100% Humboldt
Humboldt County CA USA is the home of some of the most iconoclastic, genuine, and interesting folks in the world.
We are getting curious about the movers, shakers, and difference makers in Humboldt County CA-Home of the giant redwoods, 6 Rivers, and the vast Pacific Ocean.
We will discover what makes people live/evolve in the beautiful, diverse, isolated, and ever-changing Northcoast of California 100%!
Listen in and learn what it is to be 100% Humboldt
Learn More at https://100humboldt.com/
100% Humboldt
#92. Michael Keleman on Healthcare in Humboldt: How Providence is Serving a Rural Community
Forget everything you thought you knew about rural healthcare. In this eye-opening conversation, Michael Keleman, CEO of Providence Health Serving Humboldt, shatters the "medical desert" stereotype by revealing how metropolitan-level medical care exists in this coastal Northern California community.
Having worked for healthcare giants including Stanford, Kaiser Permanente, and Sutter Health, Keleman brings a unique perspective to Providence's operations in Humboldt County. With surprising candor, he shares how the community performs robotic thoracic surgeries, offers comprehensive oncology services, and provides advanced trauma care—all services you might expect only in major urban centers.
The conversation explores the rich history of St. Joseph Hospital, which began in 1912 when twelve Sisters arrived from France with a simple but revolutionary mission: "Go out into communities, find like-minded individuals who share in your values, find a problem and solve it." That outreach-focused foundation continues to shape Providence's approach today.
What truly distinguishes Humboldt's healthcare landscape, according to Keleman, is the unprecedented collaboration among providers. Unlike the competitive environments he experienced elsewhere, here competitors regularly come together to address community health challenges collectively. This "Humboldt way" extends to physician recruitment, with initiatives like "Home in Humboldt" bringing together the Coast Guard, Cal Poly, and local healthcare systems to attract medical talent.
Perhaps most revealing is Keleman's personal discovery of Humboldt's unique community bonds. Despite being relatively new to the area, he articulates a profound insight: "Humboldt's the first place I've ever lived where I understand the concept of community... I've never really understood the depth of a relationship until I moved here."
Ready to challenge your assumptions about what's possible in rural healthcare? Listen now and discover why this CEO believes the future of medicine might be found not in crowded urban centers, but in collaborative communities like Humboldt County.
About 100% Humboldt with Scott Hammond
Humboldt County CA USA is the home of some of the most iconoclastic, genuine, and interesting folks in the world.
We are getting curious about the movers, shakers, and difference makers in Humboldt County CA-Home of the giant redwoods, 6 Rivers, and the vast Pacific Ocean.
We will discover what makes people live/evolve in the beautiful, diverse, isolated, and ever-changing North Coast of California 100%!
Listen in and learn what it is to be 100% Humboldt!
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Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, it's Scott Hammond with 100% Humboldt Podcast with my new best friend, Michael Kellerman. Hi Michael, hey Scott, how are you? How's it going?
Speaker 2:Fantastic, beautiful day.
Speaker 1:Beautiful day. You know, it is not that beautiful, but it's warm and muggy.
Speaker 2:Actually, sir, from where I come from, it's beautiful. There's no wildfires. I'm not sweating, I'm doing quite that's right.
Speaker 1:yeah, I heard Medford's kind of smoky up in Oregon. Where'd you come from?
Speaker 2:It's a loaded question. First of all, who are you? Oh?
Speaker 1:What are you doing on this podcast?
Speaker 2:I don't know man, you just grabbed me out in the street Drive right in this way. So, as you said, I'm Michael Kellerman. I'm the chief executive for Providence Health Serving Humble, which is St Joseph and Redwood Memorial, nice. We also have a medical group, about 200 or so physicians and outpatient imaging center etc. My home's the Bay Area. I grew up in the Bay, that's where all my memories are.
Speaker 2:I've lived all around the Bay and it will always be my home Cool and it will always be my home Cool. But I have lived in Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Luis Obispo. I've really traversed the coast of California.
Speaker 1:Did you call it San Luis Obispo? Yeah, slow, it's slow. Yeah, I love the Bay Area. I got two new hips from Stanford 13 years ago. Oh, yeah. I discovered now I can see why people love the Bay Stanford 13 years ago. I discovered now I can see why people love the Bay. It was a warm summer days up on the Hill and then then one day I woke up with two new hips.
Speaker 2:I can't speak to the hips, but um actually part of what I like about. Humboldt is um, it kind of reminds me of the Bay. It doesn't have the population, but if you go back to when I was a kid and my parents used to take me to Muir Woods or Bodega, it was accessible. Now you can't get there. They're going to charge you a hundred bucks to park and here I feel like I can do things that I used to do in the Bay Area All day long. Yeah.
Speaker 1:My wife's a big hiker. So, she's taking me to all these places I'm going. Wow, there's a lot to enjoy here.
Speaker 2:There's a lot to enjoy here.
Speaker 1:There's a lot to do, agreed, yeah. What brought you here? What brought me here? Quick story we were stoner, roving free range, feral hippie children roaming the streets of National City, which is a sub suburb of San Diego, just south, and blue collar, very poor. And we wound up in a career center at Sweetwater High School, one of the three oldest schools in San Diego County, besides two others. And there was a very beautiful lady named Charmaine who was running the night shift and we looked at universities with her because we thought we were really interested. I think we were kind of interested in her. But we got to see this place on microfiche called Humboldt State University, and my friend Phillip and I go yeah, dude, we're going to become rangers and drive around and we'll smoke weed and it'll be cool.
Speaker 1:And little did we know that it takes a lot of. You know the fundamentals of calculus, chemistry, physics, and I made it, he didn't. I did get through with a degree in liberal arts. You know the fundamentals of calculus, chemistry, physics and um, I made it, he didn't. Uh, I did get through with a degree in liberal arts. All right, no science background. I don't know how I got through high school without algebra without algebra too. So I just kind of kind of negotiated there. But, yeah, that's what got me here and married Joni. And, uh, that's what got me here and married Joni and met Jesus, met Joni, got sober for 30 plus years and got a degree in recreation. That's cool. Recess, if you will. Yeah, that's cool. So we're having fun today. You've had a journey. Wow, I got a whole journey. Yeah, I want to talk about your journey. So you went to high school in the Bay.
Speaker 2:Area. Yeah, I went to a school called Bonavista High down in a town called Danville, sure East Bay.
Speaker 1:Bonavista, is that Catholic school?
Speaker 2:No, no, no, far from.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, we have a bunch of homeschoolers in our house we tried homeschooling.
Speaker 2:We still consider it, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Anytime I meet a homeschooler I go hey, weirdo.
Speaker 2:And they go. Yeah, that's me. Yeah, although I think it's becoming more normal, totally, I think more and more people are getting tired of um, not the curriculum so much, but just the the drama with this generation of kids. And I'll be honest, my wife and I, at least two to three times a month, we're like do we? Do we homeschool again? Do?
Speaker 1:we do it again. How many kids do you guys?
Speaker 2:have Two boys, nice. How old are they? 25 and 10.
Speaker 1:You have a 25-year-old son.
Speaker 2:I do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, gosh, I got you for like 35.
Speaker 2:Thank you, crazy. We should end this right there. That's a perfect moment, hey, michael's really young and I'm young on the inside.
Speaker 1:No, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, my he went to poly.
Speaker 1:He majored in poly science. It's an amazing campus. Oh, he's a great guy and he's a great professor. All the professors said, jesse, tell us how to homeschool, we want to homeschool. So professors were reverting to a homeschool model. Yeah, knowing that there was some benefit there. So he became a little expertized for a minute and a little bit of aleb, but anyway. So, uh, bay area.
Speaker 2:Where'd you, where'd?
Speaker 1:you go to college.
Speaker 2:I did UC Davis from undergrad and um.
Speaker 1:I went to USC for graduate down in LA.
Speaker 2:What'd you study at Davis? Uh, kinesiology. I was pretty adamant. I wanted to go into medicine. Wow, uh, my father was an administrator at UCSF and, uh, at that time it was early, two thousands. And so that's when, like this concept of corporate medicine, electronic healthcare, all this stuff was happening and so every physician I met was like please don't do it. It's the worst job and I'm like oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:And so you know, in my twenties I was like you know what I'm going to do. I'm going to learn business, I'm going to fix healthcare and so I so I did that, and here we are, nice Fixing healthcare.
Speaker 1:So we've gone from an analog society to digital and it's like, not without some pros and cons, interesting pros and cons, yeah, yeah. So, uh, what'd you study at USC?
Speaker 2:I got a master's in health administration. Sweet yeah, great school. I loved it it. I wouldn't recommend it for undergrad, um, but for graduate, I think for graduate. What I really loved about it is undergrad's fun. Undergrad is a college experience. I'm just gonna be frank and um those private universities. They don't have the same like you, go to davis and it's a college town. Right, it's fun, it's amazing, yeah, massive campus graduate, though I feel it's really about now. You've decided consciously what a pathway is.
Speaker 2:And what I like about USC is they build, there's a network, there's connections and you know, and even when you graduate you can do a thesis or a fellowship, and the fellowship gave me an opportunity to interview and I was able to be mentored by Chris Van Quarter, who's the CEO of Scripps Health. So for the first three years, right out of school, I'm working with one of the most renowned leaders in healthcare, and so I owe a lot to my alma mater in that regard.
Speaker 1:Where are they based? Are they LA San Diego? San Diego? They're San Diego, yeah.
Speaker 2:La Jolla. They have a campus in La Jolla, they have Green and La Jolla which is their main hospital. When you're from San Diego, you call it La Jolla, la Jolla.
Speaker 1:It's kind of funny. It'd be there Slow and La Jolla no. Davis is a great campus. A lot of fun there. I loved it there. Yeah, really, jesse had a great experience there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd like to live there still, if I could.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and SC's are great, great gosh, you know, are you still a trojan fan?
Speaker 2:yeah, they brainwash you pretty good. Uh, I laughed a little bit because the first semester you go in and I still remember calling my dad and being like, oh my god, they're trying to brainwash me oh yeah, there's this trojan thing and then, like you know, by the second semester I'm throwing v's and success they've done.
Speaker 1:I have trojan jammies we did your trojan colors today I have the yellow.
Speaker 2:I have us USC Trojan baby gear for my kids when they're babies. So yeah, it works. They're very effective.
Speaker 1:Good school. So the guy that actually did my hips, Dr Bellino at Stanford, studied under your guy at SC, Dr Cho. He perfected the anterior approach where they cut the front. I did not know that was there. They used to cut you all the way around the hip, which is crazy healing time, and he perfected this and this guy was his mentor. So that's amazing.
Speaker 1:He was the mentee and the mentor and, yeah, good job. He did two hips in one day, bilateral hip surgery. Hey, this is about you, though Not me. So what'd you do out of college?
Speaker 2:Oh man. So I got a fellowship San Diego's with Scripps Health for about two, almost three years.
Speaker 1:Was that in La Jolla?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It was.
Speaker 2:That's across the highway, though it's kind of east of the five Well there's five hospitals down there Right and then a massive medical group, and what's nice about the fellowship is it gives you exposure to not just the hospitals which serve varying communities, but medical groups just things that I didn't really even understand in graduate school. And I met my wife down there, nice, and I surfed a lot.
Speaker 1:Did you ever go to Blacks Beach?
Speaker 2:Yes, I went to Blacks.
Speaker 1:Beach. Have you ever surfed? No, I didn't go nude, took my question.
Speaker 1:Dang it. So for those of you that don't know, michael clearly knows Blacks Beach is probably one of the most beautiful beaches in SoCal, there's no doubt because it's isolated, it's low cliffs and Coronado is pretty great. Though, too, coronado is beautiful. Blacks is iconic in the sense that it's got killer waves and there's not as many people because you have to hike to get there. And one of my favorite memories is one morning waking up on a surfboard with no clothes on, and it was a couple weeks ago. Joni and I were on vacation. I just had to go for it, and I was. I was probably 17, and it was 75 or 80 degrees outside and the water was 70. Yeah, which is like you know, you're surfing in hot tub water. Yeah, not quite, but, and it was just like one of those, and the spray there was an offshore and the waves are like little nice five, six footers.
Speaker 2:SoCal surfing is amazing. It's such a beautiful place. It's very predictable. Yeah, I will say. Though, learning to surf up here it's very humbling. Oh yeah, and I feel very confident to surf anywhere I want. At this point, this is you go to. Alaska from here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so you surf here. So, on, the, on, the, on, the. What's it called? What's it called? Not the bay, it's the mouth the jetty, the jetty.
Speaker 2:No, no, sir. I have children, I'm a responsible adult.
Speaker 1:How about inside the jetty, the north side, north jetty? I went to.
Speaker 2:Samoa. One of the physicians, dr Brandon Byerly. He's a general surgeon. He took me out and I didn't go back. I then discovered Trinidad and Moonstone.
Speaker 1:Trinidad and.
Speaker 2:Moonstone Camel Camel. I've just discovered and I love it. Camel's cool, it's amazing yeah.
Speaker 1:Camel's our date spot. So during COVID, joni and I would take the van, because we're five minutes away, and go to Camel. We got about five different places that we park. Yeah, and we in fact we missed it. We went for like we missed it for two months went Sunday Bottle, bottle of wine, open that thing, look at the sunset and don't tell any of your friends, because it's just a magic. Yeah, you know, here I am like peeling clothes off because it, because it gets so hot from the water, you're trying to get naked on that surfboard again I did not, I didn't, honey, I wasn't.
Speaker 1:I took my shirt off. That doesn't count. So, yeah, what a, what a great place. You know, back to the coolness of Humboldt and going why, you know why would I leave God's country?
Speaker 2:Moonstone has become one of my favorite places right now. Um, for a few reasons. I can surf there, my 10 year old can learn to surf there, and then what's amazing about it is when you get out of the water. It's such a large beach and there's such a diverse um of the water. It's such a large beach and there's such a diverse um sense of what people are doing right. There's gentlemen rock climbing. There's people like playing ukes in a little circle hanging out and singing. Well, the river.
Speaker 1:It was just. I had that moment where you're looking around going wow this is great. Oh yeah, yeah, I'm going to show on the map here in a minute where Moonstone is for those of you that don't know. It's right over here on my map. See it right north of Arcata, south of Trinidad.
Speaker 2:Oh, we narrowed it. I thought in Humboldt we don't give away those secrets.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nailed it. Secret spot, Moonstone Beach. You won't never find it. I have a friend that works up in Brookings and he sells advertising. Justin's a great guy, really killer surfer. You might have met him. He's bald. He looks like Kelly Slater. Anyway, hi, Justin, Does he make boards in the area? I don't know that. He's a dancer, he teaches dancing. Anyway, he's got secret spots and he shoots them and you can't really tell where it is, but shoots him and you can't really tell where it is, but he's got.
Speaker 2:He's like southern oregon is dialed in, he, but it has to break right, of course, because it's surfing. Well, I've heard crescent city. Um, I'm just not willing to drive two hours to surf. To be honest, I used to do that in the bay.
Speaker 1:I'm over it yeah, not when you could go to moonstone in 10, 15, 20 minutes, yeah. So what'd you do after you got out of SC? Are you scripts?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I did scripts and then I hopped. I wanted to learn as much as I could and so I took everything I learned from scripts. I took what I liked and that I thought I could apply naturally to my own style, and I left the rest behind. And since then I've worked for I worked for Stanford, I've worked for John Muir Health, I've worked for John Muir Health, I've worked for Tenet Health and I've worked for Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health Wow, so I just tried to expose myself to everything I possibly could.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of systems, yeah.
Speaker 2:Probably all of them have good and bad to glean from. I have this philosophy and I actually convey this with our caregivers here. My goal is to grow everyone to the point that basically, they can go anywhere they want, and if they leave me, that's okay, because it's a small world in healthcare. But, to your point, everyone has a different style and so yeah, so you take what is great and every single health system and organization has something great about it.
Speaker 2:And then there's things where you're like gosh, we do this this way and I think where you finally land is the place that you get more comfortable with. Okay, this sucks, but I can tolerate this because these things are so good, right so?
Speaker 1:I was gonna. I was gonna laughingly say sounds like marriage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, love you honey yeah, I saw a meme today about marriage, I think she would say that about us. Well, the meme goes marriage is solving problems together, but they're problems that you wouldn't exist if you were single Good one. I love my wife.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too. We both married up right. Yes, yes, we did. We're doing amazing. We have an amazing wife. Hey, if you're just joining us, my new best friend, michael Kellerman, ceo of. Is it Providence St Joseph, or is it just Providence period? Just Providence Health, providence Health, but not in Medford, because that's Providence too right.
Speaker 2:Yes, Very robust in Oregon.
Speaker 1:Hey, let me show you how. Okay, right there, see that? Oh. So on my three-day sabbatical up in Jacksonville, I disobeyed the mountain bike advice and said, hey, don't go the left trail, went on the left trail and this is a very sexy accident. I just fell and I'm laying there and I go. I think I'm okay. Yeah, and I get up and I get the bike and my backpack and I look at my arm and it's just covered in blood. So what I did is I split the fold in the finger.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And so I went to Provident Urgent Care Mm-hmm, what's Stewart Creek, stewart Canal Anyway and he got me four stitches within an hour. Boom, back on that bike.
Speaker 2:No, within an hour boom back on that bike.
Speaker 1:It worked out, see.
Speaker 2:Took that left again.
Speaker 1:My daughter picked me up and bought me coffee and an In-N-Out burger and she goes are you okay? Yeah, I'll be okay.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. Okay, I'm glad you're well. I'm glad it worked out for you, yeah.
Speaker 1:I got my stitches out today. Now I've been very happy with Dr Hayne, dan Hayne shout yeah. Shout out Fortuna Redwood Memorial.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's also single and looking for a partner. Great guy man. I just want to get the word out.
Speaker 1:About that one I'm not even looking, but he's a cool guy, he is a good guy, he's a solid dude. I asked him I go, are you married? He goes no, not yet, because I'm super busy here.
Speaker 2:He bought his house in Ferndale and he's at that stage in his life where he wants to have a family. He's a friend deal guy. I feel weird speaking for him right now. He's going to listen to this and be like what is this guy doing, sharing all my secrets?
Speaker 1:Why is he talking about me, my boss? What's he doing? Never talking to him again. So how about this? Let's talk about kind of a time arc of St Joseph the sisters, maybe, when I just I mean, you could probably bring that in within 30 seconds, but that time arc getting us forward opportunities, strengths, weaknesses, and maybe get us to current. Then we'll talk about the future a little bit, so kind of the origin story of how we got here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure. So, mind you, I've only been with Providence Health since. It's been maybe a year and eight months, wow, okay, so I'm new, but I'll tell you what I know. Welcome to Humboldt. Hey, thank you. So, yeah, so, essentially, sisters, st Joseph, um, there's 12 sisters, led by mother Bernard. Um, they came from a town called the Puy, um, it's a place in France where, if you want to talk about faith, their A lot of faith, but what's amazing about their story is so.
Speaker 2:Father Madai was one of the priests and he said hey, go out into communities, find like-minded individuals who share in your values. Find a problem and solve it.
Speaker 2:Wow. And so that was really kind of different, because it used to be come into the walls of a church and this was a no, we're going out, we're going out into the communities we serve. And so they landed in Eureka, I think it was 1912. Um, steamer from San Francisco or wherever, yeah, they're supposed to go to Sacramento, so it was kind of an incidental landing. But, um, they were in open schools, education, the pandemic hit, they partnered with the Mayo clinic, taught themselves everything. And what I like to share with caregivers is, however hard you think your day is, at one point in time there were 12 sisters who ran a 24-bed hospital and they ran everything. So it's pretty amazing that you think about they've been here, for when we say we've been here for 100 years or more to serve this community, we've literally been here for 100 years in this community how long. This is where it started.
Speaker 1:So was there no hospital in Eureka prior to them?
Speaker 2:No, I understand there was a hospital, but I believe they closed. What's also really special is the Sisters of St Joseph. So St Joseph Health and Providence kind of came together in 2016. The first hospital for the Sisters of St Joseph was here in Eureka. This is literally where it started. This is ground zero for those guys. It's really cool and there's something. It's very deep in the DNA of this organization, even within Providence. When I go up to Renton, you'll meet the sisters and when you say you're from Eureka, it's you got. You got cred. Oh yeah, it's just woven into the DNA of the organization. Where are you from?
Speaker 1:I'm from Eureka and Humboldt Right, whoa, they know it. Yeah, usually we're known for other things, but good job. We were at the Hollywood Bowl once and I had a Humboldt shirt on. A guy goes you're from Humboldt, I go. You ever heard of Humboldt? He goes oh, yeah, I go. Hey, can we sit in the box seats up there, because it looks like they're empty? He dude, you want to box it up? He's looking for a tip, I think. But yeah, no, so. So when you go up there, they know, they know, eureka.
Speaker 2:Same down in Los Angeles and you go to the Sisters of Orange, which is they relocated after about 10 or 11 years of being here In Irvine. Right, yeah, and they went there because the population was bigger, but it's still in the DNA.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the corporate building was right next to where we trained at State Farm 100 years ago as agents. Oh wow, I'm going. Sisters of Orange, what Small world right. It was really weird. I'm going this is super small.
Speaker 2:We're intertwined in your life too. Look at that.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I know More than you know. Yeah, yeah, we've had babies and surgeries and ER visits.
Speaker 2:It's kind of cool right, All men are fun, yeah, Well with nine kids.
Speaker 1:I'm going to show up at your hospital at some point.
Speaker 2:I think it's amazing, though, when you think about take out the hospital and just look at how healthcare, how it's, you have to almost separate the organization and think about like that there is something that is beyond the tangible building right, like those experiences you have.
Speaker 1:It's cool. Yeah, I would say that's more true for us with Med River Hospital. With that you know all due respect, doug Shaw and his crew at the birth center, and we've had two or three babies there, and Connie Bash did a C-section. Well, dr Putler did a C-section on my wife and and a V back later. And so all this, yeah, all that narrative, that's not just transactional, it's family Mad River is amazing.
Speaker 2:They're cool. I don't know if there is, and I honestly don't know the answer to this, and I'm curious. They are a freestanding, wholly owned hospital. Like Doug Shaw owns and runs this hospital. It's pretty rare, right, yeah, and it's awesome. Yeah, yeah, nice guy.
Speaker 1:Oh, he's great. Yeah, you hear that Doug Doug's promised to come on. He swore Promise me. Oh no, he'll be on the show, he's a good guy. I think Doug's got a lot. He's a good man. I've known Doug a long, long time. So the origin story, and so the sisters got things going yeah, and then grew this thing yeah, and it got acquired, carry on, it was an acquisition.
Speaker 2:My understanding is like our values, for example, right, it's dignity, justice, they, um, apparently St Joseph and Providence were very, very similar and the two ministries came together and realized how similar they were. So I don't want to say it was an acquisition, because, you'll notice, actually we like I refer to it as Providence health Cause that's what I've been accustomed to as the main employer, but I still see St Joseph and even on the corporate level. Um so Eric Wexler he's the new president for Providence right now, but he has a board above him called the sponsors and it's a 50-50 split of Providence sisters and St Joseph sisters and they're the ones who kind of make sure that we're still staying balanced and following the mission and our legacy and our heritage.
Speaker 1:I remember doing a speaking training for some friends in that. Where's that stayover place across the parking lot where you guys have?
Speaker 2:Oh, the Evergreen Lodge, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was over there and we were doing a training and I was doing the training and sister came in. Yeah, gosh, I don't know her name, she's maybe still not there, I don't know but there was like this reverence for her sister because she was super cool, she'd been there for 200 years and probably not that helped she looked great, they're not.
Speaker 2:They're not internal.
Speaker 1:Yes, they are but she looked fabulous and she was really sweetheart, humble and um, and I just remember the vibe. I don't even know what she said, but it was something sweet, something Jesus, and I loved it, loved her and you tell that you know, part of this outreach of whatever I was doing was helping Hispanic nursing moms and young families.
Speaker 2:Apaso, Apaso.
Speaker 1:Could have been underprivileged in some way and they were absolutely all over that and it was cool. So take us into broken health care. And um, it was cool, so, uh, so take us into broken healthcare. Well this is done, I gotta go so for the origin story to kind of maybe where we're at and, um, you know, we've been called a medical desert, uh, for a couple, couple of reasons. How would you, how would you characterize all that? And then then I want to certainly talk about vision in the future and what you're doing.
Speaker 2:There's so much to unravel, scott. Okay, let me start with not a medical desert and, I think, for someone I just shared with you all the organizations I've been in and where I've lived Sure.
Speaker 2:Healthcare is probably in one of the most challenging times it has been since probably the 60s, when Medicare was kind of going out. And I say that in terms of dynamic change. Some people will tell you that we're actually in a healthcare revolution, which I really like that phrase because it is shifting. And what's really unique about Humboldt is, I think we have these claims of how we're in this desert, as you refer to it, but in reality I can't tell you the number of times I call on friends and colleagues in San Francisco, back in San Diego, san Luis Obispo, and they're struggling. They are struggling to maintain coverage and access. And what's unique about us is, I'll say, the benefit and kind of opportunity. So we actually offer amazing care. We have full, comprehensive oncology, we have radiation oncology I know Dr Liu was on here at one point.
Speaker 1:Dr Liu's the bomb.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what a great guy. We have neurosurgery, trauma, NICU. We do things here that, if you think about rural healthcare this we live in a rural community but we have metropolitan healthcare here. Okay, Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:The challenge, though, is so, for example, we have a physician and his name's Dr True. Dr True is a vascular surgeon who also can do robotic lobectomy thoracic surgery. Find me one rural community that does robotic thoracic surgery. It's not even that prevalent, yet in metro areas, we do that here. Here's the catch. There's one guy prevalent, yet in metro areas, we do that here. Here's the catch. There's one guy Right Better than none.
Speaker 2:So, and that's where the focus is is trying to get a sense of what is the core need within these communities. How do we Providence rise to that occasion with the resources we have Right, rise to that occasion with the resources we have? The other benefit I think we have in Humboldt that I have never seen anywhere else I've ever lived is the collaboration and you mentioned Mad River, for example, not only with Mad River, sutter Coast, partnership, health Plan, uihs, open Door we all talk. We actually come together and we talk because it's humble and people do that. We collaborate on. Here's the problems in front of us. How do we work together to solve these? That's very cool.
Speaker 1:I've never seen that anywhere else is there? Is that a panel? Is that an organization? Is that just informal?
Speaker 2:there's a few, some of it's informal, um, the more formal process that actually the chamber is now helping us lead is we were starting a program called home and humble, and home and humbled is an initiative to help with physician recruitment, and it's all large employers. So Cal Poly is at the table, coast Guard's at the table, um, college of Redwoods is at the table and we're collaborating to go. How do we help bring in providers? Because I don't care what your business is. You could say, oh, I can't find talent for my school or my education system. Okay, great. Part of that reason is because if they come here and they can't get with a doctor, or they don't feel confident in the healthcare provided to them, they're not coming here. It's not an option, correct, yeah. So I've been really, I guess, thankful, blessed I'm not sure the right word is a little humbled by the fact that to see these people come to the table and we're working together.
Speaker 1:And there's destination humbled, yeah, destination humbled, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's and that's more of a community philanthropic campaign that helps us do loan forgiveness, invest in equipment. So, for example, that robot I was talking about, that's a DaVinci surgical XI system. Right, it's a state-of-the-art surgical robot. We have it here. Wow, philanthropy. Yeah, you're down with Dr Hing. We're expanding Redwood's family practice so we can house another three primary care physicians before the end of this winter, as well as a family therapist. Wow, that's philanthropy. Three more yeah, we'll have three more primary care and a family therapist down there before the end of the year.
Speaker 1:That's pretty good, that's really good, yeah, um, yeah, no, joni, and I would not have primary care if it wasn't for that. Yeah, yeah. And destination humboldt um, yeah, big, big doings man. Good thing bringing more. There's some more docs coming then obviously, there's probably people in the queue at any time.
Speaker 2:We've brought on about 21 or 22 doctors through Destination Humble. Last year we brought on 44 physicians. This year, to date, we've brought on 25. That's great.
Speaker 1:Yep, and still, we still need more, because there's probably oh yeah, maybe the medical desert has to do with medical gaps. There's probably stuff that we're not great at it has to do with subspecialization Right. So for example so there's layers to this argument. Oh, it's complex, man. Complexity of the problem and the opportunity.
Speaker 2:Well, think of it like this. So I'll give you an example okay, gastroenterology, okay, you used to have. I'll also give you two examples. Gastroenterology there's this new generation of physicians who are gastroenterologists and they want to work in the ambulatory, they want to do outpatient, they want to work on the medical side of it. They don't want to take call at a hospital, right, but there are emergencies that happen. So now I have to hire two different people to do what one person used to do, right, ah, the other thing with sub-specialization is, um, vascular isn't a good example. You get an old school general surgeon and they did it all. They did vascular surgery or general surgery, they did everything. Now there's like, well, oh no, I'm a vascular surgeon, that's a general surgeon. So now you're bifurcating specialties and there's a lot of benefit to that, right, because these people are becoming experts in their fields. But it's requiring more resources to do the same work that used to be done by less people, by one or two individuals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's hard. Do you know, dr Adams? Before he left, he was a military guy.
Speaker 2:Oh, cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr Adams, correct, yeah, yeah, yeah, correct. Don't know him personally, but I know the name. What a great guy yeah.
Speaker 1:Legend he just got honored actually he's about to be honored. I think he's getting the yeah, is it the Purple Heart? It's something big. It's huge. Yeah, he's an interesting guy. He was one of our humble heroes. You asked how I wound up here with Nick. We recognize vets once a month and he was an and um just fascinating guy in terms of the stories in Afghanistan and and in Eureka Stan.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And just you know, some of the stuff that he's dealt with and um, just some insight into medicine. Speaking of cardiovascular, yeah, Um, well, cool. Uh, let's do the quiz. Show you ready, I think. So that's okay, michael, you'll be fine If you're just joining us. It's Michael Kellerman about ready to win a candy bar if he plays his cards, right?
Speaker 2:Oh man, you know I'm still new to the community, right, Are you really? Yeah, how new. Wow come on Last January. Only that's pretty new. It's not even two years Wow come on Last January.
Speaker 1:Only that's pretty new. It's not even two years. If you're in Ferndale, that'd be pretty new. I'm in Fortuna. It's the friendly city it is. It's the better one Just want to hang out and get to know people. Have you ever had a Dick Taylor chocolate? I have yeah, are they good?
Speaker 2:I have no idea. I don't like the dark chocolate.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're not a dark. Okay, perfect, it's milk chocolate.
Speaker 2:I like the milk. Here's the deal.
Speaker 1:Good coffee, too Great coffee. So somebody liken it to this. If this was a $10 candy bar, yeah, I'm sorry, it's not candy Chocolate bar. Premium chocolate bar Don't offend them like that. Yeah, it's only cacao and sugar. Dude, it's not got. Oh, talk about it this much.
Speaker 2:So if this was a bottle of scotch, it'd be 500 bucks. Okay, because it's top of the line chocolate. I agree.
Speaker 1:So I need some top of the line engagement here on this quiz. Oh man, are you ready?
Speaker 2:I think so All right Now question number one I get test anxiety. I need some beta blockers.
Speaker 1:Can only lose a candy bar. Question number one Are you ready? I think so. You have the entire day to do whatever the heck Michael wants to. No expense spared, 9 am to 9 pm. Day after tomorrow, friday, what are you going to do in Humboldt?
Speaker 2:I'm going to surf all day, man, really. Yeah, that sounds amazing. Where I'd go, up to Moonstone, I'd bring my family, my wife would probably let our dog run around, she'd go boogie boarding, my 10 year old would be out there picking up on small waves and, uh, that'd be amazing Just all day on the beach. Now you're just making me kind of hate the fact that I can't do that.
Speaker 1:That's that's an unstepped question Like wait a minute.
Speaker 2:Unintended consequence. I played the Powerball last weekend. It did not go well, it did not go good.
Speaker 1:So an all-day beach trip Okay, I mean, with this weather it's kind of balmy it would be beautiful. It wouldn't bother me at all. I love it. Yeah, Don't you guys get cold in the water. No, I don't of the waves at Moonstone. It's beautiful when it's break and ride. It looks like it's really a fun bunch of waves.
Speaker 2:Last couple weekends have been so great and there's a lot of breaks too.
Speaker 1:It's all the way down to well, from I'm thinking a camel all the way down, it looks like there's several and hundreds of people. Hey, question number two All right?
Speaker 2:What's your best days? Like actual day that's happened. Best day in my life. Um, you know this is gonna sound weird. I'm gonna say um the birth of my son. But um, here's the thing, my second, my second boy. At the time of birth I did not bond with my son right away. It's okay and everyone's like. You got to love him.
Speaker 1:I'm like I don't know who he is. Dude, I got nine kids, trust me, it's not abnormal, all right, but the love.
Speaker 2:I have for him now. Sure, I'm so thankful and I reflect on that day at least once a week. I reflect on the day my son was born and At least once a week I reflect on the day my son was born and I still remember putting my finger in the palm of his hand and he just grabbed it with a little baby kung fu grip and it was awesome.
Speaker 1:Where's?
Speaker 2:that at John.
Speaker 1:Muir, john Muir, that's Bay Area, right? Yeah, yeah, know it. Okay, good answer. Yeah, I don't think it's instant bonding all the time it's bonding of another kind.
Speaker 2:It's bonding of another kind, it's a labor of love.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I start to bond after they talk. I think, yeah, it takes me a minute.
Speaker 2:It took me time. I thank you for saying that, yes.
Speaker 1:It's a dude or a dad, I don't know, or just maybe we're just closed off, maybe we're just cold souls.
Speaker 2:I love you now. I love you so much now so much Son daughters.
Speaker 1:Okay, good answer.
Speaker 2:Number three Worst day of your life, or one of them. Oh man, worst day of my life, jeez, a worst day. You know how about? I answer it more as a generalality. Um, my hardest days are when there's something going on, personally, um, because when things are going on at work, and I mean every day, there's, there's stuff, man, it's, it's a hard job, yeah, but it feels manageable.
Speaker 2:And for some reason, when it's personal like if something's going on with my wife, if something's going on with one of my boys it's so hard because you not only want to be there, you want to solve it. You want to solve it right now because you don't want them getting hurt.
Speaker 2:Sure, but you can't Because you're not. Yeah, you just can't for so many reasons. One, you can't constantly be there to save them. They need to grow and they need to have their crucible. But to you, physically, emotionally, whatever you honestly just probably can't right. That's so hard and I've gone through that sometimes. My older boy he had a move back in with grandpa recently and, um, it was hard watching him go through, you know, growth yeah, maturing, you know, created mission.
Speaker 1:I think it's totally a truth that the school of consequences which we can't, we'll go through.
Speaker 2:It's hard to watch, though, right Like you know, it's good for your children and you just hope they lean on you when they need to, but it's so hard, it hurts so good man, yeah yeah, my son came home crushed last night after a really hard day with this assassination and and of his guy.
Speaker 1:He loved this guy and and a breakup with a girlfriend and the job and he's cutting now. He can bench 465, so he's a bodybuilder and he's he's kind of a badass, but last night he said I screamed in my car all the way to McKinleyville.
Speaker 1:I cried in my car and maybe one day Michael will see this and he'll know that it was a tender moment for Joan and I and he came to the bar not the bar, the bar at home, yeah, yeah, at 11 at night and Joan and I just sat with him, just hurt with him, and it was really cool. It was really a tender, good moment. That had to happen, yeah, and he goes, and he made several admissions about his own process in life that were really broken hearted, good admissions of truth. And, like you know, I don't have answers and maybe I do need counseling. And maybe you know I don't have answers and maybe I do need counseling. And maybe you know, life sucks and there's division out there and, dad, there are people that really suck out there and they're terrible individuals and I'm going, wow, I wish I could argue with you. I'm not, you know, and so it was just that supportive sort of moment and, wow, can I answer a question?
Speaker 1:Question number four Sure, good answer by the way, what do you find crushing and soul sapping and just what takes it from you when you are kind of akin to the worst day, but not necessarily.
Speaker 2:I'm going to try to say this the right way. So this will be related to work. So there's about 2,000 caregivers that work between the two hospitals. It doesn't even include the medical group. What Med staff's? Probably close to 400 to 500 physicians. Okay, these are members of this community. These are people who see thousands and thousands of people every single year.
Speaker 1:Y'all are a big employer, right? Yeah, perhaps perhaps number one. Maybe the university is like maybe cal poly or us somewhere.
Speaker 2:We're large, for sure, sure, but what's hard about it is, 9.9 times out of 10, we do amazing things. Amazing things that's something I always tell the team. You do amazing things. There are moments where we fail. There are moments where someone slips through a crack and we don't know how that happened, right, sure, and we get bashed. Oh, and I don't care personally. Um, to be completely frank, um, I get kind of protective, though, and the soul sucking part is when people try to bash and try to make their statements like they, like, they know, and I sit there and I go. These are your neighbors, these are people that live in this community, that go to school with your kids. You're going to see them at Safeway or the co-op and they and they care about you and, at the end of the day, they care about you, right, but you're in this moment, but that moment hurts these caregivers.
Speaker 2:It hurts these physicians On a personal level. It does because they're trying. That's the soul sucking stuff, and it kind of goes back to the children thing, right, which is I want to help and I want to fix it. I can't, and so you just try to remind your team that you do amazing things. Don't let anyone else fool you. Differently Turns out.
Speaker 1:We're all pretty human.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's a key too you mentioned with your son. I appreciate it. My wife and I have done a lot of counseling and I, to this day, I think it's like the hero of my life and everyone should do it. I think it'll make you a better leader. Sure, and it's funny. As humans um, not just roles, but as human beings we all tend to think that it's uh, like we're alone, right, and like no one understands this, or, oh man, I don't want to do this. That's embarrassing, even though, like, the guy right next to you is having the exact same thought, right, or worse, and it's like, how do we break those shells? To go, look, yeah, sometimes you got to toughen up, sometimes you got to work through things, but you should never think you're alone in it. Good word, all right, so preach it.
Speaker 1:Man, that's good. That's good. Um, and we're so american independent, and sometimes we're dudes on top of it, which is our bane. Um, sometimes, as a gender, we just go solo. I'm lone ranger. Yeah, want to see all my arrows. I got some spears in there too, bro, it's like no, I don't, I in fact you're.
Speaker 1:That's sad that you would take all those alone and not and not reach out and go. Hey, I hurt like hell. Yes, can someone help me? And now I just I'll just die with my cancer or my stroke or aneurysm or my bitterness or my bottle. And it's like so for you all, you guys out there, you young and old fellas, it's funny I could say that now I have like a gray beard and I could say things. My son says it's sunscreen, yeah, Nice, yeah, you see a little, he doesn't accept my imminent death.
Speaker 2:I was like no, no, dad, it's sunscreen.
Speaker 1:I'm like no dad's dying Evidence of death. Yeah, yeah, no, it's Slow and steady, it's true. Just believe your dad, it's coming for you. Okay, last one, all right. What's fulfilling for you? What fills up your cup, your soul, two things.
Speaker 2:I'll give you a personal and professional Professional, myself and the rest of the executive team. This is the first time I've ever done anything like this. Once a month we volunteer our time in the community. So we've worked with Betty Chin, we've worked at the food bank, we've gone to our resource centers Nice, those are the best days, oh that's cool, betty's cool.
Speaker 2:I mean, when you go out there and you, it's not the refilling of the cup because you're like I did good today, it's you meet people that you probably would have never have talked to, right, and it goes back to that human thing and you, just you engage and get to know someone that is on a completely different side of life than you and you bond.
Speaker 2:It's like such a good feeling. Wow, the personal is I go back to my kid Ben that seeing your kids thrive, seeing them laugh, smile. I know, I know it's hormones. I know the physicians are like. That's called oxytocin.
Speaker 1:I get it, that's okay.
Speaker 2:I love when that stuff pumps into my system, though it doesn't matter the science behind it.
Speaker 1:It feels real good. It's some good drugs. Grandkids for Joni and I now it's like such a rush.
Speaker 2:I actually, you know, I joke with my wife. I romanticize the idea of growing old with her and becoming grandparents.
Speaker 1:I know there's going to be ailments, but I look forward to that period because you don't have to do the parenting.
Speaker 2:going to be ailments, but I look forward to that period because you don't have to do the parenting.
Speaker 1:No, you just go out and we go nuts. We go to Idaho and go nuts. Just what do you want? Yes, you have up to a dollar to spend at the thrift store. It's just fun. Yeah, whatever you know what, I'm going to go to five guys and we're going to get two bags of fries.
Speaker 2:There's like there's like you can tell mom about it later.
Speaker 1:What do you want? Oh, you want a burrito. You're going to get sick, I don't care, let's get you a burrito, won't be?
Speaker 2:in my house. I look forward to that.
Speaker 1:Yes, there's some of that there's some of that going down. Don't tell my kids, I'll get in big trouble. Well, hey, listen, well done. I got a quinoa crunch milk chocolate from Dick Taylor.
Speaker 2:Sir, thank you. Is this local quinoa?
Speaker 1:This is a locally sourced quinoa Sure. It's organic.
Speaker 2:It's gluten-free.
Speaker 1:Does quinoa have gluten? I don't know. Maybe Nick will find that out, maybe that's not necessary.
Speaker 2:This place is awesome, though, again, I'm going to talk you mentioned earlier about Health.
Speaker 1:Desert and stuff.
Speaker 2:For people who are new to eureka and new to humble, nothing like that place, no. But in general, this place offers so much. So we have an anesthesiologist today. She just signed. She's from new york, studied in columbia, right this is like top-notch stuff, sweet and she's been here as a locum, which is like a traveling doctor, and she goes. I'm signing with you guys when I go. Why she goes? Because I'm just discovering every day how much more there is to do here. There's cool stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we got to get the word out. Yeah, larapin, moonstone Trinidad, but I mean like, even like.
Speaker 2:Six Rivers. Going rafting. You can do outlaw cart racing. You got the Redwood Acres where you're seeing stock cars Like it's it's drag racing in Samoa Right, you can go off-roading, surfing, watch the drag race. You can go to the Bay Club right there.
Speaker 1:Like there's so much to do, there's no trails to hike on, they're just gone. There's like trillions of miles of trails, that's amazing Mountain biking. I want to go back to mountain biking because, you know, get back on the horse right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm going to get that e-bike and do that thing. My wife's looking at one of those e-bikes. Yeah, they're cool man. The e-bike's the thing, man. It's so much fun. So take us into the future. So you're this collaborative community leader and you want to try to bring community into medicine.
Speaker 2:I like that you called me a collaborative community leader. I'm glad that's on record, thank you.
Speaker 1:Hey, Steph. So tell me what you see. What do you want to see?
Speaker 2:Locally or just in general?
Speaker 1:Who are you? What do you want For Providence?
Speaker 2:destination. So, like I told you, we do amazing things right. We have comprehensive oncology services, we have a lung cancer program, we have cardiovascular, we have neuro. What we're trying to get dialed in on is I want to clearly understand what the communities are that we serve, and it's not just Humboldt County. We actually get people trying to send us care all the way from Oregon.
Speaker 2:Last year I had to say no to I think it was 76 transfers because I couldn't find a bed in our hospitals because so many people needed our care, and so what I envision us is humbled. First is how do we build the network where we have the ambulatory access points? We're coordinating our care with the acute side, where you, as a patient, you start in your primary care office, they say you need to see a cardiologist before you leave. We should start getting you scheduled, because the moment you leave, the moment I give you time, the moment I say here's a phone number, that's the guy who falls through the crack, right. So that's that first step is how do we build that network where the acute setting and the ambulatory setting are working together?
Speaker 2:The next piece and this is what's hard, I think, for this community is we need to get comfortable with. We don't do everything here. We need to start acting as a network and that's where like so for Providence in Northern California, socal we're even larger, but in NorCal we have six hospitals and every hospital we need to kind of identify what is our identity, what's our place, and that's where I envision us as humble. We know what our core services are. We know what is required to take care of our communities, but you're going to get these onesie, twosie opportunities right. You're going to get that one person who's got some weird situation.
Speaker 1:It's got to go to Napa.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like it's going to Napa, Santa Rosa, wherever makes sense, depending on those identities, right, but it's going okay. Hey, we see a handful of this stuff, but not enough of it to do it safely and to do it the way that is appropriate, Right. So we're going to send you down to a place that we're consolidating that service to make sure that we see enough of it.
Speaker 1:So think like a network and a referral agency?
Speaker 2:Yes, because it's the right thing, and we have to make sure those transitions are seamless. What are the other four hospitals? So Napa? We have Queen of the Valley in Napa, Santa Rosa Memorial in Santa Rosa, and then we have Healdsburg and Petaluma.
Speaker 1:Oh cool, those are all great hospitals, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're great and they all. We all kind of have our own identities, a little bit of redundancy, and I think we're working on that. Sure, huh, so opportunities are there.
Speaker 1:So four to you said, four to six years out.
Speaker 2:I think three to five. Um, honestly, I think I think like right now, the first step is cementing what we do now Well, and being very clear on what's core to us as a you know we we call our hospitals ministries, and so being core to what the ministry is, and so that's cardiovascular right, that's women's health, that's oncology, that's our trauma program, those are core services to us. Birth services we need to be the best at them, yeah, and right now I think we're really really darn good, but we could be a lot better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, well said.
Speaker 2:I wonder about? I mean oncology, I mean Dr Liu man he's yeah, it's amazing what we do there.
Speaker 1:Huh, he's telling me some stuff about his deal. Betty Chin on the other end, on the outside, and you know, I know that you guys, your ER attended how many people. It was like a record day last January.
Speaker 2:We dipped 150 people. I think we see about 40,000-ish people every year in our ER alone. Those are crazy numbers, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I went in in April and it was like amazing. Yeah, we've implemented some cool stuff. Yeah, I got seen by a lot of people. Yeah, so collaborative community, we're going to have some good things coming. We do now.
Speaker 2:Okay, you know it's interesting.
Speaker 1:I think the paradigm is this. So I got a call today on an insurance claim. Hey, can you take the claim, can you fix me? And I'm going. No, it's a whole new model, it's all handled out of Phoenix, dallas and Atlanta Interesting. Yeah, it's one phone call. You don't tell the agent day I go. No, I know it's old fashioned, you know I think the same way, but it changed about 10 years ago. Yeah, and I think people are just not, it's a headspace of of old school Humboldt, if you will, with all due respect to you old school Humboldt people.
Speaker 2:Um, there's pros and cons though I'm not going to lie to you.
Speaker 1:Oh, there's, yeah, absolutely, and and good you know, good, solid salt of the earth, but there's a headspace of like, well, this is how we have always done it, and can't we do a double bypass tonight at St Joe's?
Speaker 2:It's like no no, and I'll tell you that too. That's a. That's a big one, right? The open heart program, and it's so statistically. They say you should be doing at least a hundred of these cases a year. A hundred, wow. We're doing about 24 a year. Yeah, and it's going to get smaller and smaller as time goes on, because we're going to get better and better interventional cardiology. Right, that makes sense, but I will say it is pros and cons. So, for example, I'm looking at launching a hospital at home model. I don't know if it's going to be possible, but we're looking at it. They do it in a lot of hospitals in the East Coast and it's cool. So imagine you have pneumonia, you have COPD, there's certain diagnoses that other health systems, like John Hopkins, have determined. Hey, we can actually give you inpatient level care at your house. Cool, sounds like such a novel idea, but in reality I believe there was a time when the doctor would go to your house.
Speaker 1:Remember that, ethel, it's wild right. It's like we're bringing it back. It's a long time ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think there's pros and cons. The systemness though the newer part. I know it's a little hard because at first, when you launch things, it's never seamless. But the day that someone can walk into that primary care office and the day that someone goes hey, you need to go see a specialist and I'm going to get you scheduled before you walk out this door, that will be the day that people will go this is nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would also argue as a community as we continue to try to attract younger families. They are coming from what we're talking about. They are coming from these Metro areas that already do medicine that way. Right, right, it's virtual, it's all on a screen. They direct schedule, they don't call anybody, facetime stuff, yeah. So when they come to communities like this, they're kind of expecting that, and if they don't see that and new physicians are the same way, they're kind of going.
Speaker 1:Eh, yeah, so we have to be first. We have to adopt and adapt.
Speaker 2:I would agree, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that takes time, but I like that. So the funny thing it's I always find it mystical that Humboldt's not three times as big as we are Right. I mean, I have people come in they go. This is amazing. And there's the Germans hiking up in Redwood forest. There's people and oh, that's such a cool. You live there, I come to vacation there, I go huh, you live here.
Speaker 1:I think quietly, there are a lot of folks that have sold in the Bay Area and LA and come up here. I agree they're here already. Yeah, it was a mystery to me why it couldn't blossom, but there's a lot of reasons why and why not Housing I think it will, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but there's a lot of reasons why and why not Housing. I think it will, though. Yeah. I think there's a lot of chatter right now and I feel like the chamber and others are starting to really work on how we can. It's an awareness right there. There's murder mountain on Netflix, Right. How do you change the perception so people see what we see as we live here?
Speaker 1:Yeah, how do we get enough housing for the folks that are here? Yeah, that's going to be the beast. Well, hey, thanks man, thank you, don't go yet. I have another question for you.
Speaker 2:Oh good, what are we going to? This is the really hard one. Do I get another quinoa bar?
Speaker 1:Let me see. Oh wait, I have an emery board Courtesy of Scott Hammond State Farm. I love it Located in downtown. Always wanted one of those. You're playing for an Emory board what you got. My question is what would you like us to say at your celebration of life?
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, this is dark now, right? No, not really.
Speaker 1:It's glorious. It's your end of life. People are coming up and talking about you. It's your gravestone.
Speaker 2:It are coming up and talking about you. It's your gravestone, it's the speeches, it's, uh, your legacy, michael. What would you, what would you hope for? Um, I got two, two thoughts rattling around in my head here. Um, one is I hope I made a difference. That is what gets me up in the morning. I'm not gonna lie to you. Um, I don't mean that to be cliche. Sure, you can ask my family and anyone. It's really important to me that, if you are alive in this world, you are making a difference. I will admit, as I got older, I used to think that difference would be a little bigger. Sure, I was a little naive, but I hope that people go. He did something good, he made something better. Sure, I was a little naive, but, um, I hope that. I hope that people go. He did, he did something good, he made something better.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:Um, I had another thought too. Oh, the other thought was, um, humboldt's the first place I've ever lived in where I understand the concept of community, and, um, the discomfort, almost, that comes with it, to be honest, but, um, well, I hope that there are actually people there and for anyone who's grown up in the Bay area, you can understand what I'm saying which is, um, I've never really understood the depth of a relationship until I moved here. Wow, and I feel like this is one of the first places that I've ever lived that like if there was an Armageddon we would probably be all right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Geographically and otherwise, but I mean like people would rally.
Speaker 2:I think they and they'd help each other. Where I grew up they'd be like you better get off my property Right. Run for the hills, man. Yeah, I don't know who you are. Buddy, I'm like I'm your neighbor. Yeah, no, you're not.
Speaker 1:Not anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so much for being a good neighbor. I would hope people would show up and I would hope that they would think that I made a difference.
Speaker 1:I love it, good answers, and I love your answer of here. You are under two years old and humble and you already tasted that and quantified and verbalized and expressed that it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:It's a magical placement. I've recently I don't know if this is a positive or people are going to go. That's offensive but I've recently said that you know the tentacles on like ivy. You ever see how ivy grows like along a brick wall or a fence.
Speaker 1:You know it's slow, right, it's got back from Europe.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of ivy, okay, oh, sure, a fence. Sure, you know it's slow, right, it's got back from Europe. There's a lot of ivy, okay, and it's got its little tentacle arms and they kind of hook, sure, and you know, you just let it go until one day it's taking it all over right. Yeah, that's humble Humble, that's this weird way of when you, but it does it real slow, real quiet.
Speaker 1:That's cool. I like that Good metaphor.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, and you hit on something else. That's key and I love this and we're going to wrap up here. There's a price to pay with that discomfort and scratchiness, stickiness, and you know some of y'all are just a pain in the ass. I'm sorry, it's just true.
Speaker 2:I don't agree. That was Scott who said that, yeah.
Speaker 1:I said it for Nick. Um, no, it's, it's true. There's, there's, um, there's a price to pay for family and that's understanding that discomfort of you. Know it's 80%, cool 20%, I could just live without it. But that's relationship, that's connection, that's family, that's people.
Speaker 2:Assume positive intent and it's okay. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Until it's not, let me tell you about some people. I really have George Costanza's dad, frank Costanza. What was it, festivus?
Speaker 2:Oh man, I just rewatched all of Seinfeld like a month ago. So yes, I know Festivus well now.
Speaker 1:Great episode. I'm going to tell you something about you people, for you Seinfeld fans.
Speaker 2:Some people are going.
Speaker 1:I don't even what the office I watched, maybe the Office I'm going to do this at a board meeting.
Speaker 2:This is a great yeah. I'm going to do Festivus at the board holiday That'd be, great Feats of strength. I'm going to tell some people Join Lou, get up here, we're going to wrestle Goldberg get up here. Joins a very stacked individual. I wouldn't want to wrestle a join, I'm pretty sure he's yoked?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's. I wouldn't want to mess with him. Hey, uh, if you're out there and you like what we're doing, um, uh, send us a lot of cash. We're, we're really big on that. No, I'm kidding. If you like us, love us, comment on us. Uh, we're on YouTube and all the uh, all the platforms, and um, I think we got second place in North coast journal podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, my good buddy, um, uh, this is it this week at Humboldt. Last week at Humboldt, and you know, I'm on the spot. Humboldt last week, yeah, humboldt last week, Miles yeah, I had Miles on the show, okay.
Speaker 2:Miles is a terrific guy?
Speaker 1:I don't think I know, miles. Congratulations, miles, you did it again. He's a winner. He's a winner. Love you, miles, mean it. So, yeah, thanks for joining us, if we could ever. If you have ideas for us, write me. I'm easy to find Scott Hammond. Just Google me or, in this case, chat GPT. Yeah, yeah, you can find out all the stuff about us.
Speaker 2:Except for me Except for you, I'm.
