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The last few months I have spent largely on health care: people suddenly without doctors and a way to get prescription refills, overloaded hospital emergency departments and lack of access to urgent and primary health care, and red tape tangling up, delaying, and adding cost for our local organizations serving kids and adults.
I've had numerous communications (calls, emails, letters) with residents, health care providers, news reporters, and organization representatives. Gardening has taken a back seat this summer, but I enjoyed a few hours here and there at a concert or visiting with friends. I'll be away from Eugene for a few days at public meetings in other communities to hear about their transportation situation (roads, bridges, transit, etc.).
Meanwhile, I'm wishing a good summer for everyone, with fresh air, a walk in the park, and a song. Here's a snapshot from my garden.
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If you missed my latest e-news, here's the link to February 2024. | |
Access to Health Care: Hospitals, Doctors, Urgent Care | |
In less than a year the Eugene Springfield community experienced two major disruptions in access to care: the closing of the University District hospital, and shortly after, the ramifications of more than 30 doctors having left Oregon Medical Group since 2022, leaving several thousand people without a doctor. Some of you have followed my work through reporting in print and broadcast media. Here’s a quick review of what’s going on. | |
Downtown Hospital and Emergency Department close: what's next?
I reported earlier on closure of the PeaceHealth University District Hospital, and the stakeholder group I convened to talk about the short-term gaps to fill, and medium and long-term responses. The stakeholder group is meeting again now (see below), following the initial success of state support in February.
In the February enews I discussed my bill to help the Eugene area quickly and make some longer term changes. The bill passed, was signed by the Governor, and the wheels are in motion. HB 4136 helps get nurses to work quickly as their licenses are being approved. It includes funding for an additional ambulance crew for Eugene Fire/EMS, mitigating the cost of longer ambulance transport time. The best part: it funds innovative programs to reshape delivery of same-day healthcare beyond ambulances and crowded emergency departments. Lane County solicited proposals to finance innovations to improve access to same-day health care while decreasing overall system costs in the greater Eugene area. A key objective was to reduce demands on Fire/EMS ambulances and reduce demands on emergency departments. We can do better! Patients needing basic care shouldn't have to wait for help for hours in a hospital ED.
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Solutions, this year
The community came together, and at a remarkably fast pace has developed new approaches to deliver urgent health care. Although I often work on ways to break through sluggish bureaucracy, I'm so impressed by the energy, wisdom, and dedication of all the public and private sector people who came together to do this!
- City of Eugene and PeaceHealth are collaborating to respond to lower acuity 9-1-1 calls with a single Emergency Medical Technical (EMT) responder, relieving other Fire/EMS units to respond to higher acuity calls. The EMT responder will assess patient requirements on site and utilize tele-health, if needed, or facilitate transport to the PeaceHealth University District (UD) Urgent Care (UC), alleviating need for ambulance transport to the Emergency Dept. (ED) at a local hospital.
- White Bird Clinic, starting in the fall, will increase Mobile Crisis Services to receive patients 24/7 identified in the field as not requiring immediate medical attention. White Bird will offer crisis intervention and in-house medical, mental health, dental service and referrals.
- Lane County will coordinate with existing street-medicine partners to provide mobile health services at local shelters which see high volumes of ambulance transport. This will include an RN and community outreach workers. Services will include primary/preventative care, community referrals and health education, and transportation options for patients to the W. 11th Community Health Center when care cannot be completed by the mobile team.
- Cascade Health will increase availability of tele-health services particularly during hours of high ED usage, including for Medicaid patients, and obtain secure devices (like "tablets") for patients to access tele-health services at the White Bird Clinic
- BestMed will add one extra shift to extend hours of service at Coburg Rd Urgent Care to 8 am-10 pm seven days a week.
Now we need an information blitz to let the community know what's available! As soon as all the programs are in place, that will be a next priority for me.
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Medical equipment and supplies for first responders | |
Talking about training and technology at 9-1-1 call center | |
TV interview across from
closed OMG clinic | |
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OMG, Optum, and learning new lingo
How often did you talk about "noncompetes" a year ago? I don't think I did ... but it's in my common vocabulary now, almost every day. And these: Corporatization of health care. Vertical integration. Advanced practice clinicians. Duty of care.
My involvement started with social media posts on NextDoor: I saw posts where people asked for help finding a doctor; they could no longer get care from Oregon Medical Group. I began work right away to assess the situation and quickly intervene to limit disruption to primary health care and specialties.
I met with the Oregon Medical Association, Oregon Medical Board, Oregon Health Authority, Lane County Medical Society, and others to request specific data regarding people losing access to their physician or medical team since Optum purchased Oregon Medical Group (OMG). I met with the Governor’s staff and Attorney General’s Office, and have spoken with several investigative reporters, including one from the New York Times!
Optum has announced that they will not enforce non-compete language in Oregon, which prevented doctors from continuing to provide care to their patients in the same community. Optum also announced that they will continue processing prescription refill requests. My press release.
Going forward …
We have convened additional meetings with stakeholders to work on improving access to care in Eugene. The original health care access group is focusing now on urgent care and workforce: not enough urgent care available in the evening, lack of standards or licensing of urgent care facilities, and how to train, recruit, and retain more health care professionals to meet staffing needs in clinics, hospitals, etc.
Another group is working on identifying and proposing changes to break down regulatory burdens severely impacting the budgets and programs of our local organizations like Pearl Buck Center, Relief Nursery, Looking Glass, Oregon Community Programs, Options Counseling, Jasper Mountain, and The Arc of Lane County.
Legislative discussions are also underway to review corporate ownership of health care clinics, and corporate acquisitions and mergers. A workgroup, including providers, independent clinic owners, corporate entities and others, has convened and is scheduled to meet throughout the summer. I expect these issues to be the topics of legislation proposed for the 2025 legislative session.
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Transportation, a statewide conversation | |
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The Joint Committee on Transportation is working on a major initiative planned for next year: what does our transportation system need, and how should we fund it?
Committee leadership has designed a program of 12 public meetings around the state. The “listening tour” includes a brief presentation from ODOT before an opportunity for public input. Keep an eye out for a public announcement: the committee’s Eugene stop is scheduled for Wednesday, July 17th.
Background: In 2017 the legislature passed a major package that allocated more than $5 billion for improving roads, bridges, and public transit in Oregon and established the Statewide Transit Tax. The focus was on modernizing roads, reducing congestion, redesigning high-crash intersections, and making school walking routes safer for students.
Now, increasingly fuel efficient and electric vehicles present a challenge to Oregon’s transportation funding system, which relies heavily on fuel taxes. The 2025 transportation package will be focused on stabilizing funding for statewide maintenance, operations, and safety, as well as prioritizing unfinished projects such as the I-5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project and the I-205 Improvement Project.
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Trains: pushing for more. "Back to the future" | |
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The Oregon Rail Caucus convened a seminar on May 21 to review current sources of revenue for rail and potential untapped federal resources. We heard from a diverse panel of speakers from passenger and freight rail: ODOT, the Oregon Rail Users League (ORULE), Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, the Association of Oregon Rail and Transit Advocates (AORTA), All Aboard Northwest, and Amtrak. The seminar was recorded and is publicly available on the Oregon Legislative Rail Caucus webpage. I met with the Climate Rail Alliance on April 23.
March 2024 posted the highest ridership of any month since the 1994 inception of the Amtrak
Cascades in Oregon. Since changing the Amtrak train schedule between Eugene and Portland, and without any big ad campaign, ridership has grown dramatically. We just keep pushing for "More, Better, Faster" (more departure times, better on-time-performance, and faster speeds). The proof is in the pudding; schedule changed, more people can use the train, ridership increases.
Highlights of the quarterly report from ODOT (emphasis is mine)
"The two additional round trips between Seattle and Portland began on December 11. Train schedules
were adjusted to accommodate the new service trips. In Oregon, the morning train departure from
Eugene was moved from 5:30 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. Since this change in the schedule, ridership on the morning train out of Eugene has increased by 43 percent. ODOT and WSDOT continue to work on schedule adjustments to maximize ridership and improve transfers between trains and connecting bus service.
"... first quarter ridership dipped 10 percent below the previous quarter (Q4-2023) due to multiple landslide interruptions; nevertheless 2024 first quarter ridership finished 64 percent higher than the same period of 2023. Ridership continues to trend upward with the first quarter of 2024 showing strong ridership for a time of year when ridership is traditionally at its lowest."
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A few helpful resources to stay safe and informed:
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OHAZ: Oregon Hazards Lab
"Using Science, Technology, and Community Engagement to Understand, Detect, and Mitigate Multi-Hazards within the Pacific Northwest"
UO is not just an “ivory tower” for academic thought. As new UO President Scholz outlined in his investiture speech, UO hosts and encourages work with real societal impacts, creating “innovative models for a changing world.” I’ve been helping advance some of the work at UO and in the past couple of years have visited with key people working on cybersecurity, fire and earthquake warning systems (Hazards Lab), and children’s behavioral health (Ballmer Institute at the UO Concordia Campus in Portland). I worked to secure the initial funding for ShakeAlert, and since then the investments were expanded to include an earthquake monitoring system, and later for AlertWildfire, the largest wildfire camera network in the world. You can read more about those in my Fall 2019 enews and July 2021 enews, as well as a recent article in the Oregonian. This picture shows a view from one of the new online cameras. I visited OHAZ again in April with Reps. Holvey and Conrad.
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OHAZ works with other universities, state and federal agencies and the private sector. | |
At OHAZ: equipment for monitoring and communicating ground motion, earthquake early warning, wildfire, and smoke detection | |
Economic and revenue forecast | |
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Each quarter the Office of Economic Analysis presents an Economic and Revenue Forecast. The most recent one on May 29 reports a solid economic outlook for Oregon.
The overall outlook remains stable, with a stable labor market and employment rate. Oregon tax returns show an increase in non-wage income (stock market, etc.). Concern for the future: Oregon’s population and migration have remained constant, and may fall short of productivity needs, meaning that business growth could be slowed by insufficient workforce.
Read the full Economic and Revenue Forecast report and view the summary slides.
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Housing investment: Williams Place | |
Williams Place is a new development for veterans experiencing homelessness. It provides valuable stability, and a bridge to becoming permanently housed. I was pleased to submit a funding request of $500,000 and allocate ARPA funds to the St. Vincent de Paul project in 2021. Here's a three-minute video from SVDP. Architects designed the indoor and outdoor spaces to meet combat veterans' description of their ideal space: open, light, quiet, and accesss to outdoors. | |
near the Santa Clara transit center | |
10 one-bedroom units and on-site laundry | |
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Snapshots in the community | |
Earth Day: hearing from OSPIRG students at UO about protecting Oregon's coastal ecosystems, including kelp forests and eelgrass meadows, and sea otters | |
Visiting Delta Ponds with Vicki Walker and her family (former State Senator, now Director of State Lands Department) | |
Opening a new child care facility in north Eugene: Tip Tap Grow | |
Tip, Tap, Grow, a performing arts preschool with music, art, dance | |
House concert: musicians from Eugene Symphony Orchestra | |
Visiting Arcadia House in North Eugene, for individuals with chronic mental illness | |
A group home where residents have individual rooms and daily living supports, with 24-hour staffing. | |
Western Pond Turtle,
Delta Ponds, April 20 | |
At Arts and Business Alliance of Eugene "BRAVA" presenting an award to director Diane Retallack recognizing Eugene Concert Choir for exceptional work and achievement in the arts | |
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LCC's new 3-story health professions building for Medical Assisting, Emergency Medical Technician, Dental Hygiene, and Dental Assisting programs
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Speaking to pharmacists about legislative action to rein in Pharmacy Benefit Managers (I explain it in my Floor Speech, Oregon House, March 6) | | | | |
