Good Morning and Happy Sunday to you all. We had our final luncheon for 2019 this past Wednesday at the Lake Havasu Regional Medical Center. We had 34 people in attendance to hear the two guest speakers Julie Sasseen and Jeni Coke. The hospital supplied the lunch for $10.00 per person and we had lasagna, salad, garlic bread, brownies for dessert and water or soda as beverages. The food was quite good and we learned the cafeteria is open to anyone who would like to stop in and eat breakfast, lunch or dinner. The morning of the meeting they had steak and eggs for breakfast for $4.99. If you are looking for something different and inexpensive this is a good option. We had our usual raffles with the 50.50 being worth $43.00 / $42.00 for the kitty and we had four raffle prizes that Stephanie put together, congratulations to the 5 winners.
Ms. Sasseen spoke about the services the hospital provides including the emergency room, cancer center, cardiology, imaging, occupational health, support services and many more. The hospital is owned by LifePoint Health which is a large multi state company. During the past year the hospital has invested almost 13 million in capitol improvements to the facility and equipment for patient care. They are the largest employer in the City with 708 employees and a payroll of almost 67 million dollars. They paid just over 2 million in taxes, 7.5 million in charity and uncompensated care and spent 587 thousand on community benefit programs. They continue to bring in the latest equipment and procedures to give optimal health care. She also provided brochures and a few other swag items for everyone to take home.
Ms. Coke spoke about her position which is the recruitment of doctors and staff. They have added several new doctors to the staff this year including a spine and neurology surgeon and a new urologist. They are currently trying to recruit pediatric and other specialists. Ms. Coke spoke about the difficulty in attracting doctors to the region because we are in a rural part of the State and do not have many of the amenities the metropolitan areas have. The biggest is the ability for the spouses to find work in their chosen careers. Many of the doctors have spouses that also have high profile careers that require advanced degrees and they need to be in an area where they can put their expertise and skills into their chosen profession. There is also those that wish to be able to shop at the kind of stores you just do not find in rural parts of the Country. With that said they are actively recruiting and they do have those that want to come here for the laid back lifestyle and access to outdoor activities. She also talked about the difference between a non profit hospital and a for profit hospital. The big difference is the non profit hospitals do not have to pay the taxes the for profit hospitals do. They provide the same level of care and the expenses are the same. The cost for services and rates of pay for the staff are the same for either type of hospital. Myself, I am happy we have a hospital in this rural part of the State.
As always the information presented was way better than what I can write in a few short paragraphs.
After the program, I spoke about a few things such as an update on the Kiowa and SR95 project. They are moving along and have added a few things such as the right hand turn lane into the parking lot by the Verizon store. A lot of the work is being done at night so as to not disturb the traffic too much.
The community dinner is coming up on Friday, December 13, 2019. It is an annual event where the City puts on a traditional Christmas dinner for anyone who would like to participate. There will be turkey, ham, potatoes, gravy, vegetables, rolls, dessert and soda and water, everyone in the community is invited to attend, especially those that will not otherwise have a traditional Christmas meal. Every child gets a toy and can have their picture taken with Santa. The toys are provided by the River Riders motorcycle group and the pictures are provided by the Anderson Auto Group.
In the past, 50 turkeys have been donated for the dinner by the food bank, this year that is not possible. Stephanie and I volunteered to provide the turkeys and estimate the cost between $800-$1000. I brought this up at the meeting and put out there that if anyone else would like to chip in it would be welcome. Many of you have already come by and we have collected about $400 to buy the turkeys. Instead of this being a Stephanie and I donation, we have made it a Tamarack Neighborhood Watch Donation. If anyone else would like to participate you are welcome to join in and drop off an envelope to us.
As always, I seemed to have rambled on so I will stop here. Thank You all for being part of the best neighborhood anyone could hope to ask for. Happy Thanksgiving.
Dave
