Mark Urban, program's chair, reminded us that January is Vocation's Month in Rotary, so with this in mind we should be giving gratitude to all those health care workers who have worked so hard in this dangerous time of COVID-19. Those Doctors and Nurses, administrators and extending to those who service the hospitals and keep them clean. With this in mind, Mark said that it was an honor this week, to introduce Dr. Michael Korpiel, the President and CEO of Dignity Health Care and Mercy San Juan for the Sacramento region.  Dr. Korpiel has numerous degrees in Education and Theology, making a career changed career paths in 1989 from teaching to health care administration, culminating in joining Dignity Health Care in 2017. He also has been a Rotarian for a number of years (not at this time) and a Paul Harris Fellow.

Dr. Korpiel thanked the Carmichael Rotary Club for inviting him to speak and mentioned that if gets back in Rotary again, he will consider the Carmichael Club since they seem to have a good time and are very welcoming. Dignity Health Care started in 1969 and has grown exponentially since then. Mercy San Juan offers a variety of medical services, Neurological (Home to the Neurological Institute of Northern California), Cardiovascular, Bariatric Surgery, Family Birth Center, Gastroenterology, Diagnostic Imaging, Emergency, and Intensive Care Units.  It has now 370 beds, 2525 employees, 607 medical staff, and emergency department consisting of 31 beds. Mercy San Juan has been voted in the best 100 hospitals in the U.S. (which is no mean achievement). Dr. Korpiel showed a slide of many of the awards and recognition that Mercy San Juan has earned over the years, impressive and too many to put in this bulletin.

 

Dr. Korpiel now turned to the subject at hand, COVID-19. He showed a series of detailed slides in which I can only summarize with what I think are some of the salient points. In it's response to COVID-19, all six Sacramento Dignity Hospitals went into "Internal Disaster Mode" with dedicated units dedicated for the treatment of COVID-19. The first admitted patient with COVID-19 was on March 4, 2020. They have had since then a total of 996 patients. 22% went to ICU.  The patients age ranged from 2 months to 100 years. The average age at death range was 74.6. showing the effect of the disease on older people. Dr. Korpiel makes the point that their hospitals are perhaps the safest places to be, since COVID-19 patients are cared for separately with stringent safeguards and people are tested all the time and personnel using protective equipment and the environment being cleaned rigorously. One should not fear having medical procedures, it is the best time to have them.

Dr. Korpiel talked about the course of the disease in surges, the first starting in March 2020, where elective surgeries were canceled, many spent time in the ICU - 35% and visitors were excluded. Their census plummeted. Then, in time, over surge two and three, they got a better handle on the disease and opened up their services, with more people using their hospitals and now vaccines started (for staff December 21, 2020. Less than 20% spend time in the ICU).  Dr. Korpiel noted that, in the beginning, people were ventilated early but it was found there was better outcomes if the patient was ventilated only as a last resort. Remdesivir and convalescent plasma are used as treatment and Bamlinivimab used as outpatient treatment in some cases. In January now, vaccines have been administered to doctors, nurses, employees, and now patients. Dr. Korpiel makes the point that they have learned a lot about COVID-19 in the last 10 months!

Dr. Korpiel went on to talk about their new complex that will opened in Folsom - soon! Go to https://www.dignityhealth.org.

Q and A : One interesting point made by Dr. Korpiel was that no incidence of flu has happened this year in their hospitals. Amazing! The explanation may be that by distancing and wearing masks, flu transmission has not been happening.  Dr. Korpiel said that "virtual" visits are up (and that is good), but less people are going to the hospitals which means they will have to adjust to less volume of patients. Stress and suicide attempts have been more frequent but better lately.

President Thorman thanked Dr. Korpiel for his wonderful presentation and let him know that, in honor of his lecture, a book will be donated to the Carmichael Library (subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library)

Jay Boatwright gave me the names...