Stories

Please click on the link to sign up for the Grayson County Rotary Club's Flag Lease Program.  

 

    Dr. Alex Roby is the medical director for Red River ER in Sherman.  He is also the owner and an attending physician, actively working shifts there.  Dr. Roby pointed out that doctors go into this profession because they have a true passion to help people, like law enforcement and teachers.
    Red River ER has been open for about seven months.  They have been very active with philanthropic endeavors in Grayson County as a primary means of engaging with the public.  
    So why are there so many of these free standing emergency rooms popping up all at once?  Well, the state of Texas classifies Grayson County as a medically underserved area.  On any given day, about 300 people visit an emergency room in Grayson County.  This leads to an incredible burden on the emergency departments, creating long wait times and frustration all the way around.  
    Do any of these statements sound familiar?  "The doctor saw me on a bed in the hallway."  "I had to wait four hours before I was seen."  "I never even saw the doctor."  "I saw the doctor for five minutes and three hours later someone handed me a stack of discharge papers."  "No one even told me why I was being admitted."
    If you are not in acute distress when you go to the ER, you might have to wait for an exorbitant amount of time.  Then once you are taken to a room you still may have to wait what seems like an eternity there.
    One thing you are probably not aware of is what is going on around you.  There could be several patients who have just arrive by ambulance from an auto accident, or a heart attack patient has just been rushed back, or perhaps an elderly person is being treated for a stroke.
    Dr. Roby pointed out that it's common for a critical patient to occupy 90% of the staff while you are completely unaware as to why you are having to wait.  When these cases have been resolved or stabilized the staff is then scrambling to chart key information or catch up with the continued influx of patients.  As a result, patients frequently feel that their time with the doctor is very brief, rushed or that the doctor is cold and callous.
    The free standing emergency department was established to provide a more pleasant ER experience.  Plus, the reason you see these free standing ER's popping up all over the place is because patients love them!  Patient volumes, and in general, the level of acuity is lower, allowing the staff to spend more time at the beside to include the patient in the plan of care, educating them and setting expectations.  Better yet, there's hardly ever a wait!  The staff is pleasant and attentive and the cost is often a fraction of that of a traditional ER.
    Everyone who walks through their doors is entitled to a free medical screening exam to determine if they are experiencing an emergent condition. 
They accept all major insurances and offer a cash pay option.  It includes a facility fee and itemized pricing for any test or treatment they would perform so that everything is transparent.  This has proven to be very attractive to employers whose employees may be uninsured or those hoping to avoid an increase in their workman’s comp insurance premiums.
   Most of the patients they see are the walking wounded; “is this broke?” or “is this infected?”, but they are fully functioning emergency room.  They carry all of the medicines you would need if you were having a heart attack, kidney stone, or strep throat.
   The average visit at Red River ER takes less than an hour, but they are able to treat patients for up to 24 hours.  They have their own in-house pharmacy, lab, Cat Scan, X-ray and Ultrasound available 24 hours a day.  They can also have a patient admitted to the hospital of their choice faster than if they went directly to that ER facility.  If you have a condition requiring surgery or hospitalization, they have direct transfer agreements with WNJ, TMC and Heritage Park.
    Check out their reviews on Facebook or Google.

Dr. Chuck Phelps, Kate Whitfield, Dr. Jeannine Hatt

Rotary International District 5810 Governor Bill Slicker's Official Club Visit.  He was introduced by Grayson Rotary Club President Stacy Braddock.

 

Scott Ochoa of Trust Computer Gurus talked about the threats we are all confronted with as we search the world wide web.  The biggest threat is a hacker.      We mostly hear about hackers in the media when there security breaches like that one Target had last year on black friday.  That one particular incident affected 70 million customers.  However, that wasn't the largest breach.     The largest hacking incident involved Adobe, the software company.  Practically everyone has some form of Adobe software on their company.  Most people have Adobe Acrobat Reader.  Adobe's attack between 2013 and 2014 had 152 million records stolen.     Ebay in the past year has had 145 million stolen.  JP Morgan-Chase had 76 million accounts hit.  Home Depot affected 56 million and America Online had 2.4 million accounts hacked.  Most of these involve customer credit cards.     Most people think a hacker just goes through a firewall to gain access.  They usually gain access through a laptop that is brought in from outside the network.  Someone will bring in a laptop that has been hacked and when they connect to the company network they are giving access to the hacker.      This is how Target was hacked.  Target was in the process of building a new store.  Everything is pretty much computerized so when a heating/air conditioning technician was programming their system he brought in a laptop that had been affected on the outside.  When he connected to their network for internet connectivity he gave access to the hacker group.     The virus went from the H/VAC technician's computer to the Point of Sale terminals of Target.  Every time they would swipe a credit card the virus would let the transaction take place and also copy the credit card information and send it back to the hacker group.     Some hackers do it for fun.  It's a game to them.  Some do it just to see if they can.  Some, however, are very serious about it and they do it for financial gain.  Some do it to steal government or corporate records and secrets.  Some do it just for the purpose of denial of service.  Denial of service can cause companies a lot of money.  It can range from hundreds to millions of dollars.     Here's some good news.  Because we live in Grayson County and because we don't have the best internet infrastructure and because oftentimes our internet service isn't as fast or as reliable as we would like it to be . . . well, that all actually plays into our favor.     When a hacker wants to steal records they want to get in and get out as quickly as possible.  Slow upload speeds are not friendly to hackers.  Some companies have full time staff monitoring their networks and they will cut connections quickly when they notice a security issue.  So, hackers for the most part target big businesses in big cities that are on a really fast internet connection.     Scott shared how our home and business networks are protected with a firewall.  A good firewall will transmit information out and match it with the information coming back in.  Every time you send out a request to access a web page, watch a video, download a song, etc., you want your firewall to match that request with the information coming back in.         If you happen to click on a link and the return information isn't matched or caught by your router, then you can be "spoofed."  This is when someone sends back the wrong thing and they can send back a virus or steal information.     It's also good to secure your network.  You only allow access to your internet connection with a passcode.  So always use a passcode.  There is a level called WPA2 which is about as high of a level as one can get without having to use additional encryption equipment.     Scott noted one policy he encourages his business clients to adopt is to not allow personal use of the internet.  This is where people get into trouble.      Most of the infections he gets called to resolve usually come from people accessing free gaming sites, free music sites, free software sites, and questionable content sites.      If you are doing stuff that is for your job such as ordering something for the business, doing banking transactions, etc., then you are okay.  If you are doing something this is "off-time" related then you are at risk.     Scott added that if you want to keep your network safe then avoid gaming and free music websites, don't install any internet or computer optimizers, don't install  browser tool bars, file viewers, etc.  They may not cause a security breach, but they will cause your computer to run slower.     Scott has a "Naughty" list on his website at www.TrustCG.com.  It is a list of programs, search engines, add-ons, enhancers, tools, etc. that are known to cause computer and network problems.      One final word of warning.  Even though you may have virus software on your computer, you aren't always protected.  There are times when a pop-up will ask to optimize or speed up your computer.  They will ask for you to allow this and when you do then you can become infected, so never allow something like this from a pop-up.  If you aren't sure it is best to not click on a link or open an email.  Better to be safe and secure than sorry and infected.  Happy surfing!

 

 

This week's story will not come anywhere close to adequately describing what happened last week.  If you missed last week, you REALLY missed a great program.  Yes, each week we have great speakers and we all learn something, but last week's was different.     Last week we were entertained by some fabulous pre-show music as Dr. David Tercero, president of the Music Department for Grayson County College, played his acoustical guitar.  But wait, it gets better.  Dr. Tercero then played a Bach’s “Sarabande from the violin sonata in B minor BWV 1002” which was originally written for the violin.     David's father had a Master's Degree in music, but he didn't see music as being the smartest career choice for himself.  He went on to take as many college courses in the Dallas Community College system as he could.  David also wanted to learn how to play the guitar.  He was required to take music theory, ear training and piano if he took guitar lessons.  Two years and 80 credits later he still wasn't sure what he wanted to major in.      David received a letter from SMU saying he met a profile for a full academic scholarship.  It didn't have anything to do with music, just academics.  So David accepts it and gets a full scholarship for five semesters.  There was a catch though.  He had to get into the guitar department.     Well, the only problem with that, if there was one, is that David wasn't a serious classical guitarist.  He was just playing for fun.  Anyway, he played all three classical pieces he knew.  One of the pieces he played was on an album that he owned.  Ironically, the man he was playing for was the one who recorded the album, Robert Guthrie.  David admitted he was quite intimidated, however, he got into the SMU Music Department.     David holds a B.M. from SMU, a M.M. and D.M.A. from The University of North Texas. He was awarded fourth prize at the Colubmus State University Solo Guitar Competition, first prize at the East Carolina University Solo Guitar Competition and was a top finalist in Siracusa, Italy, in an Italian International Guitar Competition.      Dr. Tercero has established himself as a respected performer and teacher in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and has performed for local organizations such as The Dallas Classic Guitar Society and The Fort Worth Guitar Guild.  He has played abroad at the Mendelssohn-Haus Musiksalon in Leipzig, Germany, in Mattinata, Italy and at the Seminari de Fine d'Estate. David was able to play in Europe as a result of musician collegues receiving a Rotary Scholarship to study abroad.     He has now found his way to Grayson County College and is very happy with what he does.  Students have expressed their gratitude as well.

Brandon & Crystal share their experiences from Camp RYLA.

 

Membership in Grayson Rotary provides professional and social interaction with a variety of Grayson County's most successful men and women, such as business owners, executives, political leaders, and professionals. Grayson Rotary is nonpolitical, and open to all cultures, races, and creeds.