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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 26, 2003)
March 26. 2003 (The Jlortlanò (fibseruer Page AS Northeast Portland Nurse Says Goodbye park then. For several years, one of the first hospital volunteers coor dinated lunchroom concerts by a string quartet made up of hospital staff.” In addition to her work at Bess Kaiser, Gunn worked as an ap pointm ent clerk at K aiser P erm an en te’s V ancouver, Beaverton and West Interstate medical offices over the years. She was also a receptionist at the first Kaiser Permanente dental office on Russell Street when it opened in 1969. She worked at Bess Kaiser again until its closure in 1996 and most recently at Interstate South. When Gunn began her career at Kaiser Permanente, its North Shirley Gunn retires after 42- years at Kaiser Permanente When Shirley Gunn of northeast Portland started work as nurse’s aide on March 9,1961, Bess Kaiser Hospital on North Greeley was only two years old. “It was beautiful,” said Gunn. "We were one big family. We all received boxes of Christmas candy, and we had picnics at Jantzen Beach, which was an amusement west Region had about 50,000 members. “Then we started growing by leaps and bounds,” Gunn said. “It was great to see how many d iffe re n t g ro u p s o f people joined.” When she retired on March 10, Kaiser Permanente had more than 445,000 members in Oregon and Southwest Washington. “We can do so many more kinds of care now and do every thing so much more efficiently," Gunn said. "Computers have made the biggest changes, and many other changes are just the result of being so big." “W e'll all miss Shirley,” said Jim Gayton, her longtime super visor. “Patients and employees all love her. Shirley’s warmth is the essence of Kaiser Permanente at its best.” Gunn already misses the many early co-workers who retired be fore her. Two of them, — Audrey Black and Elnetta Scott — will soon join Gunn on a retirement adven ture, a train trek across the whole country. Audrey has 28 years of Kaiser Permanente memories; Elnetta has 35 years; and Shirley has 42. They should have some interesting stories to share over the click of the rails. Shirley is the proud mother of Shirley Gunn is retiring after more than four decades o f service at Kaiser Permanente. C OM RlBt TH> PHOTO BY M ik i C ai . ktm four, grandmother o f six, and to each of them. great-grandmother of six. Her "We love you, Mom, congratu family calls her the best mother in lations,” a statement from the fam the world and a great inspiration ily said. People Without Medical Insurance Suffer More and Die Younger Survey shows uninsured delay care, live sicker V '« . . 1— Uninsured patients are more likely to live with serious medical conditions, lack access to critical medications and forgo recom mended health screenings than are people who have health in surance, according to a new sur vey of emergency physicians. The survey was conducted for The American College of Emer gency Physicians em ergency medicine specialty society, with the support of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. . .... In a a i chilling ' n l l l i n o assessment, uccpccm ont U In 8 l 1 percent of the emergency physi cians said that patients without health coverage are more likely to die prematurely than patients who have health insurance. The on-line survey of more than 1,000 emergency physicians nationw ide, m em bers o f the American College of Emergency Physicians, was released as part of Cover the Uninsured Week. "This survey dem onstrates that many o f the uninsured people who arrive in America’s hospital emergency departments are in terrible shape," said Ken Rutledge, president of the Or egon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems. “They have 1. ■_ r • ■ - delayed needed care, live with number of uninsured patients partment to increase. more serious medical conditions treated in emergency departments “Each day America’s hospi and are more likely to die before has increased over the past one tals are seeing more and more their time than those with health to two years and shows no sign patients who are forced to delay basic medical care because they do not have health insurance,” said Dr. Annie Sutherland, an urgent care family physician and member of the Oregon Medical Association. "These patients end up in the hospital with serious illnesses because they lack ac cess to primary care and have no where else to go.” — Or. Annie Sutherland, urgent care family physician Emergency physicians esti mate that one out of every three insurance.” of letting up. Nearly nine out of 10 patients they personally treat is The survey also shows that doctors said that they expect the uninsured. They say one-fourth almost three-quarters of emer number of uninsured patients of their uninsured patients are gency physicians say that the treated in their emergency de children. Uninsured patients of Each day America s hospitals are seeing more and more patients who are forced to delay basic medical care because they do not have health insurance. ten suffer from medical problems that have persisted or worsened because they have not received recommended health screenings, early intervention or preventive care. The uninsured overwhelmingly lack regular access to medications they need to manage serious but manageable conditions such as hypertension and diabetes. Faced with increasing numbers ot uninsured patients who arrive at the emergency departments in seriously ill health, the emer gency physicians overw helm ingly say that providing basic- health insurance coverage to all A m erican s sh o u ld be the country ’ s most important goal for -ilsh.-akhrarp New Hypertension Free Glaucoma Screenings Offered Locally Guidelines for Blacks Most blacks with high blood pressure need aggressive treat ment, including at least two drugs to effectively control hyperten sion, new guidelines say. The recommendations from the International Society on Hy pertension in Blacks are billed as the first-ever high blood pres sure guidelines specifically for blacks, who are disproportion ately affected by hypertension and related complications. But the new guidelines could be applied to anyone with hyper tension and high-risk conditions including diabetes and kidney dis ease, said Dr. John Flack of W ayne State U niversity, the society’s president. “Good hypertension treatment is good hypertension treatment, irrespective of race,” Flack said. The guidelines appeared in the March 17 Archives of Internal Medicine. They have been en dorsed by several medical groups, including the American Heart ; A ssociation’s Council on High Blood Pressure Research. “This represents a huge prob lem, and we believe that the rec ommendations ... will result in a reduction of this huge burden of disease on African-Americans,” said Dr. Ernesto Schiffrin, chair m an o f the A HA co uncil About 50 million Americans have high blood pressure, in eluding more than a third of black m en, com pared w ith about one-fourth of white and Mexican-American men. Black women are also disproportion ately affected. Blacks in general are more likely than w hites to suffer related com plications. They face nearly double the risk of fatal strokes and a four tim es higher risk o f severe kidney disease. The reasons for the dispari ties are uncertain, though some researchers think genetics and lack of access to health care may play a role. Doctors generally recom mend that otherwise healthy patients keep their blood pres sure under 140 over 90. This can often be achieved through diet and exercise. T he new g u id elin es say blacks with diabetes, heart dis ease or mild kidney disease should strive for a reading lower than 130 over 80, and most will not be able to achieve that with out taking at least two blood pressure-lowering medications, Schiffrin said. Free glaucoma screening for area residents will be offered Sat urday, April 5 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Pacific University North east Vision Center, located at 5329 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, inside the Multnomah County Northeast Health Center. A ccording to eye doctors, glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness and vision loss. In many cases, the effects of glaucoma can be controlled if the disease is identified and treated in its early stages. G laucom a screenings are es- n ® sential in detecting the pres ence of this disease before se rious and permanent vision loss occurs. Screenings for glau coma are particularly beneficial for older adults and for mem bers of the H ispanic and A fri can A m e ric a n c o m m u n ity , which have a higher incidence of glaucom a and other vision- related health issues such as hypertension and diabetes. Glaucoma screenings take ap proximately 20 to 30 minutes to complete and do not cause dis comfort. Community members are asked locali the Northeast Vision Cen ter at 503-248-3809 for schedul ing and more information, or to stop by the center on April 5. Free H IV Testing in NE Portland Tuesday and Thursday Evenings 5 :0 0 -8 :0 0 p.m. (last check in a t 7:30 p.m.) NE Health Center MLK J r. Blvd. And NE Killingsworth (E nter in rear door near Emerson, go to 2nd flo o r) Se habla espanol los Martes For more information on H IV and testing Call the Oregon A ID S Hotline i -8 0 0 - 7 7 7 - A ID S Êzk Multnomah County Health Department The Portland Observer M ost A warded M inority P ublication by the W est C oast B lack P ublishers A ssociation for T he H ighest S tandard of J ournalism and P ublishing
