Mike Baker: Health care for all

COEUR d'ALENE - Good thing Mike Baker took to heart the lessons of his parents.

It's those very examples that drive him today as CEO of the Dirne Community Health Center in Coeur d'Alene.

"My parents are the most amazing people in the world," he said of Roger Baker an electrician, and Kristie Baker, a registered nurse.

"My dad taught us all the time, you've got to be taking care of other people. We didn't have a lot of money, but every year we always did something for people."

"My parents are the kind of people, no matter what you've got going on, they'll help you out," Baker said. "They really instilled that in me."

It's been a little more than a year since Mike Baker came on board as CEO of Dirne, where he oversees an annual budget of $5.5 million.

It took a lot to get him to move to Coeur d'Alene from Utah, where he was born, raised, started a family and began his career with community health centers.

The challenge of leading Dirne, which provides medical, dental and mental health services for the low-income, was one he happily accepted.

"We believe everybody should have access to health care," the 35-year-old father of three said. "That's our commitment to the community.

How are things going here?

It's been going great. It's nice to see a community work so hard together on a multitude of issues. We deal with health care, but we're involved in homeless issues, we're involved in the food banks. All around, we're trying to figure out, how do we make our community better, and I love that. We never have to look for volunteers. Any time we need help or support, it's there, and I love that about the community.

Are you seeing more need for your services at Dirne?

Yes, we have. In 2009, we saw 8,000 patients who came here 33,000 times. This last year we saw 10,000 patients and they came to us 44,000 times. So, a 25 percent increase there. But we saw our biggest jump in the homeless population. We saw 1,500 homeless individuals in 2009 and about 2,500 homeless individuals in 2010. It's a direct correlation to the economy and how things are going. More and more people, we're serving, they're sort of that lower middle-class group, they're losing benefits, they're losing jobs, the jobs they're getting don't have the benefits and there are more and more people looking for help today, so it's tough.

What do you see as your main role since you've come on board as CEO?

I think just to spend more time connecting with the community and strengthen our ability to see more patients. Our mission really is to take care of anybody who comes through the door, whether they have insurance or not.

How is Dirne doing financially?

It's a challenging economy right now. We're getting hit from all sides right now. The federal government is looking at cuts, the state's looking at cuts and everyone is having this discussion on whose responsibility health care is. We're sort of the end game. No matter what that decision is, we still have people getting sick, eventually people are going to die if they don't get some sort of health care. We're trying to be actively engaged in all those conversations. Our patients contribute to the cause, there's nothing free here. We receive a small federal grant, there's some county funds that come in, we have private donors who help support us. It's a really good mix. That's what we've been working on the last year. Any time we bring additional resources in, we can open the door for more and more patients.

What keeps you in this line of work?

I love the business challenge of running a business where the majority of your patients can't pay you. A lot of people look at nonprofits as not real businesses. Right now, 63 percent of the people who come through our doors can't pay us, so I love that business challenge. And I absolutely love helping the community serve the community. When we can put the pieces of the puzzle together we get so many amazing things done. That's what I really enjoy about it.

What's your biggest challenge?

Funding is our biggest challenge, and space. Our medical clinic is jam packed. We have got to find a new facility. We have patients who want to see us. We just don't have any capacity to see them, so we're looking at new facilities.

What can the community do?

They can help through volunteer work, they can help through donations. We just love to get in front of people and talk to them about what it is that we do. We've been around since 1989 as a volunteer clinic. There are a lot of people who don't know what we do, or they think that all we are is a medical clinic for the poor and we're so much more than that. We're a community health center. We want everybody to own this place.

How will you keep up with these challenges ahead?

Our board is committed to meeting the needs of the community. We're going to grow as big as we can, as fast as we can until everybody in our community has a place they can go for health care. That's not a political secret. That's just what we're doing.

Do you work closely with other nonprofits?

In the community health center concept, we can't do this alone. We have great relationships with KMC, with Fresh Start, with St. Vincent de Paul. We're not doing this alone and we can't do it alone. The patients that we serve are being seen at all these other places. It only makes sense we work together.

Do you get a chance to spend much time with the people who come in here?

I do. My office is in the waiting room. I love it when patients pop in and out. I love to sit down and talk with patients. That's one of my favorite things about this.

Are you seeing any common concerns for people out there?

Right now, a lot of people are delaying preventive health care. I think that's the biggest storm brewing on the horizon. We've got all these people who used to have insurance, and so when their annual physical comes up, they're not doing it. They don't have the resources. And if you don't catch it now, in three to five years, that's our next group of diabetics and people with chronic diseases.

Is there a solution?

We have a preventive program we're rolling out this year. People pay $25 for a basic health screening, we catch anything that's going on right now and we work with them so that they can have a healthy future. I think that's the most exciting thing we're doing. We need to do it.

Is there more pressure than you thought when you came here, with Dirne seeing so many more clients?

This is the toughest job I've ever had. It's extremely demanding. I feel personally responsible when a patient doesn't have a good experience. When we're full that day and a sick person has to go out the door, it drives me crazy. Our resources in this community are plentiful and if we could just organize them better, there's no reason anyone has to be sick and not get care.

If there was any one message you could share about the Dirne center with the community, what would it be?

This is their place. The is Kootenai County's medical facility. We're here. We want to be responsible to their needs, and we're trying to do health care differently. We want you to know we care about you and we want you to get feeling better.