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
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