In response to the urgent need of an emergency facility in the town of San Pedro the San Pedro Business Association has formed an ad hoc committee to conduct the preliminary research to create a proposal that will be introduced to key officials upon completion.

All interested parties are invited to send their comments to the following email address:

<[email protected]>

Please attempt to make your suggestions, comments and offers of assistance concise, well thought out and laid out with all relevant data and statistics that should be considered applicable.

A small team has only a short period of time in which to have a preliminary report prepared before the next SPBA general meeting and it would be helpful to have this report be as complete as possible.

SPBA members are asked to consider volunteering for the Clinic Committee.

Emails will be sent out to those board members that have expressed an interest in assisting with the data research and writing the proposal.

Thanks to the community of San Pedro, members of this message board and other interested individuals who have brought this concern to the forefront of the many other difficult issues that San Pedro is facing.

ACCC and Lions commit to work together for the PolyClinic
Lions Melanie Paz and Baldemar Graniel, who also sit as Directors for the PolyClinic II, joined the Chamber for their regular Thursday luncheon to bring to light the issues surrounding the needs of the PolyClinic. Chief amongst the needs of the Polyclinic are proper staff, security, and more emergency care. As Lion Mel pointed out, government had agreed to work with the Lions to get the needs of the PolyClinic met based upon a contract signed between the two. As such, regular meetings are held between directors and the Lions who are committed to assisting in any which way to have all the needs met.
“What we are lacking the most of right now are Human Resources,” commented Lion Mel. As such, the biggest problem is housing. Currently, the Lions are working on securing donations which would assist in paying the $600 a month apartment for a nurse currently working at the PolyClinic. Should you want to offer any financial assistance kindly get in contact with Lion Mel.
ACCC stated to Lions that they are willing to help in any way possible. Lions explained that all decisions need to go through the Board of Directors at the PolyClinic but that Lions Mel and Baldemar would act as liaisons between ACCC and the PolyClinic. Together the two ended with a commitment to work together to see what are the best ways to move the clinic forward.
http://sanpedrosun.blogspot.com/2009/04/accc-and-lions-commit-to-work-together.html

Hooray!!

I am glad to offer any assistance I can with this effort. The involvement of the doctors is crucial and I think we are off to a good start with the much needed involvement of Dr. Blackledge, Dr. Gillis and others. I would be more precise if I could figure out from the board names who some of the people on here are. I'll write a short email to SPBA at the email address given.

I just read in the San Pedro Sun that the Polyclinic has instituted 24/7 emergency on call services. April 21- April 26 Dr. Zuniga is on call at phone number 670-8755. April 27th Dr. Otto Rodriguez is on call at phone number 604-7599.
This reminds me how important it is to do the research and work with existing systems in the development of any sustainable plan.
They ask that you keep in mind that after hour calls are for emergencies only because they are keeping their days jobs at the clinic.

This system has been in place since about October of last year - but it is not infallible. With the bad cell phone service and the fact that sometimes there is more than one emergency at a time this isn't a fail safe plan.

Need one # to call with 24/7 "in house" staffing and an ambulance cart in order to respond with the shortest possible response time.

The doctors can still be "on call" at home. The emergency responders and or nurse can then evaluate the patient and determine if in fact a true emergency exists and then activate the "on call" doctor if needed.

Having to pay the doctors to be "in house" would be too expensive and likely a waste of money. This effort should not turn out to be a "free" after hours clinic like the ERs here in the US have become. There all non-emergencies could be evaluated and told to come back during regular clinic hours for non-life threatening conditions.

I think Dr. Blackledge has it just right. There may be reason to pay the doctor a small on call fee and then a minimum fee if they are actually called out. If more than the minimum is done then the physician should be paid (either by the facility or the patient) for the amount of time and the complexity of care that is rendered.

Great care will need to be taken as pointed out above that this facility is not used as convenient after hours family practice service.

The organization itself should be responsible for billing and collecting fees for the utilization of the service (i.e. E.R. charge). We will need to work out if the doctor attending should bill for his services separately or if the facility will do so. I have seen it work well both ways. Those of you practicing will know what I am referring to.

There should also be a strict rota of referrals for follow-up in the case of patients without existing physician/patient relationship. It should be made clear that interfering with existing relationships between doctors and patients will not be tolerated.

I also believe if a doctor is not willing to serve in an on call capacity then he probably shouldn't have new patients referred to him/her for follow up care. Of course existing doctor/patient relationship must always be respected.

great effort by the SPBA and everyone to keep this moving. We are working on a brief report to share some of our thoughts in greater detail and that will be forwarded along very soon.

One comment I wanted to add is that it's important to assess and understand who can and/or wants to provide emergency care. Like where I work, some docs and nurses do wonderful work but either don't want to or have not received the training to respond to true life threatening emergencies. Paramedics have all levels of training from the most basic through very advanced. As part of the Human Resources strategy, it is important to start with the great providers already there, see what they can and want to do, and see how others can help them and the community beyond that. It is important that if a heart attack happens, and people expect care, that the access, equipment, training, and support are all truly present. If not we are not truly talking about an ER but an after hours drop in clinic or something else... let's keep the discussion going.

playing devils advocate here, and admittedly knowing nothing of the topic, i hear alot spoken about this not turning into an after hrs clinic for non emergency use "like they have turned into in the US".

knowing this thing is going to take some money to operate, and the fact that the true emergency in san pedro doesnt even happen once a day, maybe you ought to let it turn into the typical e.r. allowing for more billing to keep the doors open, and keeping the nurse or whoever is on staff from going stir crazy, lol.

in the end, this is a business, yes? it has to be operated for money if even that is only to keep the doors open and the place funded. i dont think you can be half way open, know what i mean, you either are or you arent.

just throwing it out there.

fish