A4 • Friday, August 13, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
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Nurse recalls early days of city’s hospital
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
Providence Seaside Archives
Nurses’ station, Providence Seaside Hospital, 1990s, featuring the arrival of computers.
Emergency room nurse Mary Romanaggi.
Providence Seaside Archives
Providence Seaside Archives
Procession through the hospital led by crucifer Sr. Ignatia Marie Lindekugel, who served as
director of pastoral care. She is followed by Sr. Scholastica Lee (left) and other sisters.
Sr. Ignatia Marie, Pastoral Services,
Providence Seaside Hospital,1982.
Hospital: ‘Our ICUs are fi lling up’
Continued from Page A1
emergency room for testing.
Symptoms are so wide and var-
ied, “we pretty much treat every-
body like they’ve got COVID,”
Romanaggi said.
Results are delivered within an
hour, she said. Positive cases go
into isolation in the emergency
department.
The hospital does not have
data on coronavirus positive cases
in the emergency room, but has
had one coronavirus in-patient
in the past two weeks, hospital
spokesperson Mike Antrim said.
Last year, coronavirus patients
were sent to Providence St. Vin-
cent Medical Center in Portland
for treatment. Now they remain in
Seaside as long as they don’t have
to be on a ventilator.
“We provide care for COVID
patients based on the acuity of
their illness,” Antrim said. “The
goal is to keep patients local when
possible — and when it’s not,
we transfer to one of our Port-
land-area hospitals.”
Across the Providence medi-
cal system, the hospital group is
seeing a “surge of the unvacci-
nated,” Lisa Vance, president of
strategy and operations for Prov-
idence North said Friday in urg-
ing Oregonians to get vaccinated.
“Our COVID inpatient num-
bers are approaching the high-
est levels of the pandemic. Our
ICUs are fi lling up,” Vance said.
“We are maxing out our equip-
ment that helps COVID patients
breathe. Combine that with the
surge, and it’s obvious that urgent
action is needed.”
As of Aug. 6, more than 22,000
or about 57% of Clatsop County
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
Shannon Arlint
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Sarah Silver-
Tecza
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Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
residents were vaccinated. Most
new cases of COVID-19 are
seen among unvaccinated indi-
viduals, the county task force
reported. Of 103 total new local
cases between July 31 and Aug.
6, 71 were unvaccinated, 13 vac-
cinated, two partially vaccinated,
and 17 unknown. The task force
reported 12 outbreaks.
Vaccination remains the best
option for avoiding infection or,
in rare breakthrough cases, reduc-
ing the severity of infection and
need for hospitalization, and the
risk of death.
Last week, Brown required
state health care workers to get
the vaccine or submit to weekly
testing for the virus.
Providence doesn’t man-
date COVID vaccinations for its
employees, but “most of our staff
is vaccinated,” Romanaggi said.
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
John D. Bruijn
Skyler Archibald
Joshua Heineman
Katherine Lacaze
Esther Moberg
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Carl Earl
Several weeks ago Providence
notifi ed all caregivers and provid-
ers that they are required to val-
idate vaccination or sign a state-
ment declining the vaccine, with
a deadline of Sept. 30, Vance said.
Those declining will now be
required to do at least weekly
additional testing on a regu-
lar basis, participate in manda-
tory education about the vaccine,
adhere to enhanced personal pro-
tective equipment requirements,
and other measures as needed to
keep patients and caregivers safe,
she said.
“Get vaccinated,” Vance said.
“Wear a mask. Take steps to take
care of the other people in your
community. The only way we
can control this latest, more con-
tagious variant is by working
together. Providence is commit-
ted to doing that.”
When emergency room nurse Mary
Romanaggi started at Providence Seaside
Hospital in 1982, nurses performed all sorts
of tasks, from boiler room repairs to holiday
cooking.
There were no kitchen staff , no reception-
ists, Romanaggi said. “Somebody rang the
doorbell and you ran out there,” she said.
When an emergency physician was
unavailable, nurses called the doctor at home.
The emergency room, staff ed with one
nurse, often required an extra nurse to be
called in.
Romanaggi’s nearly four decades of ser-
vice comes as Providence Seaside celebrates
the 40th year of the Sisters of Providence
assuming sponsorship of Seaside General
Hospital.
In 1934, the former Mercer Hospital
became Seaside General Hospital. The city
sold bonds in 1945 to pay for a new hospital,
which opened the next year, at South Frank-
lin and Avenue S.
In December 1967, the state board of
health approved a $1.2 million bond for a
new facility to be located on land annexed
into the city in January 1968 on a slope east
of South Wahanna Road.
Providence assumed sponsorship of the
55-bed hospital on July 1, 1981.
In December 2017, the foundation board
launched the “Beyond 911” program to
expand emergency care at the hospital and
with a goal to raise $1.5 million toward a $5
million rebuild. The emergency department
debuted in July 2020 and sees more than
10,000 patients a year, with increased traffi c
on holidays and seasonally.
The hospital invested more than $16.2
million to improve community health in
2020, according to hospital spokesperson
Mike Antrim, including $820,000 in com-
munity health services and $2.7 million in
free and low-cost care.
Today’s emergency room features a larger
waiting and registration area, along with
a triage room and nine private treatment
rooms. The department is staff ed with up to
four nurses, seeing sometimes 40 patients a
day.
Emergency room volumes vary through-
out the day, but are typically busier during
the summer, Antrim said.
With Life Flight Network medics and
telehealth options to help diagnose heart
attacks and strokes, technology has made a
vast diff erence in patient care, Romanaggi
said. A robot can identify if a stroke is sus-
pected, and straight to a CAT scan and neu-
rologist to receive clot-dissolving medica-
tion right away.
Because of the pandemic, this past year-
and-a-half has been particularly stressful,
Romanaggi said.
The hospital is “really busy,” a trend
among hospitals everywhere, Romanaggi
said. “We’re feeling it across Oregon and
across the country. I think part of it is folks
had put off care for the past 18 months.”
Getting through the pandemic literally
tips a lot of people over the edge, she said.
“Nurses used to love to come work in the
emergency room in critical care,” she said.
“Today, a lot of nurses don’t want to go in
that direction.”
New programs and recruitment aim to
correct that balance, with a focus on techni-
cal skills and critical thinking.
A new emergency services manager,
Kathy Gantz, joined the staff late last month.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Contact local agencies for latest meeting
information and attendance guidelines.
TUESDAY, AUG. 17
Seaside School District, 6 p.m., seaside.k12.
or.us/meetings.
Gearhart Small Business Committee, 6 p.m.,
cityofgearhart.com.
Seaside Planning Commission, 6 p.m., work
session, 989 Broadway.
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 18
Seaside Tourism Advisory Committee,
3 p.m., 989 Broadway.
Gearhart Parks Master Plan Citizens Adviso-
ry Committee, 5:30 p.m., cityofgearhart.com.
TUESDAY, AUG. 24
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District,
5:15 p.m., Bob Chisholm Community Center.
TUESDAY, AUG. 31
Gearhart City Council and Planning Com-
mission, work session, 6:30 p.m., cityofgear-
hart.com.
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 1
Seaside Improvement Commission, 6 p.m.,
989 Broadway.
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