In review

The Invocation, Pledge of Allegiance and Four-Way Test was led by Jack Kennefick. Ann introduced the guests, too many to list this week. Awesome job by the No. 1 Rotary Club in the Universe on Prospective Member Day! We were joined by visiting Rotarians Andrea and Gleason Glover, both of Minneapolis Club No. 9.

Gary Pedersen gave a short presentation on our safe/clean water project in Colonia Monterrey, Guatemala. This small village is inhabited by around 2,500 impoverished people about 40 miles out of Guatemala City. Fundraising began in October 2015 and with only $15,000 donated by the Edina Rotary Foundation, we were able to leverage the funds 20.5 times! With the help of an anonymous donor who gave nearly 50 percent to the project, we raised over $300,000 and work could begin. A 500-foot deep well was dug to provide clean water to 4,000 people. Also a 40,000 gallon tank to provide water pressure and 100 latrines were put into place. Thanks, Gary, and your team, and great job Edina Rotary!

Josh Sprague invited three members of the Interact Club of Edina High School to speak at the meeting. The three seniors were there to sell tickets to the Interact Club's Skate to End Polio fundraiser for The Rotary Foundation, which will be Feb. 10. The students shared with us their activities and plans for college next year. One student is planning to attend the University of Minnesota!

All-Star Rotarian Bob Solheim introduced our speaker Dr. Penny Wheeler. Dr. Wheeler has been the president and CEO of Allina Health since 2015. She shared her thoughts on the very timely subject of health care. A graduate of both the University of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota Medical School, Dr. Wheeler was listed as one of the top 25 women in health care by Twin Cities Magazine in 2012. Coincidentally, her adopted daughter is from Guatemala, and her daughter feeling a bit under the weather was the reason she was two minutes late to the meeting. When asked where she thinks health care is going, she throws her arms in the air and shrugs her shoulders. However, Dr. Wheeler has great insight into what is working in health care and what is not.

Although the United States is No. 1 in the world when it comes to rescue care, we fall short when it comes to basic health care. We have put profitability before wellness. Our costs are 2.5 times more than other developed nations. Dr. Wheeler noted that a past hospital president once said we had a bad month because not enough people got the flu. Less patients, less revenue. She points out that our health care providers are paid for how much they do, not how well they do it and this needs to change. Even when the wasteful spending is obvious, because that waste becomes someone’s revenue, the abuse continues. Dr. Wheeler sights the example of unnecessary PET scans that don’t produce any useful data being ordered 14 percent of the time for early breast cancer detection. Dr. Wheeler believes better quality basic care would lead to lower costs. Currently health care makes up 19 percent of the GDP. When competing hospitals worked together to lower the number of readmissions, their success was measured by a 16,000 night increase of patients sleeping in their own bed.

 

Dr. Wheeler believes that in order for our nation’s health care to improve and decrease in cost, a more holistic approach much be applied. We can’t look at health care in one dimension. A person’s health is dependent not only on their diet and exercise, but also their community involvement and interacting with other people.  She closed with saying that our health care needs to support people in new ways with better basic care and getting in front of health issues before they become bigger problems.

 

Lisa Walker thanked the speaker and Ann adjourned the meeting.