A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2018
HEALTH
Umatilla sees health care GSCHS meeting offers updates
shifts, some new clinics as well as health information
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
Umatilla, a town of 7,132, is headed
toward a future of three medical clinics.
Family Health Associates of Herm-
iston will open a new clinic in Umatilla
on Nov. 15 at the building that formerly
housed Encore Wellness 4 Life. Jenni-
fer Armstrong, the nurse practitioner
in charge of Encore, plans to open a
new wellness clinic at a different loca-
tion in Umatilla. And Columbia River
Health, which recently announced a
new partnership with Carlson’s Uma-
tilla Drug, has purchased property to
place a clinic of their own in Umatilla.
It’s a lot of changes, but should
result in better access to health care
for Umatilla residents. It could also
have spillover benefits for Hermiston
residents, said Umatilla Hospital Dis-
trict board member Danice McBee, as
Umatilla residents currently seeking
care at the Hermiston Family Health
Associates location switch to receiving
care in Umatilla.
“They’ve kind of outgrown their
space at the hospital (in Hermiston),”
McBee said.
The Umatilla Hospital District noti-
fied Armstrong in May that they would
not be renewing her contract to provide
clinic services at the district-owned
building at 1890 Seventh St.
Now they have announced that
Family Health Associates, which is led
by Dr. Derek Earl, will open a clinic in
the building on Nov. 15.
McBee said the hospital district
board is very happy to see FHA open
a Umatilla branch.
“I think it’s going to be great,” she
said.
Although Armstrong will no lon-
ger contract with the hospital district,
Umatilla is not losing her as a provider.
She and her husband, Mark Keith, pur-
chased a large house at 82346 Bucks
Lane (just off Highway 730 before
Interstate 82) and have remodeled it
It was a year of growth and
change for Good Shepherd
Health Care System, according
to CEO Dennis Burke.
Burke shared the hospital’s
progress over the 2017-18 fis-
cal year at a community meet-
ing Oct. 24 that included a
health fair and a talk by health
expert Joe Piscatella.
Good Shepherd now has
more than 700 employees and
50 volunteers, with an annual
payroll of more than $43 mil-
lion. The hospital has seen a
significant increase in patient
satisfaction scores. And while
about one-third of Oregon’s
hospitals are operating in the red
right now, Burke said, GSHCS
is doing well financially.
“We’re in a very sound fiscal
state,” he said. “I think we have
a lot of staying power.”
Over the past year, GSHCS
opened a 33,000-square-foot
wing that includes a new wom-
en’s center — a total invest-
ment of about $12 million. It
also opened a new urology
suite, added chiropractic medi-
cine, remodeled the home med-
ical equipment store, purchased
new state-of-the-art equipment
and acquired Gifford Medical’s
urgent care and private practice
clinic.
On the programs side,
GSHCS launched a personal
home care service, a home
respiratory care service and
expanded offerings in areas,
such as speech therapy and dia-
betes management. Burke said
in the past year the education
department had a total of 3,192
educational classes or events,
reaching more than 16,000
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Cathy Putnam, behind the cash
register, helps customers with their
prescriptions Thursday at Columbia
River Pharmacy in Umatilla.
into Encore Wellness 4 Life Umatilla,
a private wellness center that will offi-
cially start seeing patients Nov. 1.
Keith said patients can expect to see
the same team as the old site, with the
addition of provider Jan Atigbi. They
will include more traditional medical
care in addition to “natural and holistic
care” such as supplements.
Armstrong said she doesn’t see
FHA as competition. Right now she
refers patients to Earl and he refers
patients to her, she said, and she plans
to continue their collaboration.
“It’s not at all ‘us against them,’”
she said. “We’re all working together
to provide care for the community.”
Columbia River Health CEO Seth
Whitmer said CRH has already pur-
chased property for a planned clinic
to be built sometime in the next few
years.
CRH has also acquired the former
Carlson’s Umatilla Drug. Cathy Put-
nam, who has owned the pharmacy
and drug store since 1985, is joining
the Columbia River Health family and
will continue running the pharmacy.
They will have an open house Nov.
8 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. with free flu
shots from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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specifically to the needs of area
employees in manufacturing
and shipping who experience
chronic pain or are at risk of
job-related injuries.
Burke said GSHCS plans
to keep Gifford’s urgent care
clinic open seven days a week
soon and will continue push-
ing awareness of its virtual care
clinic as another alternative to
ER visits on weekends. In addi-
tion, they plan to start their
own family practice clinic and
recruit more physicians and
other providers to the area.
“We’re probably about 15
physicians short of what we
need in the community,” he
said.
To help with that, Good
Shepherd is partnering with St.
Anthony Hospital in Pendleton
and Kadlec Regional Medical
Center in the Tri-Cities to cre-
ate a rural residency program
for doctors in training.
Before the update on
GSHCS program, attendees
were given time to browse a
health fair. Booths ranged from
free flu shots and screenings to
information on first aid, report-
ing sexual assault and hospice.
Dawn Germain and Lianna
Correa joked that their booth
was too scary for most of the
men.
“They see the word ‘lacta-
tion’ and they run away,” Cor-
rea said.
The booth drew a number
of interested women, how-
ever, who learned more about
the hospital’s lactation assis-
tance services. Germain said
they visit new mothers on the
maternity ward and also work
with pediatricians to find
women who need assistance
with breast-feeding.
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people.
“I’m not aware of any hos-
pital — our size, certainly, but
any hospital — that does more
in terms of educational events
than we do,” he said.
Burke also shared successes
in receiving new awards and
certifications, and reaching
new standards of patient care.
For example, Good Shepherd
Medical Group scored a 97.2
out of 100 under a Medicare/
Medicaid incentive program
that will reward the clinics
with additional reimbursement
funds for their quality care,
improvement, efficiency and
engagement.
Good Shepherd did have
some setbacks in the last year.
A construction-related fire in
April caused “several million
dollars” worth of damage to the
hospital and equipment stored
above the fire. Burke also noted
an increase in emergency room
visits from 19,818 to 20,890.
“That’s something we try to
keep down,” he said.
Looking toward the future,
Burke said GSHCS was just 10
days away from the launch of its
new patient records program,
Epic. As part of that launch,
patients will have access to a
“superb” online patient por-
tal that will give them 24/7
access to medical records and
lab results, the ability to sched-
ule their own appointments and
to request prescription refills
online.
Good Shepherd is also
working on creation of a com-
prehensive pain-management
program that will provide alter-
natives to opioids. Interwoven
with that effort is the hospital’s
goal of creating an “industrial
medicine” program targeted
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