October 20th the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce partnered with numerous healthcare organizations throughout the Grand Valley and Colorado to provide relevant and timely healthcare topics for the 2021 Healthcare Summit. Topics included details on healthcare benefits, changing employment law and pandemic mandates, focusing on employee mental health, and the future of healthcare in the Grand Valley.
Employers throughout the Valley, small and large, joined the summit to gain useful knowledge and stay informed regarding the most recent news to help their prospective businesses. The Summit began with the morning keynote provided by Dr. Thomas Tobin and Dr. Yumi Lee who spoke about the current climate within the healthcare industry, what the pandemic has brought to light, and how businesses are moving forward. There was an open “Question and Answer” portion of the session that provided attendees with the opportunity to ask their company-specific and general questions and receive answers from two of the Valley’s leading medical professionals. Many of the questions revolved around the present and future health and wellness updates for businesses, but more specifically Dr. Thomas Tobin spoke to attendees about COVID-19 vaccines, the effectiveness of the Mesa County 5-Star Variance Program over the past couple of years, and the truth and myths about the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Yumi Lee shared her insight on the future and how our community can begin to move from pandemic to endemic in the coming months.
The morning continued with three breakout sessions for attendees to choose from which included sessions covering healthcare benefits, legal updates for businesses pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact mental health has on us all, employees and employers alike. Below are details from each breakout session.
Through these three, action-packed sessions, attendees were able to learn about the impact that healthcare and overall health has on their business and how to implement new, overall health practices in order to build a strong and healthy workforce.
Concluding the 2021 Healthcare Summit, the lunch discussion panelists included Chris Thomas with Community Hospital, Bryan Johnson with St. Mary’s Medical Center, William Cummings with Family Health West, Sharron Raggio with Mind Springs Health and West Health Hospital, and Jeff Kuhr with Mesa County Public Health. Focused on the future, this panel helped shed light on how to continue working together as a community to bring continued health and wellness amongst tumultuous times. Many tough questions were posed to this panel of healthcare professionals including the impending mandates, patient safety at facilities, and how our community can continue to grow. Each panelist focused on what steps they are each taking, within their businesses, to help move our community forward and into the future of Grand Valley health.
If you were not able to join us at the 2021 Healthcare Summit, we look forward to seeing you at our next summit which is already planned for October 2022. The past two years have shown us that COVID-19 and other pandemics are not going away and need to be considered along with other healthcare challenges that exist. As businesses and healthcare entities we need to work together to find ways to meet this challenge and other challenges that face the health and wellbeing of our workplaces and our community.
