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A3 THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 18, 2019 Chemo services cut at Ocean Beach Hospital vived. She credits Dr. Ivan Law with saving her life. “The hospital dropped the ball here,” Bennett said. “This will take services from people who need it.” Law, who provided oncol- ogy services at the hospital for the past decade, is retiring as of Thursday . A letter sent in June to his past and current patients credits the change as his reason for retiring. “Due to these changings, I will be leaving the employ- ment of Ocean Beach Hospi- tal and Medical Clinics,” Law said in the letter. “For nearly the last 10 years, I have very much enjoyed working with the OBHMC staff in caring for your medical oncology needs.” Cohen said it’s too soon to know what impact the chang- ing services will have on the community. Aside from Law retiring, no other staff will be leaving , Cohen said. “OBHMC is very grateful to Dr. Law for enabling the delivery of medical oncol- ogy services at OBHMC for 10-plus years,” Cohen said. “Medical oncology is a pro- gram that very few criti- cal-access hospitals can offer.” Ocean Beach will still offer infusion services, and accept infusion orders from local and regional providers. “OBHMC will continue to provide the residents and vis- itors of South Pacifi c County with many high-quality, safe, fi nancially responsible and ‘close to home’ services,” Cohen said. This is Law’s second retirement. After more than 30 years in private practice, he retired in January 2010 from his bustling Portland clinic to take the full-time position in Ilwaco. For four years prior to that, he had been commuting to the coast, running a weekend program at the hospital. By ALYSSA EVANS Chinook Observer LONG BEACH, Wash. — Ocean Beach Hospital’s chemotherapy services are no longer being offered. In March, the state Department of Health did a routine survey of the hospi- tal and found it wasn’t fol- lowing federal pharmacopeia regulations. “This is a really rare occur- rence for us to shut down a program,” said Ocean Beach Hospital CEO Larry Cohen, who’s worked for the hospi- tal since 2014. “This is sig- nifi cant. It hasn’t happened since I’ve been here.” Regulations require hos- pitals to mix chemotherapy drugs in a sterile environ- ment, with positive pressure and ventilation. This wasn’t happening at the Ilwaco facility. “Those are three pretty heavy parameters for us to comply with in a hospi- tal that’s 45 years old and wasn’t built to comply with new rules as they come out,” Cohen said. “We seriously looked at trying to do it but we just don’t have the phys- ical fl oor pan to make it rea- sonably doable.” Ocean Beach Hospi- tal would have needed to become compliant with the regulations by December in order to continue its che- motherapy services. Since the survey, the hospital has tried to fi nd a local vendor that could supply the drugs, but hasn’t found one. Ocean Beach reached out to hospi- tals from Longview to Sea- side, Cohen said, and also looked into other vendors that could send drugs to the hospital. “It became clear to us that from a patient’s safety per- spective, shipping something in just added another level of complexity,” Cohen said. “In Ivan Law health care specifi cally, min- imizing hand-offs is a pretty standard way to improve quality. If you’re not mix- ing the drugs, from our per- spective, you lose the quality control.” Cohen said losing that quality control “just wasn’t something we were comfort- able doing.” Because of the change, Ocean Beach has been refer- ring patients to other provid- ers. About 20 patients were using the hospital’s chemo- therapy services; many have transferred care to Columbia Memorial Hospital in Asto- ria, Cohen said. Ocean Beach is in discus- sions with potential providers that would allow the hospital to keep some medical oncol- ogy and related ancillary ser- vices, Cohen said. Services could include new patient consults, lab work, radiology and surgery. “I wouldn’t do anything that didn’t regionally make sense,” Cohen said. “I’m looking for a collaboration with another cancer program that would allow us to keep as many non chemotherapy ser- vices here on the p eninsula.” Deborah Bennett went to Ocean Beach Hospital for stage 4 cancer, which she sur- Group withdraws effort to refer business tax to voters Money meant for education By AUBREY WIEBER and CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Oregon Capital Bureau SALEM — An Oregon trade group has announced that it will no longer push to put a landmark business tax to raise money for the state’s public schools on the ballot. Oregon Manufactur- ers and Commerce, which opposes the new $1 billion annual corporate activity tax, said Tuesday that law- makers had passed barri- ers so signifi cant to getting it on the ballot — including the date of election and how petitioners could gather sig- natures — that such an effort was “virtually impossible.” “We’re extremely dis- appointed that lawmakers went to such great lengths to hamstring our referral efforts, but the reality is that they have rigged the system so far in their favor that our chances of success at this point are very remote,” the group said in a statement . “Though we will not be moving forward with the referral effort, we will con- tinue to explore opportu- nities to minimize the neg- ative impacts of this new tax on Oregonians by any means possible, including through legislative action or a potential initiative in a future election.” The statement referred to four bills passed by leg- islators in 2019, including one that more strictly reg- ulates how electronic peti- tions are dispersed to col- lect signatures, and one that would refer the tax package to a January 2020 vote, not a November 2020 vote. Hav- ing the vote in January gives business groups much less time to collect signatures. State Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton, helped develop the tax proposal. “I am not surprised,” Hass said. “I think the majority of Oregon busi- nesses support education, and I am not surprised that businesses do not want to fi ght against Oregon schools.” Shaun Jillions, head of Oregon Manufacturers and Commerce, said this in no carbon emissions regulation program. When those talks fell apart, Rob Freres, the pres- ident of Freres Lumber and member of Oregon Manu- facturers and Commerce, gave $1 million to a politi- cal action committee push- ing the referral. Jillions said he will talk with Freres about how to use that money. It can be moved to other PACs, or Freres ‘WE WILL CONTINUE TO EXPLORE OPPORTUNITIES TO MINIMIZE THE NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF THIS NEW TAX ON OREGONIANS BY ANY MEANS POSSIBLE.’ excerpt from Oregon Manufacturers and Commerce statement way signals that his group is going along with lawmak- ers in supporting the tax. Two petitioners, Marie Bowers, of Eugene, and Jor- dan Orht, of Silverton, have already fi led paperwork to refer parts of the law to vot- ers under the title Keep Ore- gon Affordable. Bowers said Tuesday that they have no plans to stop trying to get the mea- sure on the ballot. It must get 74,680 signa- tures to get to the ballot. Jillions said he would advise them otherwise. “We’ll have a conversa- tion with them,” he said. “In our view, they should with- draw the petition altogether, but we don’t control that process.” If Bowers and Orht try to go it alone, they face a tough fundraising task. After the tax package passed, Jillions vowed to try and take it to the ballot. However, he dangled the idea of backing off a refer- endum to try and convince Senate Democrats to vote against House Bill 2020, a could fi le for a refund. Bowers’ and Orht’s PAC — Keep Oregon Affordable — has had about $44,000 worth of printing and con- sulting services donated to them, but the account has a cash balance of $100. The Student Success Act is a measure that lawmakers have been trying to get off the ground in some form for years to support public edu- cation, in a state where stu- dents are among the least likely in the nation to grad- uate from high school on time. “Great, great news for our kids,” Jim Green, exec- utive director of the Oregon School Boards Association, said in a statement. “This announcement moves us one step closer to ensuring that this vital investment in our young people will become a reality. We will remain vigilant in planning for a possible referendum, but most of our attention is being focused on prepar- ing districts for implemen- tation of the Student Suc- cess Act.” State workers could get up to 15% raises Associated Press PORTLAND — Public employee unions representing Oregon state workers have negotiated new contracts that would provide pay increases of up to 15% over the next two-year budget period. The proposed contracts include both step increases and cost of living increases in each of the next two years. Union offi cials say the wage increases are neces- sary to maintain Oregon’s competitiveness in attracting employees after recent wage growth in the private sec- tor. However, the Oregonian/ OregonLive reports the most recent state salary survey sug- gests that state employees’ total compensation, which includes benefi ts, is already competitive. The contracts still must be voted upon by union members and receive fi nal approval by state lawmakers. Gov. Kate Brown’s offi ce echoed the unions’ senti- ments, saying the tentative agreement was a refl ection of her commitment to make the State of Oregon a competi- tive employer, particularly for employees who work in fos- ter care, transportation, pub- lic safety, and health service professions. “Since the recession fi rst hit Oregon over a decade ago, state employees have Clatsop Post 12 BAKED POTATO BAR With all the Trimmings Friday July 19 th 4 pm until gone $ 6.00 6PM “Karaoke Dave” ASTORIA AMERICAN LEGION Clatsop Post 12 1132 Exchange Street 325-5771 been asked to take low or no COLAs,” said Kate Kon- dayen, a spokeswoman for Brown. “Now that the econ- omy is strong, we owe it to these hard-working individu- als, and the Oregonians who rely on the services they pro- vide, to help make up ground that was lost. The contracts’ step increases in each of the next two years would average 4.7%. Steps are automatic pay increases that come with lon- gevity in a job. It also includes the addition of a new top step, which would give employ- ees who topped out at their job classifi cation a 4.7% pay increase. Those increases would mostly go to older Tier 1 and Tier 2 employees. The contracts also include cost-of-living increases of 2.15% in 2019 and 3% in 2020. Those are bigger increases than in the workers’ previous two-year contract — and higher than the average annual increase of 1.4% over the last decade. The cost-of-living increases compare to an infl ation rate of 2.7% in the 13-state West Region over the last year, according to the fed- eral Bureau of Labor Statis- tics. State economists predict it will remain near that level during the next two years. Overall, the state work- ers’ wage increases would average up to 7.2% annually. Meanwhile, Oregon’s Offi ce of Economic Analysis fore- casts average annual state- wide wage growth, including infl ation, of 3.7% in 2019 and 4.2% in 2020. 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