Chapter 2

Steve received a phone call from Nancy who still was in Vegas. She said that she was going to continue her stay in Las Vegas as her parents needed help. She wasn’t planning on selling her restaurants which she could somewhat supervise by the video cameras that were installed there. Her brother’s contribution to the overall problem was that he was going to take more of an active part in managing her restaurants. She wasn’t yet committed to fully moving to Las Vegas but that was a strong possibility. She ended the call by saying she missed Steve.

Later that day at the clinic Steve received a phone call from Troy Kane a Senior Director of the John Wilkinsing foundation.

“To say you did it again would be an understatement. The tornado you released on the medical schools has been ruffling some feathers” said Troy.

“What do you mean?”

“One of the things Val found when she visited the med schools was that they were reluctant to have her review the applications they received. She told them that if they didn’t let her review all of the student applications, accepted and rejected, they were kissing good-bye their chance to receive any funds from the foundation in the future. They phoned me to confirm what she said and I backed her on her comments. They got my dander up a little because of their arrogant attitude and I told them Val’s request is not out of line. I said it is no longer a one way street with us always doing the giving and they always just doing the receiving. After some more talk they said she could review the applications and would let the students know about applying for grants.”

“Good for her and if I may say so, good for you.”

“I will say the med schools reaction to her has not all been negative. The University hospital near you where Karl Bridges is the administrator has accepted the program. Karl has said he will give us a room where we can install and connect the equipment needed to supervise the PA’s. In fact Karl said as a way of giving back they will supply the Doctors who will supervise the PA’s as well has handle the computer input and the billing. Karl is also championing the changes needed to the State’s law on the PA regulations. That push coming from such a prestige University hospital should go a long way in getting the changes approved.”

“It’s apparent that Karl is a business man who is appreciative of the funds we have given his hospital. Do you know we have given his hospital a total of forty three million dollars in the past five years?”

“You should also know that John Wilkinsing has gotten involved and assigned some of his people to develop a system similar to but better than Skype for communication between the Doctors and the PA’s. They have requested from the various medical associations the specialty, addresses of Doctors and clinics in this State as well as the Doctors’ ages. With this information they are going to overlay it on a map of the State which will show areas that are medically underserved as well has Doctors who maybe retiring shortly which could create underserved areas. They are working on things as electronically physician approval for the PA, scanning in the completed forms and inventory control and supply. There are working on other things too but I am not quite sure what they all are.”

“How did John get involved?”

“I didn’t tell you initially and I guess she didn’t either. Valerie Kingman was a member of the sorority John’s wife and Eva were members of. Val who is older than them met them later at sorority alumni meetings and they became friends. It was John’s wife who referred Val to me when Val was looking to come back to the workforce. I certainly wasn’t dumb enough to reject John’s wife’s referral and your idea seemed like a good fit for her. I don’t know if you know but Glen Waters’s wife Amy is also an alumnus of that sorority and was one year ahead of Val. Val is the Godmother to Amy’s son.”

“John told me that Val was talking enthusiastically to his wife Janet about the program and what its goals were. Janet told John about it and he saw the benefit in doing something like that and wanted to help. His wanting to help was probably to be expected since communications is going to be internet based and that is his area of expertise. I heard he is having video cameras as well as the notebook computers and scanners supplied to the PA’s that among other things will give the supervising Doctor a clear picture of the patient and the examination conducted.”

“Val never said anything to me about knowing all these people.”

“That is something you need to discuss with her but I do know that yesterday she was talking to our attorneys about drafting the agreement for the grants. I heard her tell them that she wants an ironclad agreement and one with severe penalties if the Grantee doesn’t comply with the required service after graduation or performs poorly. She told me today and for the next few days she is going to be interviewing PA applicants who have applied for the grants and some who have already graduated who are properly licensed and are looking for a position. I will say she is a dynamo and when she sets her mind to do something, it gets done.”

After ending the call Steve thought that was another positive side of Val that he never knew she had. To him that made her more intriguing to him than she was already if that was possible.

Steve received a phone call at the clinic later from Larry Mitter who said he was the Mayor of Portello which was a town similar in size to North Rivers and situated about forty five minutes west of North Rivers. Larry said he was talking to Jim Hardy who told him Steve was supplying a PA one day a week and he was hoping his town could have a similar arrangement.

Steve said he couldn’t do that at this time but explained what was being planned about supplying PA’s to towns as his. Steve did take the contact information and said he would pass it on to the person in-charge of the program.

He couldn’t help but wonder a little if he had created a monster in suggesting this program. In thinking more about it he thought it was something that was long overdue and was needed. He switched his thoughts to thinking of what he needed. He phoned Doris to see if she was available. She was available and he told her he would pick her up for dinner this Saturday. Knowing Doris he made a mental note to take some of those blue pills with him when he left to see her.

His date with Doris was what he had hoped it would be. The dinner was fine and especially was the activity with her after dinner at her condo. Her language continued to be ‘colorful’ when they made love. His probing of her rosebud caused her to describe in that language what he was doing and encouraged him to probe deeper. Hearing this classy lady saying those things was a definite turn-on. He was tempted to put something more than his finger in there which he thought by hearing what Doris said that she wouldn’t object to him doing that. He really wasn’t a fan of making love that way which caused him to take a pass on doing that.

On the Friday following, Val stopped by the clinic in the late afternoon. He thought she really looked good in the checkered pencil skirt, black satin blouse and her hair being worn up ponytail style. She said she had been at the University hospital and thought she would bring Steve up to date on the status of the program.

In Steve’s office she told him it has been a rather hectic time for her. Ten new students who would be entering medical school this fall had applied for grants. She interviewed all of them and was approving six of them. The other four applicants didn’t understand these grants were for students who wanted to be internists.

Four PA’s who were graduating in a month were interviewed and will be functioning under the supervision of the doctors supplied by the University hospital. The town of Portello will be receiving a PA who will also cover North Rivers. The room from where the Doctors will supervise the PA’s from is ready to use. Twelve students accepted into the thirty three month PA program at the University hospital here have applied for grants and will be interviewed next week.

She continued saying, “John’s people have completed the program which shows the areas in the State that are presently medically underserved. The north part of the State is the larger area that needs to be staffed. After I do the interviews next week I am going to be travelling to those areas to offer them the PA’s and inform them what they need to do and supply if they want a PA there. John’s people have solved the problem of how the PA’s will communicate back to home base when that area doesn’t have Wi-Fi. In some way they said they are going to “shoot a satellite” whatever that means.”