Mike Hunsaker, COO of Star Valley Health, stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Wednesday, July 22 to invite the community to visit the Star Valley Health booth during the Lincoln County Fair.

(0:00) Into the next guest interview segment for today and Mike Huntsaker joining me live in studio, (0:05) Mike, the COO of Star Valley Health. Mike, you’re staying cool out there. How you been (0:09) holding up today? Hi, Duke.

Yeah, boy, it’s been beautiful weather, hasn’t it? (0:13) So much. So much. Lincoln County summers for sure.

Well, Mike, we’re talking Lincoln County (0:19) Fair today. Always love fair time in this part of the world. Before we do, I just want to (0:25) let our listeners know that even though we’re focusing today on fair, the EMS (0:29) discussion is still certainly on top of mind.

We do have an interview scheduled in the coming (0:34) weeks with CEO Dan Ordina. And we’ll talk more about EMS at that point. But I didn’t (0:39) want to just gloss over it and some meetings with the community still going on right now, correct? (0:45) Yes, Duke, thank you.

It’s good to talk about this, keep the public informed of where we’re at. (0:51) We actually are beginning to hold meetings with the various towns and county officials and (0:57) on the 30th of this month, we have what we call the EMS working group, which includes (1:03) representatives from all the towns in the county and Star Valley Health and our EMS service. We (1:09) plan to get together and make some headway on planning and talk more about the Rural Health (1:16) Transformation funds that may be available to help subsidize some of the shortfall in that (1:24) program.

And we’re very excited to get back together as a group and see if we can find (1:31) a solution that can be a sustainable solution for EMS services in Star Valley. (1:37) Perfect. So we’ll get back together after that meeting with Dan Ordina and kind of recap here (1:43) on the air.

So just wanted to let our listeners know that we’re not just going to gloss over that (1:46) so we can talk about the fair, although the fair is fantastic. So here we go with the Lincoln (1:51) County Fair. Star Valley Health has been a great supporter and sponsor of the fair.

You have your (1:55) booth there this year and it sounds like you’re doing a little more hands-on with the community (2:01) with your fair booth this year. Yes, this is a little bit different approach that we’re trying (2:06) this year with our fair booth. Honestly, we’re really fortunate and are really happy to be able (2:14) to sponsor the Lincoln County Fair and be one of the major sponsors.

It’s a great opportunity to (2:22) let the community know what Star Valley Health has to offer. This year our approach is every day of (2:28) the fair starting on the 3rd of August and that’ll go through the 8th. We’re going to have like from (2:35) 4 30 p.m. to 6 30 p.m. We’re going to have different specialties from Star Valley Health (2:45) come to our fair booth to greet the public and and get to know folks in the community.

(2:52) So on say on the 3rd we’ve got our oncology and infusion department is going to be there to talk (2:58) to folks. On the 4th we’ve got our ear nose and throat doctor is going to be there to talk to (3:04) folks. On the 5th we’ve got our cardiology team to to talk to people there at the fair.

On the 6th (3:12) our OBGYN and and our labor and delivery unit are going to be there. On the 7th we’ve got a (3:18) couple of orthopedic physicians and their support staff are going to be there to to meet people and (3:25) and talk about the services we offer for orthopedics. And then on the 8th we have our EMS (3:31) emergency services and ER departments will come and be able to greet the public.

And as you know (3:40) we have an ER both in Alpine and in Afton and we serve EMS up and down the valley and three (3:46) different stations one Alpine one in Thane and one in Afton and and we serve the community with (3:52) emergency services. So we’d like people to get to know us better and and we think this is a good (3:56) opportunity to do that at the fair. Absolutely so that’s going to happen at the Star Valley (4:01) Health booth at the fair August 3rd through the 8th.

4 30 to 6 30 is when you’ll have people there (4:08) on site with the exception of the 8th which will be from 2 to 7 with EMS and the ER correct? Yes (4:13) and and in addition to that we’ll be there at more hours just for general information at the (4:20) booth and we’ve got a wheel of fortune you can come spin the wheel of fortune and win some prizes. (4:26) We’ve got activities and items for kids coloring books and and crayons and things like that for (4:33) kids to to take advantage of and and have the opportunity to stop by and pick that stuff up. I (4:40) I think it’s we’ll have lots of information we can provide to the to the those who attend (4:46) the fair about Star Valley Health and the services we offer that you know the key to this for us Duke (4:51) is for people to know what we offer so they can stay closer to home if they’d like to to get their (4:58) care and so we want to make sure we provide as much information as we can.

Absolutely so again (5:04) it’s going to be oncology and infusion on Monday the 3rd, ENT on the 4th, cardiology the 5th, OBGYN (5:10) on the 6th, orthopedics on the 7th, and EMS on the 8th. You can find the full schedule in the (5:16) Star Valley Independent we’ll have it also posted online when we put this interview up as well so (5:21) and Mike this is as you mentioned obviously you’re not performing services here but it’s a (5:27) good chance for people to go by actually talk to the physicians themselves and the people within (5:32) these various departments and find out exactly what what is available right? Yes. Do you have (5:36) any questions? Absolutely yeah.

Anything we missed in regards to what you’ll be doing at the fair (5:41) this year? Well you know we Star Valley Health is the one of the premier sponsors of the fair and (5:46) and with that we we’re the major sponsor of the rodeo on Saturday night and we’ll be we’ll be (5:53) handing out some prizes during that Saturday night rodeo and we’ve got a some boxes of t-shirts (6:02) and and other items that we want to give away to the public and and we’ll we’ll make sure that we (6:08) hand everything out to the very last item. Perfect. Hopefully people can have a chance to (6:14) to to get an item from Star Valley Health and and one of the fun things that I’ve always (6:20) been involved in for the last many years Duke is the 4-H stock sale on Saturday morning the last (6:27) day of the fair and Star Valley Health has always tried to to to support our 4-H programs and (6:37) we go there and we we we try and although we don’t purchase animals we always try and do add-ons for (6:44) many of the kids that are there that are working so hard to get their animals ready for the 4-H (6:50) program so we enjoy doing that and and it’s a good way to give back to the community a little (6:54) bit especially to the young people in our community.

Love it. So we really enjoy that. (6:59) That’s Mike Hunsaker COO of Star Valley Health and their involvement in this year’s Lincoln (7:03) County Fair.

Be sure to stop by their booth especially August 3rd through the 8th at the (7:08) fairgrounds. Mike appreciate your time as always. Thank you Duke.

It’s all part of the weekday wake (7:12) up this morning on the SVI Radio Network.