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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Sutter Lakeside Hospital’s administration has decided to close two clinics as part of continued efforts to improve the hospital’s financial picture.
The hospital’s Upper Lake Community Health Clinic, a longtime fixture that’s located on the grounds of Upper Lake High School, is slated to be closed, along with the hospital’s clinic that offers chronic pain management, Chief Administrative Officer Siri Nelson told Lake County News Wednesday.
The Upper Lake clinic – which serves about 2,400 patients annually and has three full-time employees – loses more than $200,000 annually, Nelson said.
Nelson said Sutter Lakeside plans to move the clinic’s services to its Family Medical Center at the main hospital campus on Hill Road East outside of Lakeport.
The services will be offered at the Family Medical Center beginning May 31, with expanded hours and more providers to be added to accommodate the new patients previously served by the clinic in Upper Lake, Nelson said.
The goal is to transfer the Upper Lake clinic’s staff to the medical center, but that is still being worked out, said Nelson.
Sutter Lakeside is considering making its mobile health unit available in Upper Lake one day a week as an alternative for some patients. Nelson said the details of that proposal need to be worked out with the school district.
The pain clinic, staffed by Dr. Vernetta Johnson, also is being closed, with a targeted closure date of June 30, Nelson said. It serves approximately 650 patients annually.
Nelson reported that despite efforts to rework services there, the clinic continues to lose more than $1 million annually.
She said Sutter Lakeside is working with local doctors to find alternative treatment options for the patients who use the clinic’s services.
The other action announced this week is that the outpatient draw center is being moved from its current location on the campus to inside the hospital itself, which Nelson said is a more convenient location that should also help streamline the blood draw process. The draw station will be moved as of Monday, April 23.
The clinic closures announced this week are the latest measures taken by Sutter Lakeside to deal with reduced revenue and an increase in medical care to uninsured or underinsured patients.
Sutter Lakeside – part of the nonprofit Sutter Health network – last month announced that it would be laying off 10 percent of its staff. Nelson said the hospital has about 300 full-time positions.
A report Nelson issued to staff in March said Sutter Lakeside was on track to lose more than $10 million this year if the staff cuts weren’t made, as Lake County News has reported.
Nelson’s Wednesday progress report update said virtually all the employees slated for layoff have been notified, with the notifications expected to be completed this week.
She said she could not yet give a specific number about how many employees would be cut due to the need to work out the details with the unions that represent hospital staff.
“It’s a long and, unfortunately, laborious process,” she said.
Nelson said she doesn’t anticipate more cost cutting measures taking place soon.
“At this point we’re hoping that this will be enough to turn our financial situation around,” Nelson said.
Sutter Lakeside is continuing to work on other efficiencies, with the clinic closures part of the overall plan, she said. It’s hoped that the combination of actions will turn things around for the hospital.
“The big unknown, really, is the overall economy in Lake County and where that’s going to go,” Nelson said.
Over the past month community members have raised concerns that the hospital might close.
Nelson said there is no indication from Sutter Health that closing Sutter Lakeside is being considered, with that option “absolutely not on the radar at all.”
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
SACRAMENTO – The Assembly Public Safety Committee on Wednesday gave unanimous, bipartisan support to a bill by Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro (D-North Coast) to crack down on offenders who pollute the environment and endanger the public by growing or manufacturing illegal drugs on forest lands.
“This bill is not about the legal production or use of medical marijuana under California law,” Chesbro told the committee. “This bill is about protecting those who work in the woods and those who hike, hunt or fish on public and private forest lands from the increasing violence from illegal drug operations. It is also about protecting these lands from pollution and diversion of waterways.”
Madeline Melo testified in favor of the bill and talked about her late husband Jere’s work and the tragic end of his life as well as the overall impact illegal drug production has had on the region.
Melo’s husband, Fort Bragg City Councilman Jere Melo, was inspecting forest land near the Noyo River for illegal marijuana grows when he was killed last Aug. 27.
The suspect in Melo’s murder, Aaron Bassler, also was believed responsible for killing Mendocino Land Trust conservationist Matthew Coleman two weeks earlier near Westport.
AB 2284 would increase the penalties for those violating the law by growing marijuana, operating a meth lab or any other illicit drug manufacturing on forest lands.
Under a very limited scope, the bill also would allow law enforcement to pull over and question drivers transporting irrigation piping onto or through resource lands.
AB 2284’s focus is on public lands and large scale industrial timber lands, not on homeowners or small property owners.
“Last year during ‘Operation Full Court Press’ more than 50,000 pounds of garbage was removed from national forest lands from illegal marijuana grows,” said Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman, who testified in support of AB 2284 at Wednesday’s hearing. “This bill will hopefully prevent these materials from being brought onto public lands.”
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
MENDOCINO COUNTY, Calif. – While conducting a warrant search for illegal marijuana Mendocino County law enforcement officials were surprised when they also found endangered wild steelhead and poached ducks.
On March 7, Department of Fish and Game (DFG) warden Don Powers seized 18 wild steelhead and 56 ducks from freezers in two locations while assisting the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department in serving search warrants for illegal marijuana propagation.
The wild steelhead, 17 of which were spawning females, are believed to be from the Garcia River in Mendocino County, where they are protected and listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Formal charges will be brought against Kyle Edward Stornetta, 31, of Manchester for unlawful possession of the wild steelhead as well as unlawful possession of an overlimit of ducks.
Prosecutors are currently evaluating the case and deciding which additional state and federal regulations were violated, including marijuana violations.
“Enforcement efforts are critical to ensuring the threatened wild steelhead stocks are able to rebuild by returning and completing their spawning cycle on the Garcia River,” said DFG’s Chief of Enforcement Nancy Foley.
Wild steelhead along the Mendocino Coast were listed as threatened by the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2000 and it is unlawful to catch or possess them.
The federal listing spurred the investment of millions of dollars of public and private funds in the Garcia River and its watershed to fund restoration and conservation efforts including bank stabilization, upslope sediment reduction, the planting of thousands of small willow, silt reduction programs, road upgrading or decommissioning, and other improvement and forestry projects and practices.
Specific contributions have included more than $1 million in grants issued by DFG’s Fisheries Restoration Grants Program, an $18 million purchase of the Garcia Forest by the Conservation Fund of the Garcia River Forest to manage and restore its 23,780 acres, and a $3.5 million for a conservation easement purchased by the Nature Conservancy to conduct studies and monitor fish and wildlife populations within the forest.
Other investors include the County of Mendocino, the Mendocino Redwood Company and California Trout Unlimited.
The steelhead population is responding to these efforts and showing increasing signs of recovery. In 2009, DFG biologists estimated only 65 steelhead returned to spawn to the Garcia River, but in 2010 approximately 250 steelhead were tallied and in 2011 an estimated 770 steelhead spawned.
Even with these increasing numbers, the loss of 17 females is a significant blow to the Garcia River’s steelhead population.
“Those 17 females could have produced about 70,000 eggs to help restock the river,” said Doug Albin, a DFG fisheries biologist in Fort Bragg. “The Garcia River is gradually being nursed back to health by a number of groups pooling their conservation and restoration efforts, but those investments are negated when spawning females are illegally taken like this.”
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A Lakeport woman sustained minor injuries and was arrested for driving under the influence Wednesday morning after her vehicle went off the road while traveling over the Hopland Grade.
Teena Rangel, 24, was injured in the crash, which occurred on Highway 175 over the Hopland Grade at about 5 a.m. Wednesday morning, according to Officer Kory Reynolds of the California Highway Patrol's Clear Lake Area office.
Reynolds said Rangel was driving her 2002 Mercury Sable westbound at an unknown speed when she failed to negotiate a right curve in the roadway.
Rangel's vehicle ran off the north shoulder and down a steep embankment, Reynolds said.
Rangel sustained minor injuries to her forehead, right ankle and left side rib cage, according to Reynolds.
Rangel later was arrested for driving under the influence at Sutter Lakeside Hospital, he said.
Traffic control was in effect for approximately 15 minutes when the vehicle was being recovered, according to Reynolds.
The collision is under investigation by Officer Steve Curtis.