Alisa Moore
Courtney Ophaug, CEO of Banner Health Estrella Medical Center, and Dr. Erick Katz, chief medical officer of Banner Health Estrella Medical Center, joined the February Zoom meeting of the PebbleCreek Democratic Club to discuss the role of the hospital in caring for its community in general and during a worldwide pandemic.
Ms. Ophaug provided a history of the hospital, which began serving patients in 2005. The community it serves is newer, but the patients are generally much older. They have served 1.3 million patients in their ER in the past 15 years and have delivered over 50,000 babies, while offering a full spectrum of services with 1,300+ staff. A full-service medical campus, the 317 all private bed hospital offers an array of medical services, including heart care, emergency services, general surgery, weight loss surgery, medical imaging, orthopedic surgery, and a comprehensive maternity services program.
Both speakers then talked about the past, current, and expected future of diagnosing and treating the COVID-19 virus and its variants and mutations, which have been severely impacting Arizona for almost a year already. Dr. Katz noted that we should not expect to return to normal, but rather to a new normal, post the administration of the vaccine. He said that the four steps to addressing the virus successfully are masking, distancing, vaccine, and science, both in the short and the long hauls, because what we know about the virus changes every day. Both speakers generously answered questions from the attendees.
In other business, the club had a variety of February social events, including a Valentine’s Day bingo game on Feb. 12 and 13 and a pizza party, possible ice cream social, and more! The club continues its support of the Agua Fria Food and Clothing Bank, having donated $900 in cash and hundreds of pounds of food, clothing, and other goods. Agua Fria has expressed their ongoing appreciation and asked to include our club’s logo on their website as a supporter of the organization.
President John Moore noted that members are now receiving weekly emails regarding newly introduced and pending bills at the State Legislature and are encouraged to comment through the Arizona Right to Speak method, as well as by contacting their representatives directly. In addition, the club is following activities at the federal legislative level, the state’s legislative redistricting process (which has just started), and the upcoming Goodyear special election in March.
The March 3 meeting will feature Linda Fulwiler with North Bank Travel to speak about the changes in national and international travel as a result of COVID-19, as well as a short presentation from Banner Health on new topics of interest. Michael Collins, White House correspondent for USA Today during the Trump, and now the Biden, administrations, will be the speaker for the April 7 meeting. The club’s meetings are open to all. For more information, visit pcdemclub.org.