|
Our invocation was offered by Lois Josefson Russell and Jamie Larson led us in song. Announcements included acknowledging a Christmas card from Otter Cove, plans to staff the concession booth at the speech tournament on January 29, the Board's decision to continue to abstain from inviting student guests and athletes, at least through January, and acknowledging a seamless transition from Team Golden Guys to Team SAS in set-up and takedown. Those assembled were encouraged to continue identifying and inviting prospective members to our meetings. At the Board's request, Katie Johnson gave us an update on where things stand with COVID and the flu at this time. She acknowledged we are all hearing confusing messages but the best thing to do is to take all steps one can to stay healthy. COVID rates are definitely on the rise, with Omicron spreading very quickly, with the only "positive" being it appear to be less severe in its effects than prior strains. Right now, Lake Region is seeing six to twelve parties being hospitalized because of COVID every day; as of the prior week it had also started admitting influenza patients. From a staffing perspective, Katie reported that over the last two weeks the hospital has averaged ten to twenty staff out each day due to the pandemic. Those absences are compounded by the fact that right now Lake Region has 75 job openings, 45 of those involving direct patient care. Emergency room admissions and walk-in clinic volume is very high, resulting in long wait times. ICU beds across the region are hard to find; to assist in that regard, representatives of a coalition of groups meet every day to talk about the availability of beds. Katie can personally relate to the shortage because her mother got the last available bed at Lake Region two weeks ago when she needed to be hospitalized. Katie also said she was aware of a doctor calling 17 different numbers the day before to find a place where a patient could be admitted. We are also dealing with a nationwide blood shortage and locally that has resulted in restrictions on how many units of blood can be requested. To address the blood shortage, people can donate blood at the YMCA on January 19, 20th and 21, with additional options to do so in Dalton and Elbow Lake in the weeks ahead. Overall, Katie said Lake Region Healthcare is doing a good job of caring for the needs of the community. She related what happened on Christmas Day when the hospitals in Elbow Lake, Alexandria, and Fergus Falls were alerted to a 55-car pile-up. All three locations activated their incident command center. Fortunately, the injuries were few and a devastating situation was averted. Katie said that all hospitals are dealing with the reality that they may be one event away from a disaster, which is a good reason for all of us to be vigilant and continuing with preventative visits and screenings, getting your vaccines and boosters, wearing a mask when social distancing is not possible, and, particularly, on the slightest hint of feeling under the weather, staying home. We really appreciated Katie's insight and taking the time to prepare and share it with us. We then went into brags and fines, with the presiding officer noting that when he put on his RI theme pin for 21-22 before the meeting, it really warmed his heart. Finding fault with anyone who had not similarly warmed their heart on such a cold day, a fine was appropriately imposed on anyone who was lacking Rotary insignia (excluding the meeting badge) on their garb. Keith Olson was with us via Zoom from Rotan and enjoyed a little scuba diving in the barrier reef that morning; unfortunately, he and Kim decided they needed to drop a week off their stay down there because of flight cancellations and the rapid increase in COVID cases -- presuming they could get cleared for flight. Ryan Welle put in a dollar for each of the weeks he had been unable to attend due to the harrowing health issues his family has been experiencing starting two days before Thanksgiving. Ryon has now experienced COVID twice and is feeling better, but his wife Janelle and daughter and son are still dealing with the effects. Kathy Austvold related a rush to make a flight connection on their way home from Pennsylvania and managing to get a pilot to notice her and others frantically gesturing to him behind a window in the passenger area so that he returned to the gate and they reconnected the loading arm to allow the delayed passengers on-board. I don't think that happens too often. |
.png)
