Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Odessa Memorial Healthcare Center or OMHC is the current name of the facility that houses the hospital, its emergency department and its long-term care section. A new wing and rooftop heliport have been added, and the superstructure above the entrance doors now houses HVAC equipment.
Veterans Memorial Hospital, as it was known when it opened in 1950, was about half the size that it is now. Many changes have occurred over the past 72 years. Odessa has had many physicians treating patients in their offices, but until 1950 hospitalizations required a trip to Spokane.
ODESSA – Public input at the Jan. 27, 2022 meeting of the Odessa hospital board was the first item on the agenda after board chair Brian Fink called the meeting to order. Each person desiring to speak to the board was given five minutes to air their concerns. The common theme among the three who chose to speak was frustration with the levels of care at the clinic and in the emergency department. One person addressed the turnover of recent months, the rumors of possible malpractice lawsuits that could lead to increased insurance costs and local levy failures. Another visitor addressed pain management for a family member and the struggle to receive callbacks from clinic providers. The third voiced concerns for a wheelchair-bound patient with no services at home, they said, who was sent back home after an ER visit, citing lack of communication with providers as to how the person would manage there.
Chief Financial Officer Kim Dalrymple introduced the new IT (information technology) manager for the medical campus, Bill Taft, who steps in following the resignation of Marcus Horak.
Clinic Manager Jace Angelly reported 36 new positive test results for Covid in the month of January, 67 percent of them in unvaccinated individuals. Angelly also reported that a new provider for the clinic, Kay Gentry, FNP-C, has been hired and will be able to start working in Odessa at the end of April. An additional temporary provider, Laurie Edinger, is also currently at the clinic.
Megan Shepard, director of nursing, reported that the recent uptick in Covid cases has also affected staff members at the hospital but that the nursing staff has been pulling together to cover patient needs. She also reported that transports to and from the emergency department were a challenge due to a lack of EMTs, with long waits for transfer to other hospitals in some cases. No falls or injuries were reported among patients at OMHC for all of 2021.
Erik Cassidy, lab manager at OMHC who is also assisting part-time EMS coordinator Miranda Taylor with emergency service matters, reported on the purchase of a new ambulance to replace the 1996 Ford model now in use. A grant application written by CEO John Serle has resulted in a $100,000 grant obtained through the Grand Columbia Health Alliance of which OMHC is a member. The board has already agreed to fund the additional $160,000 needed to purchase the ambulance. The money must be spent in 2022. Cassidy reports that Osage Ambulances in Missouri, one of only eight ambulance manufacturers in the U.S., has submitted a bid for a 2022 ambulance with 4-wheel drive, a built-in lift and modern equipment. The board approved his recommendation to purchase the Osage ambulance.
CEO John Serle presented the board with a proposal for alleviating the problem of too few EMTs willing to take on-call shifts even after they have been trained and certified. Low pay was an issue for many. The EMT on-call shift rate has been raised to $2.50/hour, but Serle also proposes a plan for a $50 shift bonus that he hopes will help attract more EMTs to serve. The town currently has five EMTs, but there are others who have completed the EMT class but have not taken the certification test. Serle says there is a need for two EMTs per shift plus a driver.
Serle also proposes a staffing model for the OMHC campus that would employ three providers at the Odessa Clinic working five days/week with no on-call duties, plus two providers working in the hospital on a seven-days-on, seven-days-off schedule. He says he previously worked with a company that provides such staffing assistance and was happy with the results they provided. The company will give a presentation to the board on Feb. 10 at 5:30 p.m. in the Guild Room to aid them in deciding whether or not to engage them.
In a follow-up interview with the CEO this week regarding the public input that opened the board's meeting of the previous week, Serle expressed frustration that privacy laws prevent him from responding to grievances in a public forum such as the board meeting or on social media. He suggests that contacting him or other department heads and following the chain of command is a more successful approach to any concerns that the public might have. Board member Jeff Schibel also addresses this issue in his "Local Commentary" article on page 4 (and The Record will provide a related editorial next week). By law, clinic and hospital staff cannot respond publicly to complaints. That is why personnel issues are discussed only in executive sessions and why a patient's private health information can never be released or talked about in an open forum without the person's consent.
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