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THURSDAY EDITION
Wallowa
Memorial
makes list
of top-20
critical access
hospitals
Vaccination matters
Oregon opens
more when 70%
of residents
vaccinated
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
By GARY A. WARNER
ENTERPRISE — Wallowa
Memorial Hospital has again been
ranked among the top critical
access hospitals in the nation.
And with that, it received the
distinction of the highest-ranked
one on the West Coast.
The Chartis Center for Rural
Health announced its top-20
list of CAH on Monday, May 3,
and WMH was in the top 20 for
the fourth time in the past fi ve
years, according to a press release
from the National Rural Health
Association.
“Obviously, it’s gratifying
to know that your eff orts are
achieving results,” WMH CEO
Larry Davy said in an interview
with the Chieftain on Friday.
“Our goal is always to aim for
perfection, which is impossible.
But if you aim for perfection, you
achieve excellence. It’s encour-
aging that all the hard work
everyone is doing does have a
very positive result for our com-
munity. It keeps you trying hard.”
The hospital learned in March
it was a top-100 hospital for the
eighth time in the past 11 years.
Only three other hospitals in
Oregon made the top-100 list,
Brooke Pace, WMH communi-
cations director said at the time,
and none of them was in the top
20. In fact, there were no other
West Coast states that had a hos-
pital in the top 20. Dillon, Mon-
tana, and Beaver, Utah, were the
next farthest west. Most of the
top 20 hospitals were located in
the Midwest, including fi ve in the
Dakotas, fi ve in Kansas, three in
Iowa and two in Nebraska.
A series of factors are looked
at by the Chartis Center when
determining the top hospitals.
“The determining factors for
the Top 20 CAHs were based
on the results of the Hospital
Strength Index and its eight
indices of performance: inpatient
market share, outpatient market
share, quality, outcomes, patient
perspective, cost, charge and
fi nancial effi ciency,” the NRHA
press release stated. “This elite
group of hospitals was selected
from the Chartis Center for
Rural Health’s 2021 top 100
CAH list, which was released
earlier this year.”
Davy said there consistently
are meetings within hospital
Oregon Capital Bureau
See, Hospital/Page 5A
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Eastern Oregon University is surveying its residents on whether or not the university should require COVID-19
vaccinations for students and staff . Larger state universities like Oregon State University and University of Oregon
have outright required vaccinations for the upcoming fall term.
EOU undecided on shots
Eastern rolls out survey to get feedback from students, employees
By PHIL WRIGHT
he said. “We were able to have in-person
classes starting in the fall.”
LA GRANDE — Eastern Oregon Uni-
With perhaps the exception of Southern
versity is taking a cautious approach to
Oregon University in Ashland, Eastern is
deciding if it will require students, teachers
relatively isolated and small.
and staff to get COVID-19 vaccines.
Tens of thousands of students each
Oregon State University in Cor-
attend Portland State University,
vallis and University of Oregon in
OSU and U of O in population cen-
Eugene have announced they will
ters where it is easier to encounter and
require students coming to their
spread a virus. Students at Eastern,
campus in the fall to have been vac-
for example, don’t take mass transit
cinated. And offi cials with Western
to get to campus. And Eastern has
Seydel
Oregon University on Monday, May
about 3,100 students and more than
10, announced students and employees will
400 employees. That’s far smaller than the
need to have the vaccinations if they study
state’s fl agship university in Eugene, which
or work in person at the university’s Mon-
boasts an enrollment closer to 23,000 and
mouth or Salem campuses for the fall term.
employs more than 1,000 people.
Tim Seydel, Eastern’s vice president for
But before deciding on requiring vac-
University Advancement, said the setting
cinations for COVID-19, Seydel said EOU
of Oregon’s Rural University means it does
wants feedback on the matter from students
not have to follow in the steps of the state’s
and staff . And the university is rolling out a
larger universities on the western side of
survey to all students and employees to give
Oregon.
See, EOU/Page 5A
“We’re in a diff erent environment,”
The Observer
SALEM — Gov. Kate Brown laid out
some basic math on Tuesday, May 11, for
Oregon’s way out of pandemic restrictions:
Get 70% of adult residents at least one shot
of vaccine and “normalcy” can start to
return as early as next month.
“Let’s get this done, let’s get our
economy open, and enjoy the summer,”
Brown said during an afternoon press call.
Oregon Health Authority Director Pat
Allen said the state needed to inoculate
about 430,000 more people to reach the goal
by June.
The announcement marked a major
policy shift in which vaccination rate will
now be the key measure of a county’s ability
to drop COVID-19 restrictions.
Individual counties could move out of
restrictions even earlier under the new
policy.
Counties could apply for the removal
of restrictions early next week if they can
show 65% of residents age 16 and older
have started the vaccination process. If
approved, restrictions could be curtailed
starting May 21.
Counties must also submit a “vac-
cine equity” plan on how to get vaccine
opportunities to people in underserved
communities.
OHA offi cials said some counties with
high vaccination rates and low infection
counts, such as Clatsop County, could move
out of the restrictions next week.
But the new emphasis on vaccina-
tion levels also means counties such as
Deschutes and Washington could move out
of most restrictions despite high infection
rates.
Deschutes County reported 542.6 cases
per 100,000 people this week, the second
highest of Oregon’s larger counties behind
only Klamath County.
Allen said high vaccination rates are
more important than high infection rates in
determining progress against COVID-19.
Even if infection rates are high, vaccination
See, Vaccines/Page 5A
Nursing students learn about telehealth
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Communi-
cating with health care providers
on the internet via telehealth is
almost as easy as picking up a
prescription at a local pharmacy.
Five students at the Oregon
Health & Science University
School of Nursing at Eastern
Oregon University and three
community members know this
fi rsthand after taking part in a
telehealth simulation program
recently in La Grande.
The students played the role
of nurses conducting telehealth
sessions. The future nurses,
using computers, talked with
people portraying patients with
COVID-19 who had been sent
home from hospitals with tele-
health kits. The “patients”
included Warren Moran of La
Grande, who quickly learned
how to send the nursing students
information about his blood pres-
sure, blood oxygen level, heart
rate, temperature and more,
before beginning his portrayal.
Moran said using his telehealth
kit was far from complicated.
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Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Jocelyn Brown (right) and Ausha Beckrich, students of the Oregon Health & Science
University School of Nursing at Eastern Oregon University, La Grande, demonstrate us-
age of a tablet computer for use in telemedicine on Monday, May 11, 2021.
“It is very user friendly,” the
La Grande resident said.
Nursing students talked with
Moran and the other two com-
munity members during vid-
eoconference calls. The simu-
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lated telehealth sessions gave
students the opportunity to
learn how to detect health con-
dition cues when communi-
cating with a patient over the
internet, such as by paying
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attention to speech patterns.
“We listened to see if patients
were fi nishing their sentences,”
said nursing student Ausha
Beckrich.
She said people who trail off
when talking likely are experi-
encing breathing problems.
Moran portrayed someone
with a blood oxygen level of
93%, which is borderline in
terms of whether they need to
receive oxygen at a hospital.
Moran, during the simulation,
made a point of completing his
sentences, which indicated to the
nursing students he likely did not
need to go to the hospital, Beck-
rich said.
The simulation also provided
students with opportunities to
see how telehealth can be an edu-
cational tool. During one simu-
lation, a woman portrayed a dia-
betic whose blood sugar spiked,
even though she had been con-
suming little more than tea. The
practicing students asked the
woman if she was putting any-
thing in her tea. She said honey.
See, Telehealth/Page 5A
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Issue 55
3 sections, 24 pages
La Grande, Oregon
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