Grethe Cammermeyer of Langley bit off a mouthful when she became the South End representative on the Whidbey General Hospital board of directors.

But she’s chewing as fast as she can.

“I had no idea about the amount of work and the number of meetings when I first decided I would save the hospital,” she chuckled. “My delusions of grandeur. Just the acronyms alone — it’s no piece of cake.”

But she’s determined to promote better understanding of healthcare available on South Whidbey, and to get the word out on what the island medical community has and will have to offer.

“It has to do with presenting a face,” Cammermeyer said. “People are now calling me with concerns, and I try to direct them to the right place. My experience has been a godsend.”

Cammermeyer, with a long history of military and civilian medical training, is using her expertise to inform South End residents at a series of monthly community meetings about healthcare.

She has conduced two meeting so far, and a third is scheduled in Langley next week. She said she will schedule the meetings for another four or five months, then cut back to quarterly sessions “to continue to brainstorm.”

“We need to communicate better about what the hospital can and can’t do, and about the different clinics and providers,” she said. “There are a lot of aspects, but for many people they’re all lumped together.”

Cammermeyer, 66, who has lived on Whidbey Island since 1995, was the unanimous choice of a selection committee to represent District 1 on the five member hospital board.

She’s a registered nurse practitioner with a doctorate’s degree in nursing science and 31 years in military service, including a stint as chief nurse of the Washington State National Guard and a career in the Veterans Administration Medical Care System, specializing in primary care for sleep apnea and seizure patients.

She resumed nursing after retirement, and updated her credentials with clinical work at Whidbey General Hospital.

She owns and manages Saratoga View, an extended-family adult home in Langley, and is a board member of the Whidbey General Hospital Foundation.

Cammermeyer said that at her first public meeting, at the Maple Ridge Assisted Living Community in Freeland, many of the those in attendance came to the island as retirees and remained unfamiliar with services available on the South End. Some continue to go off-island for care.

“Many of them still thought that only a physician can provide adequate healthcare,” she said. “They hadn’t picked up on the current trend toward many, many different providers with differing backgrounds. I hope to help with that discussion.”

At her second community meeting, in Clinton, more than 50 people showed up, and perhaps a third of them were healthcare providers, she said.

“It was exciting,” Cammermeyer said. “The questions that came up were immediately addressed, some of the little nuances of information that people were concerned about.”

She said one of the most important issues is an understanding of the role of Whidbey General Hospital itself. Though the Coupeville facility is small, its very presence is a strength, she said.

“People don’t realize that if the hospital is unable to provide a specialty service, it can get the patient quickly to somewhere that does. If you need cardiac surgery, you’re just a helicopter ride away.”

Meanwhile, the hospital operates clinics in Langley, Clinton and Freeland, and has plans to centralize South End rural healthcare at Bayview.

The long-discussed Whidbey General South Healthcare Services Center is ready to begin construction on Highway 525, once financing can be obtained. The new building would replace the cramped and outdated Clinton facility and add laboratory and other services.

The $10 million project was set to go this year, then the economy tanked. Officials are looking into federal funding.

“If we get a grant, we’ll build it,” Cammermeyer said. “But it’s important to remember that it will still be a rural clinic. It’s not a mini hospital.”

Cammermeyer’s next community meeting to talk about healthcare will be

7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 19 in the Fireside Room at Langley United Methodist Church, Third and Anthes streets. For information, call 221-6141.

Cammermeyer said she’ll bring along an organizational chart of local healthcare facilities and providers.

“Healthcare service is fine on the South End,” Cammermeyer said. “A lot of people just don’t know where to go for it.”