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ment o f the outdated sprin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
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