A6
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
County tables decision on funding Cyber Mill project
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Grant County Court mem-
bers tabled a decision whether
to approve an $81,000 cash
infusion for the Grant County
Cyber Mill Feb. 24.
The project, previously
known as Grant County
Coworks, would offer access
to computers, printers and
broadband at locations in
Seneca, John Day and Prai-
rie City.
The Cyber Mill, accord-
ing to Didgette McCracken,
the Open Campus coordi-
nator at Oregon State Uni-
versity Extension Office, is
working under the nonprofit
Grant County Digital, and the
concept was presented to the
court last month.
The court turned down the
group’s request last month but
offered to look for other fund-
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
Tory Stinnett, Grant County
economic development direc-
tor, addresses the Feb. 24 ses-
sion of Grant County Court.
Allison Field of Business Or-
egon listens during the Feb.
24 session of Grant County
Court.
ing sources.
McCracken said during
her presentation that the group
is looking for funding for the
Seneca and Prairie City loca-
tions. She told the court John
Day had received its funding.
According to Allison Field
of Business Oregon, since
the last time Cyber Mill had
come to the county court, the
group put out a survey and
found 85% of those surveyed
support funding the project.
State Rep. Mark Owens,
R-Crane, submitted a letter
of support for the Cyber Mill,
which Tory Stinnett, Grant
County’s economic devel-
opment director, read to the
court.
On Thursday, Owens
posted the following to his
Facebook page:
“The Cyber Mill proj-
ect is needed and will be a
great benefit to the residents
and communities within
Grant County. It will help our
employees, employers, stu-
dents and families, and oth-
ers who need better access
to technology and functional
work spaces. This is exactly
the type of innovation, cre-
ative thinking and intelligent
planning that will solve prob-
lems and provide solutions
from inside a community.”
County Judge Scott Myers
said John Day had not paid
to support the county’s Eco-
nomic Development office or
its staff in “several years.”
Stinnett said they were
asking for funding for Seneca
and Prairie City, and nothing
that they were talking about
had anything to do with John
Day.
Field said John Day’s sup-
port of the Economic Devel-
opment Office or lack thereof
was not what they came to the
county court to discuss. Field
said they were creators of the
project, and John Day is but
one of the project’s many
partners.
Bates Building to be restored to meet
growing Prairie City student base
Building will house
day care, preschool
and student-based
health center
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
The future of the Bates
Building at Prairie City
School looks bright.
Prairie City Superinten-
dent Casey Hallgarth said, as
part of the district’s five-year
strategic plan, the school dis-
trict will renovate the Bates
Building that was built in
1970s in Bates and later
moved to the Prairie City
School campus.
“We want to move for-
ward with the roof and make
sure we get all the asbes-
tos out of it, and then we can
move forward with the reno-
vation on the inside and get it
all up to date,” Hallgarth said.
Eagle file photo
The Bates School building, located at Prairie City School, is be-
ing restored.
“We put a two-year timeline
on it, and that’s what we’re
shooting for.”
Hallgarth said they plan to
host day care and preschool
in the building as well as a
student-based health center,
which are all a part of their
early childhood development
program.
Hallgarth said, when he
arrived at Prairie City School
and saw the abandoned
7,500-square-foot building,
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FARM SUPPLY
60561 HWY 26,
John Day, Oregon 97845
541-575-0023
he started planning with the
board to restore it and bring
it back to life. Hallgath and
the board decided to refurbish
the building because it would
cost less than demolishing it.
Hallgarth said they are
using some of their Student
Investment Account funds
and are looking for grant
opportunities.
With enrollment going up
at Prairie City School District,
Hallgarth said this will help.
Hello Grant County,
What beautiful Spring weather! I keep reminding
myself that the snowy days between the beautiful
warm days are typical of Spring in Grant County.
Sunny days will be here soon!
We would like to welcome the following new
members to the Chamber: Farmer’s Insurance, John
Day Eye Care, John Day Storage,LLC, and Earthly
Home Natural Market.
The beginning of our tourist season is just around
the corner. We are preparing for a year pretty much
like we had last year, which means people coming here
to enjoy our beautiful outdoors. Campers, hikers,
bicyclists, motorcyclists and river enthusiasts will soon
be heading our way! Preparations are being made for
the return of some big events this year.
The Blue Mountain Hospital Foundation is raffling
off $1,000 in Gift Cards to various local businesses.
Proceeds will be used to purchase a new 3D
Mammography machine for the hospital’s Radiology
department. We appreciate the Blue Mountains
Hospital’s continued support of our local businesses!
The Lake Creek Youth Camp Gala Dinner and
Auction is slated for April 10th at the Grant County
Fairgrounds.
The Strut Stride Straddle Stroll/Hilton Half will be
May 1st. The Seneca Oyster Feed is being planned for
May 15th.
Planning meetings are being held for 62 Days
which is scheduled for June 11th and 12th. The
Thadd’s Place Golf & Gala will be June 26th.
Mindy and Dusty down at the Fairgrounds are
working hard to prepare for the Strawberry Mountain
Knife and Gun Show April 24th and 25th, Buck’n in
the Boonies July 10th and the 112th Grant County
Fair August 11-14 with headliners John Michael
Murphy and Laine Hardy.
Dave Driscoll is looking forward to the first
Shooting Star Party at the John Day Industrial Site on
August 11th and 12th.
The 2021 Quilt of Valor by the Grant County
Piecemakers Quilt Guild will be held August 21st at
Clyde Holliday State Park.
Be sure to check us out on Instagram! Harsh
Patel, a Director here at the Chamber has us up and
running. You need to follow us!
grant_county_oregon_chamber
Cycle Oregon has asked participants to save the
dates - September 11-18th in hopes that they will be
able to host the event which will start and end in John
Day. If you know of any other events please let us
know so we can get them on our calendar.
We are meeting with John Day River Territories and
Eastern Oregon Visitor Center to promote Eastern
Oregon! Ideas are being shared and collaboration is
so important!
This month’s Chamber Business meeting will be
Thursday, March 18th at the Chamber office at 10:30.
Stay well!
Tammy Bremner, Chamber Manager
S233940-1
Eagle file photo
Prairie City School District Su-
perintendent/Principal Casey
Hallgarth.
“We are up by 25 kids
from the beginning of the
year,” he said. “We need to
have somewhere to house
these kids. We’re just trying
to figure out ways, and bud-
get-wise, on how to keep up
with enrollment.”
Eagle file photo
Blue Mountain Hospital is working to improve wait times, refer-
rals and customer service.
Uneven patients per
provider driving
delays at hospital
Departures of two
doctors last year left
800 patients without
a primary care
physician
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Blue Mountain Hospital
is working to improve wait
times, referrals and cus-
tomer service.
The number of patients
assigned to a physician is
unevenly balanced and is
one of the main drivers in
long wait times to see pro-
viders, lost referrals, and
poor customer service at
the Blue Mountain Hospi-
tal, according to Interim
Clinical Director Bob
Boyle.
Boyle said the hospi-
tal’s established physicians
are at their capacity and are
“oversubscribed.”
He said the departures
of two doctors last year
left 800 patients without
a primary care physician.
Boyle said the patient pan-
els, the number of individ-
ual patients under the care
of a specific provider, need
to be adjusted.
He said panel capacity
is between 200-250% and
that the three new doctors
are at the 20-25% level.
Boyle told the hospital
board they are taking on
new patients and reestab-
lished patients every week.
He said these are 45-min-
ute visits, and they can
only see so many patients
in a day.
Boyle said, based on an
analysis the hospital con-
ducted, 43% of its patients
have chronic care condi-
tions, such as heart disease,
cancer, diabetes, arthri-
tis, Alzheimer’s disease or
dementia.
Action plan
Amid growing criti-
cism from patients for lost
referrals, missed callbacks
and poor customer service,
the Blue Mountain Hospi-
tal District board of direc-
tors, asked Boyle, whom
the hospital hired in Octo-
ber, to develop a plan to
manage referrals, patient
callbacks and prescriptions
refill requests.
Board member Dot-
tie Parsons said during the
board’s Feb. 25 meeting
that patients are still not
getting callbacks, and she
asked what he is doing to
address the problem in both
the short and long term.
One part of the plan,
Boyle said, is to find a
company that could pro-
vide chronic care manage-
ment and Medicare well-
ness exams, routine visits
with a physician to update
a patient’s treatment plan
and check blood pres-
sure, heart rate and other
vitals.
Boyle said he would
make a recommendation,
based on the cost and return
on investment and care for
the patients. He said with
chronic care and Medicare
bundled together and the
new doctors taking more
shifts, patients will notice
the change.
He said he is look-
ing at a software applica-
tion that would integrate
with the hospital’s elec-
tronic medical records pro-
gram to avoid copying, fax-
ing and scanning. He said
referrals are a complicated
process.
Along with the skewed
patient panel, hospital CEO
Derek Daly told the board
for a “pocket of time” the
department lost a couple of
staff members “unexpect-
edly,” and since then, Boyle
added a second employee
to the referral department.
Boyle said, when he
arrived, the department had
one employee. Now, the
department has two full-
time staff members and
an employee from the sur-
gery department who pro-
vides oversight, backup
and training.
He said by March he
would be ready to make
a recommendation on an
EMR application.
‘If you can’t measure
it, you can’t manage it’
Boyle said, with call-
backs, the department
is taking a team-driven
approach. He said what
happens with callbacks is
one medical assistant gets
buried while others have a
“light load.”
He said they are bal-
ancing out the callbacks
among the group.
Boyle said the expecta-
tion is that a patient will
get a same-day callback
with prescription refills
within 24 hours.
Boyle said Jena Knowles
is working with the hospi-
tal’s information technol-
ogy manager to track the
team’s progress to report
on the performance regu-
larly. He said the goal is to
reach a 99-100% comple-
tion rate.
Boyle said the criti-
cal thing is documenting
and reporting. He said the
team’s goal is 42 callbacks
each day, and now they
will have a record that they
made the calls.
“If you can’t measure
it, you can’t manage it,” he
said, “so we’re going to do
that.”
A MAN
WAKES
UP in the
morning
after sleeping on...
an advertised bed, in advertised
pajamas.
He will bathe in an ADVERTISED TUB, shave with an ADVERTISED RAZOR,
have a breakfast of ADVERTISED JUICE, cereal and toast, toasted in an
ADVERTISED TOASTER, put on ADVERTISED CLOTHES and glance at his
ADVERTISED WATCH. He’ll ride to work in his ADVERTISED CAR, sit at an
ADVERTISED DESK and write with an ADVERTISED PEN. Yet this person
hesitates to advertise, saying that advertising doesn’t pay. Finally, when his
non-advertised business is going under, HE’LL ADVERTISE IT FOR SALE.
Then it’s too late.
AND THEY SAY ADVERTISING DOESN’T WORK?
DON’T MAKE THIS SAME MISTAKE
Advertising is an investment, not an expense. Think about it!
Blue Mountain Eagle
MyEagleNews.com
S233942-1
Previously known
as Coworks, project
would provide
access to technology
in several cities
Don’t get left behind, call today! Kim Kell 541-575-0710