June 7, 2013

CEO has big plans for Curry General Hospital

Curry Health Network CEO Andrew Bair is trying to make his dreams into reality.

They include attracting physicians to its hospital in Gold Beach and clinics in Port Orford and Brookings, obtaining prestigious certifications, getting a sleep study center, IV therapy unit and chemotherapy unit - and the much-clamored-for dialysis center.

He plans to speak to a group of local dialysis patients this weekend about their frustrations in obtaining treatment, which include long drives to other counties to do so. A small but vocal group is aggravated by alleged promises by past directors at the health network to bring such services to the area, and it hopes Bair will be their savior.

In the district's new strategic plan, Bair would ideally like to have a dialysis center open somewhere in the county by June 2014.

He said the new plan was needed to guide future operations of the health network.

"It gives us direction," he said. "We're excited about having true direction. With each goal is a subset of action items and the people on the executive team are being held accountable for getting it done."

Dialysis center officials in Medford have said they need at least 25 patients to make a center financially feasible for them.

"The chatter is that we have a population of dialysis patients in Brookings, and not too far across the California border is a mirror group of people," Bair said. "It may be a community big enough to support this service."

As a registered nurse, he understands their plight.

"They live from appointment to appointment," Bair said. "They travel a treacherous, winding road of 100 miles plus - that's awful. You might expect that if you live in the middle of nowhere, and I don't know that we are. I'd be excited to bring that service here. It's going to take a group effort, but I hope and pray that something can happen."

He has no idea where a chemo or dialysis center would be located - except that it has to be closer than Medford, Coos Bay or Eureka.

Article courtesy of the Curry Coastal Pilot