Easy Does It Board Meeting Minutes

December 16th, 2003

ROLL CALL: Dina Valicenti, Hale Zukas (President), Winston Ching by phone, Jonah Markowitz (Secretary), Peter Trier, Karyn Hernandez, Louis Stiller, Charles Pappas

Staff: Rose Acampora, Gina Sasso, Ayama Keeton, Louie Lock, John Benson, Steven Van Maren,
Dana Brown, Maureen Shultz

Public: Karla Thompson, Susan Brown

Minutes

Dina: Motion to approve Oct. 23 minutes.
Jonah seconds.
Motion carries.

Dina: Motion to approve Nov. 17th minutes.
Jonah seconds.
Motion carries.

Dina: Motion to approve Nov. 24th minutes.
Jonah seconds.
Motion carries.

{November 6th Minutes pending Hale’s corrections…}

Public Comment

Jonah: EDI held an October dinner for outgoing board members.

Gina: We have received several calls regarding the letter that went out about Felix. Two clients expressed that they had been feeling discouraged and feel good about the changes, hope problems will be solved. Staff moral is high regarding the ‘open door’ policy – clients feel more comfortable ‘coming around’.

President’s Report

Hale: We now have a contract with the city, we received about 172k for quarterly income. Unfortunately there is nothing new to report on insurance, except that I did finally cancel auto and property policies that we had with NAIC. We should get a refund of the entire payment, but let’s wait and see before calling them. Doug Farmer and I have been discussing the wording of the policy on prohibited health related tasks, and Doug may have one more suggestion…

The question remains of whom to notify and how that will be accomplished.

(SEE POLICY DRAFT on “Prohibited Health-Related Tasks’)

Discussion of Policy

Rose: Attendant should call for the client and offer to have Rose or Gina explain the policy if there is a problem.

Peter: We should tell the clients via the board – so it isn’t a surprise and isn’t the attendants responsibility. Is there any objection to the Board sending out this policy?

Hale: That would be inconsistent with ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and it will be set in stone if sent out to all the clients.

John Benson: It will send a ripple of confusion, and clients may not express what they need. I feel that we as an organization should oppose the ‘Nurse Practice Act’.

Hale: The ‘Nurse Practice Act’ has not been changed in 25 years. What has changed is the position of the insurance providers. We had to change because they finally got around to thoroughly reading our contract. The city does seem open to relaxing several of its requirements, so in a few months this may all be resolved. Doug has drafted proposed contract language for most of the provisions, but not all, and when it is done I’ll submit this to the City, but it’ll be at least a month before we could get a response from Lloyd’s.

Charles: I think that an EDI Newsletter would be the best way to address this.

Louie: This is a very important issue to staff and clients.

Peter: We may have to wait awhile. It would be better if we could get our clients not to ask for care – to plan ahead – until the laws are changed.

Jonah: I feel we are obligated to inform them ahead of a problem.

John Benson: I feel EDI has some responsibility to be political regarding the NPA because this is a big part of attendant demand.

Hale: I am loathe to say anything to the clients; for one thing, if we put this policy out there, there will be a firestorm, while not saying anything will mean that attendants will be put on the spot at times. I don’t know that they’ll be any worse off if they have to defend the policy to everyone, or deal with a lot of pissed off clients.

Rose: The dispatcher will catch a lot of it too. What can we tell the dispatcher about requests?

Peter: The dispatcher cannot knowingly assign an attendant to a client to meet a request for Invasive Care. This has always been EDI policy; it hasn’t changed.

Hale: I absolutely do want #’s. One alternative is to send the letter only to those clients who have requested IC.

Charles: Theoretically, we should not have regular clients – as we provide emergency services.

Chris: Clients deserve to know in advance what to expect. We can send a letter to attendants regarding confidentiality, but this is risky legally.

Peter: This is the dilemma.

Discussion Tabled

Executive Search Committee

We placed an ad on Craigs List yesterday; the 20th is the deadline for applications.

Fundraising

Rose: Ken Crow Fund - we have a Low-Income Client fund – I don’t know if these are one account or separate. There is 952$ in the fund.

MEETING ADJOURNED 9:00 P.M.