Weekend before last, as I made my way between Mendocino and Fort Bragg, it seemed like every encounter with a local included a question or comment about the Oncology Department at Adventist Health Mendocino Coast (AHMC). The questions were along these lines, “Are they closing oncology at the coast hospital?” The statements were more flat out, “Adventist Health is closing oncology on the coast and sending all the patients to Ukiah.”
My first reaction to dire statements or questions that invoke doom is that the truth is usually never as bad as the perceived worse case scenario. The best approach to get at the truth is to go as close to the source and ask your own question. In that situation, you may get the truth, or, if not, something that can be wielded later on.
On Monday, August 19 I texted Dr. William Miller, who has been at the Coast Hospital since before the affiliation with Adventist Health (AH) in the summer of 2020. He has always been forthright, and if he doesn't know a full answer he will try to find it out or direct you to someone who might know. I asked, “There is a rumor going around that AH is going to close the oncology department at the coast hospital. Can you confirm or squelch this rumor?”
Dr. Miller responded in a timely manner. “A decision to close oncology has not been made. Judy will email you an official statement.”
At more or less the same time I talked on the phone with a long time source/adviser on all things having to do with medical finances throughout the country. That conversation led me to respond to Dr. Miller's text with this, “To me the key phrase there is, ‘has not been made…’ The missing word may well be… ‘yet.’ My impression inside AH is that there are concerns about significant financial losses due to lack of reimbursement for the extreme high end drugs used in oncology.”
A minute or two later I added this text, “Judy’s email needs to be as realistic and specific as possible. If it is perceived as an attempt to gloss things over that will not play in the long run.”
The Judy referenced in those texts is Judy Leach, Adventist Health's top administrator at the Coast Hospital. Her email arrived promptly, not long after Dr. Miller promised it.
In full it read, “We understand that cancer care matters deeply to this community. Oncology patients are continuing to receive exceptional care from Dr. Sharma and her team at the hospital. A decision has not been made to close oncology services. We are however continually evaluating the future viability of all healthcare services including oncology.
“As a critical access hospital, stewardship of local healthcare means determining how to preserve access for essential needs like keeping our emergency room or access to local physicians readily available. These are difficult issues to process. We are evaluating how to maintain needs and demands for local care while pharmaceutical gouging, reductions in reimbursement and continued changes in state and national policy are impacting our local rural critical access hospital. The regulations for critical access hospitals is very different from that of larger hospitals.
“Citizens wanting to make their voices heard should write their congressman and ask for immediate changes in reimbursement policy and access to affordable oncology medications for critical access hospitals.”
On August 22, at the Mendocino Coast Health Care District monthly board meeting, Ms. Leach reiterated nearly every phrase from the email. Readers can go to mendocinochcd.gov to find a link to her exact words. Her comments begin at approximately 24 minutes into the recording. She began by acknowledging the comments of members of the public who spoke earlier about their own experiences then connected it to her own experience. “Cancer services are extremely needed on the coast… As a person who has gone through cancer treatments, I understand why the care is so essential,”
Leach went on to repeat the details expressed in the email above, including that Dr. Sharma, who came to the Coast Hospital from Stanford, provides oncology (the branch of medicine dealing with cancer – the root of the word comes from Greek, meaning a mass or tumor) care services three days a week. The coast hospital also has a nurse practitioner working with oncology patients. The nurse practitioner's contractual obligation to the Coast Hospital runs through the end of the year.
Leach repeated the statement that no decision has been made by Adventist Health to close oncology services at the Coast Hospital. She also repeated that AH continues to evaluate the viability of all services offered at AHMC. Those listening to her words on a recording of the healthcare district meeting or perusing them here can interpret them to their personal liking… As so often is the bottom line, time will tell.
- If you are inclined to contact a lawmaker such as our State Senator Mike McGuire, the President pro tempore of the California State Senate, you can call his office in the state capitol: 916-651-4002 or his Ukiah office: 707-468-8914.
- An email contact is set up at: sd02.senate.ca.gov
- For Congressman Jared Huffman, go to: huffman.house.gov/contact
- For U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, call: 310-231-4494 or 202-224-0357 or use his email form at: padilla.senate.gov
- For U.S. Senator Laphonza Butler, call: 310-914-7300 or use the email form at: butler.senate.gov
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