Columbia County Health System

Our Team put in a great effort to put the event on, but nature had other plans. Thanks to everybody who worked on this, your efforts are recognized.

It is the last month of our Dayton ALIVE! program. Personally for me, it is a time to get re-energized to accomplish goals that I started seven weeks ago. We have four Monday nutrition discussions left (starting at 12 and 4:15,) Zumba classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Biking and Running on Saturdays.

It is important to remember when trying to improve our health, whether it be dropping a pant size, reducing cholesterol levels or improving blood pressure, it all comes down to changing certain habits. Starting or stopping a habit sound easy, but when you get down to it, it can be difficult. Having a support system and writing down your goals is a great place to start.

We have a month left with the Dayton ALIVE! program, and it is not too late to get started, and for some of you, just keep up the dedicated health journey you began in March. There are many of you who have inspired me…so keep up the hard work.

Monday Classes
April 23 – Glycemic Index, Glycemic load, Hunger vs Satiety.
April 30 – Making the last month count….taking a look at goals.
May 7 – Fat Busters: food, cholesterol and body fat.
May 14 – Maintaining Motivation and Initiating Healthy Habits
May 21 – Loving your life…staying positive. Recap over the 12 week program.

Hope you can make it!

Jody Martin

We are very pleased to announce that the hospital board has hired Jon Smiley from Sunnyside, WA to fill the role of Interim CEO. Jon is recently retired from Sunnyside Hospital where he was CEO for over 19 years. Jon has 50 years of executive healthcare management experience and has an exceptional reputation throughout the state.

Additionally the CEO job description has been approved by the board and the job is officially posted. Click Here for the CEO/Administrator Job Description. Applicants are encouraged to contact Columbia County Health System’s human resource department.

OLYMPIA  Today Secretary of Health Mary Selecky announced that whooping cough disease has reached epidemic levels in Washington. So far in 2012, 640 cases have been reported in 23 counties as of March 31. This compares to 94 cases during this same time period last year, putting Washington on-pace to have the highest number of reported cases in decades. Please Read More: whooping-cough-epidemic-WA

Booker’s Getting a new roof! Thanks to Janean, Nick, Brian, Mike, Kevin for the help on stocking the roof. Amazing team, amazing teamwork!

Fiber to our doorstep, er well, fiber innerduct to our doorstep at this point. We are really looking forward to this service when it becomes available sometime this spring summer.

Hello Charlie,

I was reviewing some statistics for hospitals that have received Meaningful Use payments. There was a list of hospitals that CMS had posted on their website. We did some research on the size of the hospitals, if they were CAH or not and if they were CPSI clients. The first list came out for hospitals paid as of the end of September 2011. There were only 3 CAH’s. Columbia County Hospital District was one of the three.

This means you guys were one of the first 3 CAH’s in the nation to be paid for Meaningful use. As a side note – all 3 of these hospitals were CPSI clients.

A new list has come out for hospitals that have been paid as of the end of December 2011. There are 22 CAH’s listed, so you guys are still in the top 2% of CAH hospitals in the nation who have met the objectives and being paid. CPSI did not have 100% this time we had 41% – still a strong showing.

I hope things are going well for you!

Sincerely,

Sean Nicholas
Senior Sales Director

Over the course of the last few months, rural healthcare has experienced more challenges than ever before. When money gets tight, as it has on both the federal and state levels, discussions start happening on what is important and what is not, what is efficient and what is not, and what is political and what is not. There have been so many proposed changes to the funding and operating controls on rural healthcare that we are forced to pick and choose which initiative to fight for or defend. We should be proud that our community led the state in defending cost based reimbursement for Critical Access Hospitals and it appears that we are winning the fight. There are other proposed cuts that we may not be as fortunate with but hopefully the impact will not be as dramatic. We know that change is inevitable but influencing the change is critical.

On a local level, the best way to help our health system is to use our health system. If something has stopped you from entering or continuing in our care, please let us know. We want you back.

~Charlie Button, CEO

We Need Your Help Protecting Rural Washington Healthcare

The proposed Governor’s budget slashes reimbursement of Medicaid patients by an average of 48% to Critical Access Hospitals in Washington State. Dayton General Hospital is facing a larger cut of 76% or $404,000 annually. This will be devastating to our Health System and community. This is not a reasonable cut for critical services.

Please contact the following key State representatives and encourage them to “preserve cost based reimbursement for Critical Access Hospitals”. The future of our local hospital is at stake.

Legislators

1. Senator Mike Hewitt (360) 786-7630 mike.hewitt@leg.wa.gov
2. Representative Terry Nealey (360) 786-7828 Terry.nealey@leg.wa.gov
3. Representative Maureen Walsh (360) 786-7836 Maureen.walsh@leg.wa.gov
4. Representative Mike Armstrong (360) 786-7832 mike.armstrong@leg.wa.gov
5. Senator Linda Evans Parlette (360) 786-7622 linda.parlette@leg.wa.gov
6. Representative Joel Kretz (360) 786-7988 joel.kretz@leg.wa.gov
7. Representative Shelly Short (360) 786-7908 shelly.short@leg.wa.gov
8. Senator Bob Morton (360) 786-7612 bob.morton@leg.wa.gov
9. Senator Karen Keiser (360) 786-7664 karen.keiser@leg.wa.gov
10. Representative Eileen Cody (360) 786-7978 eileen.cody@leg.wa.gov

If you have questions or want more information, please contact Charlie Button, CEO of Columbia County Health System at (509) 382-9355 or email at charlieb@cchd-wa.org