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Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, December 7, 2005
Sheriff wins authority lawsuit
against county commissioners
A lawsuit brought by
Sheriff Dave Daniel against
the Josephine County Board
of Commissioners related to
“interference” with his au-
thority has been decided in
his favor.
Besides having to repeal
an order in which they de-
clined to fund the pay differ-
ence involving promotion of
a sergeant to lieutenant, the
county board is to pay legal
fees. They are estimated at
$10,000.
The ruling in Daniel’s
LORNA BYRNE MIDDLE SCHOOL Students of the
Month for November received certificates of honor.
They are (from left) sixth-grader Thea Barker-Cortrecht
and (not shown) Ben Milner, seventh-graders Kieran
Rose and Nicolas Dowd, and eighth-graders Sierra
Pappas and Alex Dominguez. The students were se-
lected for recognition based on attendance, attitude,
and grades.
(Photo by ‘Illinois Valley News’)
SCHC’s Joe Patton recognized as ‘PA of Year’
Joe Patton, a physician
assistant at Siskiyou Com-
munity Health Center, was
recognized Tuesday, Nov.
22 for a “sustained career of
contributions to the quality
of medical care delivery and
to the physician assistants of
the state of Oregon.”
The honor was be-
stowed by the Oregon Soci-
ety of Physician Assistants.
Ben Johnson, society
president-elect, presented
Patton a plaque commemo-
rating the honor. Patton was
given the “PA of the Year”
award during the OSPA
annual awards ceremony in
Newport in October.
Patton began his career
in medicine by volunteering
at the former Takilma Peo-
ple’s Clinic in 1973, helping
with receptions, bookkeep-
ing and payroll.
He set up a unique bar-
ter system for people in the
clinic -- allowing patients to
pay for their medical care by
donating “in-kind” services
with whatever skills they
had -- before completing
training and licensure as an
emergency medical techni-
cian and X-ray technician.
Following his 1985
graduation from Medex NW
at the University of Washing-
ton, Patton earned licensure
as a family medicine physi-
cian’s assistant. He returned
to the rural Takilma Clinic,
which became Siskiyou
Community Health Center
(SCHC), a federally qualified
health center, in 1993.
For five years, Patton
also worked part time at the
Grants Pass Health Dept.
Since ‘95, when SCHC ex-
panded to Grants Pass, Pat-
ton has cared for patients in
Cave Junction and Grants
Pass.
He has been “an exem-
plary primary medical pro-
vider his entire career, pro-
viding care for medically
underserved populations. He
has contributed his time to
teach future clinicians by
precepting PA students from
Medex and other schools.
“He has maintained
membership in the state pro-
fessional organization and
has faithfully attended con-
tinuing medical education
conferences to update and
expand his knowledge.
“For more than 30
years, he has dedicated him-
self to improving the health
and lives of his commu-
nity,” said the society.
RVMC among ‘Top 100 Cardiovascular Hospitals’
Rogue Valley Medical
Center (RVMC) in Medford
again has received national
recognition as one of the
“100 Top Cardiovascular
Hospitals” for 2005.
“RVMC has received
this prestigious designation
five times, and is the only
hospital in the entire West --
including Washington, Ore-
gon, California, Idaho, and
Nevada -- to achieve this
level of excellence,” said
RVMC.
The national honor is
based on statistical data
gathered for the annual
“Solucient 100 Top Hospi-
tals: Cardiovascular Bench-
marks for Success” study,
which appears in the Oct. 31
issue of “Modern Health-
care” magazine.
The study analyzes hun-
dreds of hospitals around the
nation and identifies facili-
ties, such as RVMC, that
have significantly lower
mortality and complication
rates than their peer hospi-
tals. The success of these
benchmark hospitals is
largely due to the dedication
of their highly skilled physi-
cians and nursing staff and
continuing investments in
cardiovascular technology,
RVMC said.
Hospitals do not apply
for the honor;. It is based
solely on an independent
analysis of outcome data.
RVMC said that it of-
fers the most comprehensive
cardiac-care program in the
region, serving patients from
nine counties across South-
western Oregon and North-
ern California.
RVMC’s new Cardiac
Center on the third floor of
the patient tower opened in
August. The Cardiac Center
is the largest unit in the hos-
pital, featuring a top-of-the-
line, newly commissioned
cardiac monitoring system,
telemetry, continuous oxy-
gen saturation monitors, and
six new mobile units to con-
tinuously monitor patients’
vital signs.
Also this year, RVMC
celebrated a major milestone
with the 50,000th cardiac
catheterization, a minimally
invasive procedure to diag-
nose and treat many cardiac
conditions without open-
heart surgery. Last year,
local physicians and RVMC
nursing staff performed
3,000 cardiac catheteriza-
tions and 800 coronary stent
procedures.
Cardiovascular disease
is the number-one killer in
the United States. Accord-
ing to the key findings in
Solucient’s research, if all
hospitals in the study per-
formed at the same level as
the top 100 facilities:
*10,000 more cardiac
patients would survive
each year.
*1,100 more cardiac
patients would be complica-
tion-free.
*Post-operative infec-
tion rates would drop as
much as 23 percent.
*Average cardiac-
related costs would drop
nearly 15 percent.
favor came from Judge G.
Phillip Arnold, of Jackson
County Circuit Court. The
suit was filed in July, and
the case was moved to Jack-
son County to avoid possi-
ble conflicts of interest.
“I feel vindicated and
am happy this is over,” said
Daniel. “The citizens elected
me to the position of sheriff,
and I am honored to hold
this position.
“I will continue to do
the job to the best of my
ability,” he said.
Carpets need cleaning?
Holiday guests coming?
We’ll help get your carpet clean
for the holidays.
Illinois Valley Owned & Operated
Phone Don Shaw
592-3095 or 660-9074
Holiday & senior discounts available.
Linda Sallman
128 S. Redwood Hwy.
Cave Junction OR 97523
541-592-4541
Across from Select Market on Redwood Hwy.
Open Mondays - Fridays, 9 to 5
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‘Bird flu’ outbreak unlikely for North America, says ODA
Despite the widespread
attention to its threat to hu-
man and bird populations,
there have been no cases of
the highly pathogenic strains
of avian influenza in North
America, let alone Oregon.
This winter flu season,
public and animal health
officials agree that there is
little potential at this time for
the state to be affected by
the same kind of avian flu
that has infected dozens of
people in Asia, added the
Oregon Dept. of Agriculture
(ODA).
With a comprehensive
surveillance plan in place --
along with a detailed re-
sponse plan should even a
low pathogenic avian flu
show up in the state’s bird
population -- there is no
need for Oregonians to be
overly worried.
“There is a level of con-
cern but, at the same time,
avian influenza is definitely
not an unknown,” said
Bruce Mueller, ODA field
veterinarian. “This disease
has been around for many
years and has been dealt
with effectively by states
and the poultry industry.”
Each year, there is a flu
season for birds, just as
there is for humans. The
same aspect holds true for
both -- there are some forms
of the flu that are worse than
others.
High path avian influ-
enza is more lethal to birds
than low path and represents
a more serious concern.
However, even a high path
strain doesn’t necessarily
translate into a public health
threat.
The first thing Orego-
nians need to remember is
that the high path H5N1
avian influenza virus re-
ported in Asia and eastern
Europe is not present in the
United States. There have
only been three high path
avian influenza outbreaks
ever in this country.
The most recent case
was last year when an H5N2
high path outbreak in chick-
ens was confirmed in the
South. The disease was
quickly eradicated and lim-
ited to one flock. There were
no reported cases of human
illness at that time.
Siskiyou Community Health Center says Thank You
to the Physician Members of
Mid Rogue Independent Physicians Association
for their ongoing support and generous contribution
to the Choose to Care Capital Campaign
for your new Cave Junction Medical Clinic
David Abdun-Nur, MD
Abdul Basit, MD
Peter Bogard, DO
David Candelaria, MD
Felicia Cohen, MD
Randall Currier, MD
Jon Ermshar, MD
Steven Foutz, MD
Raymond Gambrill, MD
Dan Gleffe, MD
Barry Hamann, MD
Gary Hansen, MD
Yung Kho, MD
J. Richard Lowe, MD
Steven Marshak, MD
Katherine Mechling, MD
Douglas Merritt, MD
Robert Montgomery, MD
David Oehling, MD
Michael Petersen, DO
Mark Rondeau, MD
Mark Simchuk, DPM
Beverly Steinman, MD
James Van Horne, MD
Jonathan Wood, MD
Sheila Algan, MD
Richard Battey, MD
Kelley Burnett, DO
John Castle, DPM
Richard Cohen, MD
Mark Deatherage, MD
Cory Fawcett, MD
Mark Foreman, MD
Robert Gentry, MD
Edmund Glovhisky, DO
Lorene Hamilton, DO
Robert Hoellrich, MD
Juanita Kcomt, MD
Mark Maffett, MD
Brian Mateja, MD
Tamara Medley, MD
Kristin Miller, MD
William Moran, MD
Bruce Perry, MD
Jason Plicher, MD
Phillip Rose, MD
Barbara Sniffen, DO
Doug Steinman, MD
Richard Williams, MD
David Young, MD
David Appleby, MD
Stephen Bergman, DO
J. Lee Calvert, MD
Joseleeto Chua, MD
Charles Crispen, DO
James Dowd, MD
Daniel Fear, MD
David Frank, DO
George Getty, MD
Margaret Gold, MD
Brian Hancock, MD
Edward Kerwin, MD
Russell Leavitt, MD
Carlos Marchini, MD
Janice McCarthy, MD
Christine Meis, DPM
Daniel Moline, MD
James Nordal, MD
Brad Personius, MD
Tamara Powell, MD
Brett Schulte, MD
Derrick Sorweide, DO
Chutuoc Trandinh, MD
Neil Williamson, MD
For more information, please phone
Carol Meyers, Development Director
541-476-2700