10x more expensive than office visits.
Support experimental programs like Direct Primary Care in which patients or their employers pay a fixed monthly payment as part of a subscription-like program.
Closing:
Nathan adjourned the meeting and requested assistance in the teardown.
RCOB apparel, including polo shirts, dress shirts, vests and hats is now available. These are items that every Club member simply must have in his/her wardrobe! Besides looking great, Club members will be contributing to branding for the RCOB as well as supporting our Club's Foundation, which will receive part of the proceeds.
Click on the button below for the the clothing catalogue, with the Order Form on the last page. Fill out the order form, turn it into Vinson Latimore at a meeting or email a scanned copy to embroidery@choicesscrubs.com.
