LOCAL
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2019
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
Good Shepherd community meeting highlights patient care
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
When Marcus Engel took the
stage during the Good Shepherd
Community Health Care System
Community Meeting on Wednes-
day night to talk about patient
care, he was speaking from
experience.
At age 18, Engel, who authors
books and gives speeches nation-
wide about improving the patient
experience, was coming home
from a hockey game in St. Louis
with his friends when a drunken
driver crashed into the side of the
vehicle in which he was a passen-
ger. The crash broke every bone in
his face and others throughout his
body, took his eyesight, required a
tracheotomy and resulted in hun-
dreds of hours of surgeries.
He doesn’t remember much
from his arrival at the Level 1
trauma center 3 miles away, other
than the intense pain, but he does
remember Jennifer.
“Most of the night I was uncon-
scious, and the only thing that
gave me comfort in that messed up
world was the fact that someone
was holding my hand,” Engel said.
Every time he had a moment of
consciousness, she would squeeze
his hand and repeat, “My name is
Jennifer. You’ve been in a car acci-
dent. You’re in the hospital.”
“Then she would repeat two of
the most compassionate words you
can say: ‘I’m here,’” he said.
That simple gesture meant the
world to him. It eventually inspired
him to start the “I’m Here Move-
ment,” encouraging medical pro-
fessionals to remember the impor-
tance of comfort and reassurance
in their interactions with patients.
“Simple human presence is the
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
Marcus Engel, with his guide dog Elliot, speaks at the Good Shepherd Health Care System Community Meeting at
Hermiston High School on Wednesday.
cornerstone of caregiving,” he
said.
For the next 20 years, Engel
didn’t know who Jennifer was —
her position with the hospital, her
last name, or even if she was a real
person and not a painkiller-induced
hallucination. But when he fi nally
returned to the hospital where he
was a patient all those years ago,
the hospital had a surprise for him:
they had found Jennifer.
A video of their reunion in 2013
can be found at marcusengel.com/
im-here-movement. Marcus found
out that at the time of his crash
Walker’s Farm Kitchen closes
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Walker’s Farm Kitchen
has closed its doors for
good.
The Hermiston restau-
rant fi rst announced on
Facebook that it would be
closed October 21-Novem-
ber 4, and then on Sunday
posted an announcement
that the restaurant was per-
manently closed, effective
immediately.
Larry and Cynthia
Walker opened the farm-
to-table restaurant in Feb-
ruary 2013, serving up
seasonally fresh, locally
sourced dishes advertised
as “an upscale menu with-
out pretensions.”
They garnered a steady
fl ow of high praise on
review websites such
as Yelp, often from out-
of-town customers who
expressed surprise at fi nd-
ing such a “diamond in the
rough” in Hermiston.
“Best meal out I’ve had
in over a year, who would
have thought that would
happen in Hermiston,”
Nicole M. of Beaverton
wrote on Yelp in August.
The
rave
reviews
weren’t enough to keep
the lights on at the restau-
rant, however. The Walk-
ers wrote on Sunday that
in the past three years a
busy night had become the
exception rather than the
rule.
“The chalkboard mar-
HH fi le photo
Walker’s Farm Kitchen in
Hermiston has closed its
doors permanently.
quee lights up one last time
with tears and a heavy heart
as we deliver this mes-
sage to you, and it is not a
decision we made lightly
or freely, but a decision
forced upon us by declin-
ing revenues to the point
where it became impos-
sible to keep the doors
open,” they wrote.
Larry Walker declined
to comment further when
contacted, but the long
Facebook message Sun-
day expressed gratitude
for customers and staff
who had played a part in
the Walker’s Farm Kitchen
journey over the years,
in some cases becoming
close friends.
“Regardless of who
you are, we enjoyed your
company every time you
stepped through the door-
way,” the Walkers wrote.
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in his life and stop worrying about
the things that he couldn’t. When
his accident happened, he won-
dered why it happened to him, but
he knows now that his experience
has helped others.
“It’s a huge compliment when
people say, ‘I sell tires for a living,
but your book taught me so much
about how to talk to people,’” he
said.
Good Shepherd CEO Dennis
Burke also spoke, sharing what the
hospital has accomplished in the
2018-19 fi scal year and what it is
planning for the near future.
Rule change pushes immigrants to avoid free services
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
November 8-9-10, 2019
HAPO Center
Jennifer was a 20-year-old emer-
gency room technician, and had
since worked her way up to clin-
ical nurse manager of the surgi-
cal intensive care unit at the same
hospital.
When Engel’s beloved guide
dog Garrett was ready to retire
three years ago, it was Jennifer
who adopted him.
During his presentation Engel
talked about other experiences
with people who participated in his
care, both good and bad.
He also talked about his deci-
sion to change the things he could
In the past year Good Shepherd
added the Good Shepherd Fam-
ily Health Center; launched a new
Physical Medicine and Rehabili-
tation Center; expanded its home
health and hospice services to
the east side of Umatilla County;
opened a wellness clinic at Herm-
iston High School; expanded its
speech language and pathology
department; opened a satellite
pharmacy at Regency Hermiston
Nursing & Rehabilitation Cen-
ter; remodeled its diagnostic imag-
ing and lab area; put a new roof on
the hospital switched to the EPIC
records system; increased urgent
care to seven days a week; and
recruited 12 new physicians and
providers.
“This was a good year in terms
of recruitment,” Burke said.
The hospital isn’t done recruit-
ing, however. In the next year it
will be looking for two OB-GYNS,
two family practice doctors, one
to three hospitalists, two psychia-
trists and a non-interventional car-
diologist. The hospital will also be
recruiting a new CEO, as Burke
plans to retire next spring.
“Dennis has been here 31 years
— an exceptional CEO — and we
wish him well,” board chair Steve
Eldridge said.
Burke shared some upcoming
projects the hospital is also plan-
ning, including construction of a
physical medicine and rehabilita-
tion center that will focus on help-
ing people manage pain in multiple
ways, and an “industrial medicine”
program focused on serving peo-
ple at risk of health problems from
industrial jobs.
Good Shepherd is also planning
to start an oncology clinic and a
sleep center, and expanding its car-
dio rehabilitation area.
A Trump administration
rule keeping recipients of pub-
lic benefi ts from a green card
is causing some immigrants to
steer clear of needed services,
according to members of
Hermiston’s Hispanic Advi-
sory Committee.
In August, the adminis-
tration announced a “public
charge” rule allowing it to turn
away legal immigrants apply-
ing for a green card (a step to
citizenship) based on factors
such as a lack of English pro-
fi ciency, or legally accessing
benefi ts like Medicaid or food
stamps.
A judge temporarily
blocked the rule in October
before it took effect. But Jose
Garcia, chair of the Hispanic
Advisory Committee, said he
is seeing people in the immi-
grant community refuse any
sort of free services out of fear
it might count against them in
the path to citizenship.
“People don’t even want to
know about services — free
health care, a fl u shot. Every-
thing free they are running
from,” he said.
The public charge rule
would only count certain fed-
eral benefi ts against green
card applicants. Many ser-
vices in Hermiston, such as
free screenings at the recent
Family Health Fair or free car
seat checks at Umatilla Mor-
row County Head Start, would
not be included. But Garcia
said many people’s attitude is
that it’s better to be safe than
sorry.
Jonathan Lopez, another
member of the Hispanic Advi-
sory Committee, said a big
part of HAC — whose meet-
ings are always well-attended
— is educating the local His-
panic community on things in
the community that could help
them. Now, he said, they’re
having to reassure people
that accessing services, such
as Hermiston’s free bus sys-
tem, won’t put any nonciti-
zen’s chance at citizenship in
jeopardy.
“We tell them they don’t
even ask any information, you
just wait at the bus stop and
they pick you up,” he said.
Lopez, who is also running
for county commissioner, said
he expects fear will bleed into
other things, causing immi-
grants to not participate in the
U.S. Census that will deter-
mine how much federal fund-
ing local governments receive
and whether Oregon will pick
up an additional seat in the
House of Representatives.
“Fear has driven them to
miss out on opportunities,” he
said.
Manuel Gutierrez, a city
councilor and liaison to the
Hispanic Advisory Commit-
tee, said the key to countering
that fear will be education. He
has been explaining to people,
for example, that if their chil-
dren who are U.S. citizens are
on the Oregon Health Plan or
getting free lunch at school,
that will not be counted
against their parents who are
not citizens yet.
If the temporary injunc-
tion on the rule is lifted, it will
only count benefi ts accessed
after the rule was instated, not
before. And many benefi ts,
such as Head Start and stu-
dent loans, won’t be included
either.
“Some people get so scared
and they believe what other
people say and don’t check the
facts,” Gutierrez said.
The phenomenon isn’t
unique to Hermiston. The New
York Times reported that out of
everyone in New York who
was legally eligible to receive
food stamps through the fed-
eral Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program, non-cit-
izens were withdrawing or
refusing aid at twice the rate
of citizens.
The rule is the subject of
multiple lawsuits and faces
a long legal battle between
proponents who say Amer-
ica should only accept immi-
grants who can support them-
selves without help, and
opponents who say screening
immigrants based on wealth
goes against the principles
America was founded upon.
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253 W. Hermiston Avenue, Hermiston