Newsletter for Meeting of July 10, 2013
July 10, 2013 Newsletter
By John Hammer
Charlotte Shelburne Rotary
Wednesday, July 10, 2013, 7:15 a.m.
Trinity Episcopal Church Community Room
Welcome
President Dave Jonah opened the meeting with the Pledge. Kris Engstrom gave the invocation.
Guests: Dr. John Brumsted, CEO, Fletcher Allen Health Care, and Speaker
Sheri Duff – Editor, The Shelburne News and Citizen Newspapers.
Quote for the Week: “We serve our communities.” Said by Dr. Brumsted when describing FAHC’s “Culture of Service.”
Word for the Day: Look for the * and definition at end.
Upcoming:
July 11 – Board Meeting
July 17 – Club Assembly
July 24 – Ed McColin, Boy Scouts of America
July 31 – Camp TaKumTa – Serving Breakfast 6-9:30 AM. There will be no meeting that day.
Announcements
Club Bowlathon
So far $22,000 has been raised which is $4,000 more than the last Bowlathon.
Shelburne’s 250th Anniversary
Roz Graham gave a brief schedule for August 16-18: Friday – a brief cruise on Shelburne Bay; Saturday – Shelburne Day with a nighttime street dance with music by Rich and the Ramblers at the Shelburne Shopping Park; and Sunday - a stationary “walk by” parade on the Shelburne Museum grounds followed by a BBQ on the Parade with games and music. The club will be asked for a contribution and help with the BBQ.
Financials
Russ Blodgett, Treasurer, reported that the Club is in good financial shape having brought in lots of money and spent little last year. The financial reports were provided on the tables. The budget for the forth-coming year will be discussed at tomorrow’s board meeting.
Classical Music Scene
John Hammer reported on the forthcoming summer classical music scene. The first out of the gate will be the Vermont Summer Music Festival presented by Mel Kaplan. It will be held next week, starting this Sunday. Information can be found at www.vermontsummermusicfestival.com. The following week will be the Burlington Ensemble’s Summer Serenades concerts. Flyers were handed out. Information can be found at www.Burlingtonensemble.com.
Club Meeting Set-up Schedule
Dave Rice circulated a Set-up and Teardown signup list for the coming year. Persons who haven’t indicated their preferences are asked to contact Dave at drice@together.net.
Jim Spad’s Humor
A tourist was visiting a graveyard in Vienna when he heard music coming from somewhere nearby. After looking around and listening carefully, he tracked the sound to the grave of Ludwig van Beethoven. After listening just a few moments he identified the music as being Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, but it was being played backwards. Very puzzling! So the next day he brought a friend to witness this phenomenon, but this time it was Symphony No 7 also being played backwards. The tourist found a music scholar and convinced him to accompany him to the gravesite the following day, and sure enough, there it was – the sound of Symphony No. 5 being played backwards. By now the word had spread far and wide, so much so that when the tourist returned the next day there was a huge crowd and the music was identified as the 2nd Symphony being played backwards. The tourist was thunderstruck and asked the cemetery’s caretaker what he knew of the music. The caretaker replied, “Of course, that’s just Beethoven de-composing.”
Sergeant at Arms –
Happy Fines
Sam Feitelberg – For his daughter’s progress in her battle against cancer.
Jim Spadaccini – For his last poker game. He has been playing with this group twice a month for 31 years. He came out ahead last night.
Ric Flood – Sad because Jim is leaving, but happy because Jim said he’d give him his list of donors.
Terrill Titus – Completed one of her MS 150 training rides last night. She is now in sponsorship gathering mode, so if anyone is interested, please contact her.
Tom Glaser – Family and grandchildren were here over the holidays.
Russ Blodgett – Spent the Fourth of July week in our nation’s capital with half a million other people.
Bill Root – After spending a three years commuting to Rutland because of a corporate reorganization, he is happy to report that he is now back to being local He’s taken over the Edward Jones office in Shelburne. He is also happy/sad to report that he has sold his Porsche to a friend of Howards.
Fritz Horton – For his brain fade and thanks to John Brumsted’s able assistant who was able to organize his presence here at this meeting.
Roz Graham – For the start of the Shelburne Farms concerts and in recognition of Dave’s nascent presidency.
John Hammer – Happy to be commuting from Basin Harbor where he and Dorrice had won two nights in a cabin that literally hangs over the lake.
Dave Jonah – For failing to remember to call on Jim Spad for his final Minute of Humor. Jim’s lighthearted response was that he had heard of the phrase “Gone, but not forgotten.” But this time he felt it might be better stated, “Forgotten but not yet gone.”
Kris Engstrom – Summed up a lot of the members’ feelings by paying tribute to Jim Spad, by saying that “you shared with us your experiences. All of the time I’ve been here, you have been like a rock. You’re going to leave a hole nobody can fill.”
Richard Fox –A birthday fine, a scoot fine, to admit to the process of moving, and to help in covering Dave’s great faux pas.
There were many happy fines in recognition of Jim Spadaccini and his wonderful history with the club. There were also some halleluiah fines for the sun which is out today after a biblical period of rainy days.
Bill Root’s number was called and he drew the 4 of Hearts. Roll over the $38 pot.
Speakers – Dr. John Brumsted, CEO, Fletcher Allen Health Care.
Dr. Brumsted, a recent Shelburne resident, has been in Vermont many years. He has been blessed with being able to build a career here and now has what he considers a unbelievable challenge and opportunity. He has been CEO of the FAHC since February 2012 and he views this as an opportunity to give back to the community that means so much to him.
FAHC is a very large, not-for-profit hospital. It is also not just a hospital, but it also has in combination a very large physician practice group as well as the University of Vermont (UVM) Medical Group (Faculty group for the UVM College of Medicine, and College of Nursing and Health Sciences). They are all one corporation which allows all the elements to work closely in how health care is delivered. It’s very effective and relatively unique. This organization makes up what is called an academic medical center. It allows the FAHC to serve as a research engine of national and international renown in a variety of different fields. This is of incredible value to the community in that it brings back to the community services above and beyond just health care. It provides lots of jobs. It also forms a incubator for health care workers in the region of northern Vermont and New York. It provides access to world-class health care. It goes beyond just primary care and reaches to a much higher level at the cutting edge.
FAHC is the largest employer in the state and provides many opportunities for start-up jobs and career ladders. They also take very seriously the need to be as green as they can. Their latest construction project, a radiological oncology center is LEEDS-certified. They recycle items that many other areas of the medical industry do not.
Factoids (per year):
65,000 emergency room visits
25,000 in-patients admissions, and
2,500 deliveries – about a third of these are high-risk pregnancies.
FAMHC is proud to be a “Culture of Service.” They go by the mantra – “We serve our communities.”
Throughout the country citizens have become irascible* and irritated about health care delivery and cost. To combat this, FAHC has set three principal strategies to improve quality and reduce costs.
1. Move from high quality to highly reliable – to engineer out errors. This meets both quality and financial goals. To this end, they have been named the most reliable supply chain of all American academic medical centers.
2. FAHC has consolidated with other health care facilities in the region to increase quality and reduce costs by sharing capacities, capabilities and services.
3. Partner with all health care providers in the region in reducing costs for Medicare patients. In this case, they are working with the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) to find ways of cutting costs in providing these services. CMS will then share 50% of the savings back with members of this group called OneCare Vermont. The key is to improve coordination.
In answer to the question as to why so many small practices are going out of business, primarily because of the increased administrative costs caused by government and insurance systems, Dr. Brumsted pointed out that it is becoming more important for services to consolidate in order to take advantage of combined knowledge and back office services.
Definition – irascible, adj. –Characterized by or arising from anger.