Tillamook Community Volunteer Program Celebrates 10th Anniversary
Faith In Action, a volunteer program serving the chronically ill, disabled and elderly throughout Tillamook (Ore.) County, marked its 10th anniversary. Volunteers provide in-home respite care, friendly visits, local transportation, meals and help with yard work and minor home repairs, enabling people to remain independent. During each of the past 10 years, an average of 80 FIA volunteers served approximately 170 families for a cumulative total of 52,778 hours of volunteer time.
Walla Walla General Hospital Purchases Blue Mountain Medical Group
After nearly a year of discussion, the 11-physician and six-nurse practitioner group located on the hospital campus will now operate under the name Adventist Health/Medical Group. The new arrangement was developed with the goal of improving communication and operational efficiencies. An additional goal was to create a physician-practice environment that would enhance physician recruitment efforts, which are already being realized with four new internal medicine physicians scheduled to join the group in the first six months of 2009. Located in three buildings on the hospital campus, the group specializes in family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology.
Premiere Rural Health Clinic Debuts in Tillamook
As of Jan. 1, 2009, Tillamook Medical Associates joined Tillamook County General Hospital as a hospital-based rural health clinic. The clinic's services will remain unchanged but the merger will help boost physician recruitment and reduce costs for both entities. In addition, TMA employees and physicians will now work for TCGH and enjoy the benefits that come along with being associated with a larger employer.
Generosity Reigns at Portland Hospital
Employees at Adventist Medical Center donated nearly $12,000 to community-based charitable programs and organizations early this year. These gifts resulted from the first year of gifts pledged during the 2008–2009 Giving Campaign, in which 555 employees participated, pledging a total of $263,000. In addition to hospital programs, 25 community social service agencies received gifts totaling $12,000.
Better Options for Pain Treatment Abound in the Walla Walla Valley
Walla Walla General Hospital recently partnered with physicians from Interventional Pain Consultants in Lewiston, Idaho, to provide treatment for chronic pain conditions. Services are available for acute and/or chronic pain such as back, leg, neck, arm pain and pain related to cancer, compression fractures and complex regional pain syndrome. Methods of treatment include various interventional medical procedures, counseling and behavioral management strategies, relaxation techniques and/or biofeedback. In the past, Walla Walla residents had to make the 200-mile round trip to Lewiston in order to receive treatment for their chronic pain.
