Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2009)
Health district prepares for CEO interviews Friday Bessie Wetze/l Newspaper] ibrary University o f Oregon P Eugene, OR 97403 By April Sykes The Morrow Coun ty Health D istrict Board, at their m eeting Monday night in Heppner, form u lated a series o f questions in preparation for CEO candi dates’ interviews. The board has three phone inters iews scheduled to begin this Fri day starting at 5 p.m. The board will then schedule in person interviews w ith the successful candidates. C urrent CEO Vic to r V ander D oes e a rlie r announced his impending retirement. Also at the meeting, Vander Does and Director o f Nursing, Home Health and Hospice Molly Rhea said that the emergency room has been extremely busy during the month of March. The district shows a loss o f $56,467 for the month o f February w ith a $345,333 loss for the year. February gross patient rev enue was $534,393 with deductions for bad debts and contractual and other adjust ments for total operating revenue of $494,320. The long-term care facility at the hospital currently has five patients, below what was anticipated. The number of colonoscopies scheduled, a new service offered by the district, also were not as many as anticipated. "The revenue is still falling short o f our projec tions,” com m ented C h ief Financial O fficer N icole Mahoney. "It’s not that bad revenue-wise, but still not up to our expectations.” “ I for one thought we were overly optim istic on our budget this year,” added board Chair Larry Mills. “ I am concerned, though, about the long-term beds.” In other business, the board: -received inform a tion from Rhea on the Hos pice program. She also in troduced Patti Smith, who is the Hospice chaplain. -approved replace ment o f the outdated sprin kler system in the hospital and aw arded the bid to West ern Automatic Sprinkler for $10,461. Viking Sprinkler Co. su b m itted a bid for $13,866. -received the fo l lowing report for February: Pioneer Memorial Hospital had seven admissions, one swing bed adm ission, 13 admitted for observation, one adm itted for respite care, 481 outpatients with 56 emergency room encoun ters, 1711 lab tests, 94 x-ray procedures, 41 CT scans, 21 EKG tests, nine colonos copy procedures, 34 respi ratory therapy procedures; Pioneer M em orial Clinic in Heppner had 485 patient visits with 32 new patients, 39 patients seen by a nurse and five no-shows; Irrigon Clinic had 208 patient visits with 15 new patients, 58 seen by a nurse and 18 no show s; Heppner Ambulance had six page-outs with five transports for $4,104 in rev enue; Boardman Ambulance had 33 page-outs with 17 transports for $17,854 in rev enue; Irrigon Ambulance had 15 page-outs with 10 transports for $11,904 in revenue; Home Health had 119 patient visits; Hospice had two admits w ith 87 total days; Pharmacy had 1004 drug doses for $66,480 in revenue. Boardman to sponsor spring clean up The City o f Board- man will sponsor a com munity-wide clean-up the month o f April. The city has garbage vouchers avail able, w ith a fifty dollar limit, to residents o f the city of Boardman. The v o uchers are VOL. 128 NO. 13 8 Pages Wednesday, April 1,2009 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon HES students and parents ‘Celebrate Oregon’ valid during the month o f April at Finley Butte Land fill and the N orth M or row Transfer Station. The garbage voucher program encourages citizens to clean up their residences by dis posing of yard debris. City residents may pick up their vouchers at Boardman City Hall at 200 C ity C en ter Circle beginning April 1st. For more inform a tion on this program, call Boardman City Hall at 481- 9252. Home delivery meal program available in Heppner The Area Agency of Aging division ofCAPECO, also offers a home deliv ered meal program - designed for those people that are home bound (a person who is unable to prepare meals or shop for food by reason of injury, illness or an incapaci tating disability). Again, the suggested donation is $3.50 per meal. The Home Deliv ered Meal program is able to deliver both a hot meal and frozen meals - enough to enable the client to have one nutritious meal each day o f the week. If you or anyone that you know fits into the cat egory o f homebound and is interested in having meals delivered to your home each Wednesday, please contact B arbara Thom son at the CAPECO office 1-800-752- 1139 ext. 130. Please leave a message if she is not in the office and your call will be returned. Also, a hot meal is offered each Wednesday at the Heppner St. Patrick's Senior Center for seniors in the area. Serving time is 11:30 a.m. A suggested donation o f $3.50 per meal helps to support the meal program. lone chapter of National Forensics League to hold 5K run/walk The lone Com m u nity School chapter o f the National Forensics League, a national honor society for speech and debate, is spon soring a 5 kilom eter run/ walk on Sunday, April 5, at 1 p.m. The course will start and end at the school in lone. The event is to raise money for the Multiple My eloma Research Foundation (MMRF). The sister o f lone speech coach Jim Raible was recently diagnosed w ith multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood. Barbara Mc- Carrick was the inspiration for Raible starting a speech and debate team in lone and has been a supporter o f the team. In February McCa- rriek hosted the team when they went down to California for competition at Stanford University. Upon hearing o f M cCarrick’s diagnosis, the team wanted to help any w ay they could. On Sunday, April 5, the MMRF is hold ing a fund raising run/walk in San Francisco, which Raible wanted to attend but was unable. So Raible and his speech team are doing the next best thing. Besides holding a bake sale at the school, they are also sponsoring their own run/walk to raise m oney fo r M c C a rrie k 's team running in San Fran cisco. R unners, w alkers, and friends are inv ited to the school on Sunday afternoon to show their support for M cCarrick’s team and the MMRF. A donation o f $5 per participant is requested, but all donations are wel come. Columbia River Community Health Services receives grant C o lu m b ia R iv e r C om m unity H ealth S er vices has received a grant in the amount o f $20,000 from PacificSource Health Plans. These funds will be Heppner Elementary students and their parents had a joyous time ‘C elehrating Oregon.' Students used to support the clinic's and parents danced to several country songs as well as a little doe se doe ami hokey pokey. The Heppner High FFA made ice-cream for students and provided roping opportunities and a bean bag efforts in serv ing the needs toss into a cowboy boot. The Parent-Teacher club, who sponsored the free event, provided snack of the community. The pur foods for all to enjoy as well as covered a large cut-out of Oregon with dozens of blue cupcakes. pose o f the PacificSource -Contributed Photos Charitable Foundation is to prov ide resources and funds for the health and welfare of the underserved, and lessen Pastors o f area churches are invited to send in their Easter messages to the com the burden o f government in munity to run in the April 8 edition of the Heppner Gazette-Times. Messages are due this regard. C o lu m b ia R iv e r on Friday, April 3 and can be emailed to editor^/ rapidserve.net, faxed to 676-9211, or dropped oft'at the Gazette-Times office. Easter messages due Friday C om m unity H ealth S er vices will use the funds to continue to improve patient access. The focus will be on the flow o f the clinic and pa tient capacity. The demand for medical services in the Boardman area continues to increase and the clinic must continue to adjust to these requirements. Col umbi a River C om m unity H ealth S er vices provides preventive and acute primary care, ur gent care, family planning, women’s health, well-child exams and immunizations, sports physicals to school children, and physical ex ams to all. We are a non profit, Federal Q ualified H e alth C e n te r (F Q H C ) whose primary purpose is to protect and improve the quality o f life for all people, particularly the medically underserved and v ulnerable population. A lso to serve the needs o f the community, the clinic is involved in a fund raising campaign for their -Continued on Page TWO At t h e MCGG GREEN FEED STORE in H e p p n e r : ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. 4-H & FFA M em bers ^ 10% o ff «1 ALL F e e d a n d S u p p l i e s Now Thru Fair! M orrow C ounty d ra in G rowers Green F eed & S eed _____ 242 W. Linden Way, Heppner » 676-9422 « 989-8221 (MCGG main office) I
