Our own Julia Griffin will share her “State of the Town” update as she prepares those of us who are Hanover residents for Town Meeting in May… and for those who are NOT Hanover residents, I am confident Julia will offer her insightful perspective on intergovernmental relations (or, How the Feds and States Downshift Costs to Local Government). 

 

 

Liam McCarthy served as President Pro-Tem in Tom Csatari’s absence giving him an opportunity to practice sounding the bell and facilitating the meeting. He extended thanks to all of those who pitched in to make the Pancake Breakfast a success. 

 

Dave Allen announced that the School Street Park beautification will be happening on April 27 beginning at 9:00 AM and predicted the task should only take an hour or so given the size of the park and the size of our contingency. He also updated the club on the impact of our contribution on a project we are co-sponsoring in Africa.

 

We had three Happy Dollars this week. Rubi Simon offered two: one in honor of her daughter who attends R.I.T and is seeking a summer internship opportunity and another in honor of her 9-year old daughter who she will be visiting in Mexico where she is living with her Grandparents and attending elementary school. And Tom Csatari offered another to celebrate his son’s recent clean bill of health. 

Dave Bradley was the raffle winner and he will receive a free meal at Jesse's for a future Rotary meeting. 

 

 

Dr. Sally Kraft from DHMC’s Population Health Leadership team, introduced the club to one of her prototypical patients: a 76-year old retired self-employed seamstress who lives alone some distance from the hospital, relies on public transportation to get to her appointments, and relies on Medicare to pay for several complicated health issues. Dr. Kraft described this patient’s experience when she fell ill and was transported to nearest hospital who admitted was driven to a different hospital by an ambulance when her ekg was deemed “abnormally high” by the emergency room staff who did not have access to her medical records that indicated she typically had higher than normal blood pressure. Ultimately, as a result of the treatment she received subsequent to this error, she experienced complications and ended up in nursing home. Dr. Kraft used this prototypical patient to illustrate that the social determinants of health, which constitute 80% of impact of a patient’s well-being. She noted that 30% of patients receiving public health services live alone, 27% are not HS grads, and most live in poverty stricken communities... noting that such individuals are expected to live 13 less years than those who live in affluence. 

 

Dr. Kraft offered several examples of how the zip code one lives in has a greater influence on an individual’s health than their genetic code. She noted that in some instances adjacent zip codes in Manchester have disparities that are as great as those between Hanover and Newport… emphasizing that the health care of all patients in the test group is a constant since DHMC affiliated hospitals and doctors serve them all. She also offered data illustrating that the US has the worst return on investment for its health spending than any other comparably developed country.  
 

Dr. Kraft concluded her talk by challenging us to identify what steps our Rotary Club might take to improve community wellness. In her response to questions she indicated that advances in technology and more effective use of technology might help, but the most important factor was changing the culture of the community and changing our policies relative to health care. Both of these cost little, but both will take time. 

 

 

We are now booked through May and have June 12 covered! 

 

April 24 - The Director of the Lebanon Opera House, Joe Clifford, will share upcoming events at his venue.

 

May 1 will be our quarterly social, which will be hosted by the Emily Bristol at the Brick and Barn Realty in Quechee. 

 

May 8 - Rubi Simon introduces Tom Badowski, the district’s coordinator for Exchange Programs and our current exchange student. 

 

May 15 – Julie Stevenson will introduce a quartet from the Hanover High Jazz band

 

May 22 – We’ll hear from Dartmouth’s Daniel Chamberlain, the Associate Librarian for the colleges Digital Libraries.

 

May 29 – Heather Drinan will introduce Lee Webster, who will tell us about the green funeral movement, a movement that was written about in today’s Valley News.  

 

June 12 – Back by popular demand!!! Rubi Simon and the Howe staff will do 30-books-in-30-minutes. Bring your notebook, stopwatch, and a bag to carry home some books to read during the Summer break. 

 

See you Wednesday! 

Wayne Gersen