Redwoods Rural Health Center’s Board of Directors Urges Community to Vote Yes on Measure F

Emergency Room Jerold Phelps Community HospitalWelcome to our letters to the editor/opinion section. To submit yours for consideration, please send to [email protected]. Please consider including an image to be used–either a photograph of you or something applicable to the letter. However, an image is not necessary for publicati

Dear Editor,

Redwoods Rural Health Center’s Board of Directors strongly supports Measure F to maintain essential healthcare services in Southern Humboldt. Our clinic is open only on weekdays, and we have limited ancillary services. Our patients rely on the 24-hour Emergency Room, radiology, mammography, and physical therapy services offered at SHCHD. Our Dr. Scheel is a participating member of the Jerold Phelps Community Hospital medical staff team and has served as a back-up Emergency Room physician. He and our other providers are aware of the vital role the Hospital’s new CT scanner will play in improving critical diagnostic services in our community.

Measure F requires a 2/3 majority to pass, so every vote counts! Please join us in voting YES on Measure F on June 5th.

Tina Tvedt Schaible, MHA, CMPE

Executive Director

Redwoods Rural Health Center

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Zookeeper
Guest
Zookeeper
5 years ago

I was passing through & had to stop at this clinic for a minor infection on the way to SF. While waiting in their lobby we heard a radio call about a patient who EMTs had given up for dead. Heroin overdose (what else, Humboldt). Picked her up way over on the coast.

Listened to the expert advice the clinic dr dispensed to the clearly panicky EMTs. They wheeled in her body, we thought, but after she was in 20 minutes we started hearing her become combative with staff & finally talking normal somewhat. I.e. they saved her life.

If she had to ride North go Fortuna they would’ve lost her. Good facility that needs our support $.

CoveTroll
Guest
CoveTroll
5 years ago
Reply to  Zookeeper

Narcan. A junkies worst nightmare…..it’ll ruin your high and yes, make you combative

BAD SHCHD! NO $0.34/DAY!
Guest
BAD SHCHD! NO $0.34/DAY!
5 years ago

A simple question:

Do you want to extend the tenure of the current management team and the board of SHCHD?

Only by denying the funding will the community regain some measure of control over SHCHD.

SHCHD does not care what SoHum wants. SHCHD merely wants to stagger forward and maintain its current status as one of the poorest quality facilities in Northern California.

DENY THE FUNDS! DEMAND CONTROL! NO ON MEASURE F!!

Wow!
Guest
Wow!
5 years ago

They just received an award, as one of the nicest in the state.

NO $0.34/DAY FOR SHCHD! NOT THIS TIME...
Guest
NO $0.34/DAY FOR SHCHD! NOT THIS TIME...
5 years ago
Reply to  Wow!

Please defend for credit.

Award for what?

Wow!
Guest
Wow!
5 years ago

Credit is hanging in the wall inside. Go check it out sometime

NO $0.34/DAY FOR SHCHD! NOT THIS TIME...
Guest
NO $0.34/DAY FOR SHCHD! NOT THIS TIME...
5 years ago
Reply to  Wow!

Thanks for the information. I will be sure to check it out.

Dan Conklin
Guest
Dan Conklin
5 years ago

I agree, close the hospital. It serves no good. The above post makes a good point, this hospital is only used for homeless drug addicts. Why do we want to support a health facility that the tax payers would never use themselves. This is a run down joke of a hospital. I think it needs to be closed and the resources could be better spent in fortuna.

Joe
Guest
Joe
5 years ago

Closing it is not a way to fix it regardless of your beef. If you don’t like the way things are run, come join the board. This town will face a serious setback if it closes.

Joe Hansen
Guest
Joe Hansen
5 years ago
Reply to  Joe

If I wanted to live near a hospital, it would not be SHCH. I did not move here 50 years ago to be forced through taxes to pay for a service of which the hospital customer is not willing to pay. Let it go.

Shanna Archibold
Guest
Shanna Archibold
5 years ago

I appreciate voters who research issues before voting. There is lots of good information on the SHCHD website. Here’s my view on why we should VOTE YES ON F.

The truth of the matter is no one ever wants to use an ambulance or emergency room…EVER! But when the neccesity for an ambulance occurs and you are the one making that horribly surreal 911 call and counting every second until the ambulance shows up while holding someone’s hand, you don’t want to wait. The ambulance service that picks up injured people with their life blood draining away or gasping that last breath and delivers them to the ER for stabilization or to the nearest open field for a life flight/ emergency helicopter ride to San Francisco or Redding is essential in our rural healthcare district. The first responders and volunteer firefighters must have opinions on the essentialness of this service.

Every Christmas I take the local 4-H kids caroling and to deliver Christmas presents at the skilled nursing facility. There are usually around 10 full time residents who are living their lives there with full medical care. The staff has told me that they have a waiting list of more people who need this service.

Besides bed space and emergency room, many services are offered. There are also labs that are used by the hospital, Redwoods Rural Health Center, and other doctors. There are x-ray, mammogram, CT scan and other services available. There is physical therapy services also.

The Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District has room for improvement. I say Expand the skilled nursing facility so the hospital makes more money. Let’s open a birthing room. But right now this is a proposal to just keep what we have.
When people say no on F, people are saying they won’t even give the hospital the amount of money they spend on coffee, cable, amazon prime, or a dinner for 2 at Cecil’s restaurant. This isn’t sending anybody to the poor house. When people say they are voting no on F because they don’t support new taxes…This is NOT A NEW TAX, just a continuation of the old one. Thanks for your consideration.
Please join me in voting Yes on F.

Taurus Ballzhoff
Guest
Taurus Ballzhoff
5 years ago

Let’s leave this at money, control, and regard.

The parcel tax is an insult. Property taxes are unfairly applied to the population. Thousands of potential SHCHD beneficiaries will pay nothing. Many property owners who do not and would never use SHCHD have paid and paid.

SHCHD has not improved as a result. It is still broke, still is a poor steward of the public’s funding and trust, and SHCHD still wants general financial support.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

The control of the hospital lies in the hands of a largely UN-elected board, and a VERY small number of Administrators.

SoHum, as a community, has NO control over this public agency.

SHCHD does as it pleases, with practically no general community oversight.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

The regard for the community shown by SHCHD is abysmal. SHCHD goes forward with absolute power, power to spend, waste, and misapply funding. SHCHD also is known to abuse, harass, and mismanage its employees. SHCHD does not provide a Pharmacy, Women’s health, Behavioral Health and many other services the community needs and wants.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

SHCHD has failed us in so many ways!

SHCHD fails to:

-Bill effectively
-Develop profitable lines of business
-Staff adequately with trained, licensed, competent people
-Develop relationships within the community
-Operate transparently and without showing conflicts of interest
-Deal honestly with the community

The abuse of power at SHCHD is overwhelming, and consciousness of this abuse is clearly evident within the community.

Withholding general funding, demanding a new and elected board, and turning out the entrenched incumbent management, these are initial steps toward the facility which is clearly needed.

We need to go from what we have had in the past, to the facility SoHum needs in the future.

Withholding general funding is the first step!

No one is saying we don’t need it! BUT:

We need it to change!

VOTE NO ON F!

Wow!
Guest
Wow!
5 years ago

There’s actually major improvements from the parcel tax but I doubt you realize this, since it sounds like you haven’t been there in years. Drive past sometime and you can see numerous improvements just from the outside. If you tuck away your hostility for a day & check out the improvements inside too, maybe you can check out the current state awards they have received in the last couple years

Tired of Bullies
Guest
Tired of Bullies
5 years ago

Paul Riley, aka Taurus Ballzhoff, you’ve written your letter, we read it. Repetition doesn’t make it more believable

Mom
Guest
Mom
5 years ago

You want them to start offering more services, with less money and support??

Dan Conklin
Guest
Dan Conklin
5 years ago

This poster is right, everyone who owns a parcel in shelter cove has to pay a mandatory fee for the hospital. These properties are just un build-able hillsides with no homes but they must pay every year for a hospital!

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
Ernie Branscomb
5 years ago

Thank you Tina,
And, Thank you Doctor Sheel for being a consistent face in our local medical care.

To lose the Jerold Phelps Hospital would be a devastating blow to the Community.

We need the emergency room. To say that we can do without it is as foolish as saying we don’t need local fire departments because they have better ones in Eureka. The County has already said that we don’t need a court house, because we have a better one in Eureka, and we all know how much a trip to Eureka costs us to take care of legal matters. Some can’t even afford to deal with their legal problems because of the cost of the trip.

The cost of the tax is far less than the drop in our property value if the tax doesn’t pass, not to mention the crippling blow it would be to our infrastructure.

I am part of this community, I guess that it is no big secret that I love this community. It hurts me to see it crumble in so many different ways because of people that simply don’t care. We have worked hard to keep our Sheriff’s department staffed, we have worked hard to keep our airport open, we have worked hard to fix our roads. Many people dedicate much volunteer time on community projects, to clean the town and roads, form technical rescue squads, I could go on and on about the people that care about our community.

I will say that there are many things wrong with our hospital, but I will also say that they are trying hard to serve this community. Wouldn’t it be nice if we worked as hard to help and direct the hospital as we work to kill the tax.

I am sorry that I have made this post so personal, but when your life blood is being threatened how can it be anything but personal. Please join me and the dedicated folks that make this place a community, and vote for measure “F”. You can’t fix what you don’t have.

Ernie Branscomb

Joe
Guest
Joe
5 years ago

Thanks Ernie. I am with you.

Mike
Guest
Mike
5 years ago

In southern Humboldt we don’t get allot of bang for our buck, our roads are crumbling causing our vehicles to fall apart, many parents end up driving their children to scotia school or homeschooling out of dissatisfaction with the local schools, we pay a cal fire tax even though there is little chance of them helping in the event of a house fire ( not that it is their fault it is due to rural living and the response time forest fires are another matter entirely) if you are unlucky enough to have to call the sheriffs department for help they will most likely want to take the report over the phone because they don’t want to even come to your house (I have first hand experience in that when my house was robbed) and we pay a parcel tax for a hospital that most, not all, but most sohum residents would prefer to never have to use. My point is that allot of us are tired of being taxed and seeing almost no benefit . I understand that this tax is good for the hospital and its employees, just like the gas tax is good for caltrans workers leaning on their shovels. But the hospital isn’t saying what they are going to improve instead they are making threats of shutting down. They are saying continue to give us this Money and we will continue to operate, many locals obviously are not happy with how they are operating, you need to make a effort to improve as you are fighting a up hill battle after decades of bad publicity. Being dissatisfied with the hospital doesn’t mean that you hate the community for me it just means that I am disappointed in their services and they don’t appear to be addressing the issues except for saying “we can do better” as you said this is not a new tax but a continuation of a existing one so you cannot blame the hospitals performance on the lack of these funds, we’ve already seen what they can do with this tax.

Bc
Guest
Bc
5 years ago
Reply to  Mike

You nailed it….

Sigh!
Guest
Sigh!
5 years ago
Reply to  Mike

I don’t work for the hospital & go north to Fortuna too. I’m willing to pay 34cents a day if it means helping others. All I keep hearing is,

“ME ME ME! Why should I have to pay for someone else, I hate that hospital anyways!”

While I may not use the facility myself, MANY of my neighbors do. They couldn’t afford to go north or south for their medical needs. They definitely can’t afford to move closer to other facilities either. Your worried about 34 cents a day? My neighbor is worried about the $30 per trip it’ll cost her to go north, since she goes in almost every other day. So she’s looking at least 15 trips x $30=$450 at a minimum, she will need to come up with per month, to attend to her medical needs. That’s half her social security $ per month & she’s just one example.

We are all in the same pond here. While you all throw pebbles, try to think of others you effect 1st before yourselves. I don’t wish to hurt my neighbors finances, to save myself 34 cents a day. That’s not how I was raised!

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Sigh!

Oh, no reason not to add a little more to the CalFire fee, the 5 school bonds, the volunteer fire department assessment already on the property tax bill, the sales tax increases, the gas taxes, the utility taxes, the non standard septic non inspection fee, etc. And there is always a good reason for just a little more taken out of your pocket. At least that’s been the political philosophy of government in the last 10 years.

Sigh!
Guest
Sigh!
5 years ago
Reply to  Guest

And I’ve seen improvements in the last 30 yrs, since those taxes began & the depts & services they improved. I’d hate to see how it’d be, if the taxes hadn’t covered & improved those neccesay services.

NO $0.34/DAY FOR SHCHD! NOT THIS TIME...
Guest
NO $0.34/DAY FOR SHCHD! NOT THIS TIME...
5 years ago

PLEASE DON’T SAY THAT THIS TAX IS ABOUT ALTRUISM!

It just isn’t.

The status quo, has failed. Ten years of parcel tax has not changed anything.

The entrenched incumbent management – failed.

The UN-elected board – failed.

More tax, through Measure F – failing, just like Measure W.

The dishonest sales job – failing.

Sohum Community Control? There is none!

DON’T BUY THIS! DEMAND COMMUNITY CONTROL! DENY THE FUNDING!

VOTE NO ON MEASURE F!!

Dave Kirby
Guest
Dave Kirby
5 years ago

Thanks Tina. As a former board member on both Redwoods Rural and the Healthcare District I am aware of the hard working providers from Redwoods Rural that over the years have helped to staff the hospital E.R..
I must say that these folks who talk about replacing the current Healthcare District board or any board around here are out of touch with local reality. The reason some board members are appointed is that you can’t elect members if nobody runs. Historically staffing local boards has been an on going struggle. If you really have issues with board decisions then run. I you have specific suggestions to improve service come to a meeting. Believe me, constructive criticism is welcome.
The District will never be profitable so if we want to keep what we have we need to continue what must be the best bargain in healthcare around and vote yes on Measure F. I pay far more than $125.00 a year for meds. And I’ll be damned if I want to spend the extra time going north for a ride that might be my last.

NO $0.34/DAY FOR SHCHD! NOT THIS TIME...
Guest
NO $0.34/DAY FOR SHCHD! NOT THIS TIME...
5 years ago
Reply to  Dave Kirby

Dave,

You certainly can’t elect board members if there is no election. By my watch, no board member has been placed by election since 2013.

Appointing “friendly” board members is not conducive to community input or constructive change.

Your hospital is still operated by a very small number of persons. SoHum contains 10,000+
individuals. Please stop insisting that “nobody ever runs”.

You served, once. Thanks!

Today is May 18, 2018. Whatever happened in the past, it’s over.

We need to move forward, and the current board and administrators are an assemblage of less than 10 persons who never say anything new, and who seem intent on flying the hospital into the ground, while insisting that “it will close”. Nonsense.

Several other hospitals are broke, facing closure, bankrupt.

When they get into this condition, outside companies line up to take over.

Your hospital will not close, but it may well end up in the hands of outsiders.

If SHCHD can manage to change, it may survive, but the current entrenched administrators, and the current gang of unqualified board members ALL need to be replaced. Locals may mean well, but they are not too good at running a hospital!

WITHHOLD THE FUNDS! VOTE NO ON F!!

Concerned for SoHum
Guest
Concerned for SoHum
5 years ago

If you want change try volunteering with the hospital, or attending a board meeting. The meetings are open to the public and yet people choose to get up on top of their online soap box and preach about how terrible things are. What are you really doing to effect positive change? Vote YES on measure F. Let go of your personal hate, spite, anger, and petty resentment. Take a deep breath and think of the other people living and working in this community that are depending on SHCHD facilities and services on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. This is NOT a new tax, this will not take any additional money from property owners…actually as healthcare services and facilites grow property value goes up. Please join me in voting YES on F.

Mike
Guest
Mike
5 years ago

Attend a board meeting? Most people, myself included have went to the hospital and paid a premium price to receive care that was the doctor saying “how many OxyContin do you want and what milligram?” You need to right your own ship as it directly contributes to the opioid epidemic. and let go of your hate , spite, anger, and petty resentment? Okay I will and everyone else will once you actually start doing your job. It sounds like a pretty good deal to me, I actually want a functional hospital in garberville but there is not one even after a 31 year tax. So being California you think that extending the tax will improve things, so as I said previously right your own ship.

Soon-to-be Former County Supervisor Ryan Dumberg
Guest
Soon-to-be Former County Supervisor Ryan Dumberg
5 years ago
Reply to  Mike

Speaking of OxyContin, isn’t it finally time for that racist pill-popping drug addict Rush Limbaugh to get clean? 🐘💊

tisk tisk
Guest
tisk tisk
5 years ago
Reply to  Mike

“How many oxy you want? What milligram?”

Sure! Total lie….SHCHD made me sign an address, copied my id, made me sign a form, stating I will not sell the 5 Vicodin, I was about to receive. All before I could receive the small prescription.

Mike
Guest
Mike
5 years ago
Reply to  tisk tisk

Yeah, I had ID and I have a address and I had to sign allot of forms including my insurance form and yes after that my statement is true. They “miss diagnosed” a broken colllar bone and a torn rotator cuff for a prescription for OxyContin, I refused had my friend drive me to fortuna where I received actually medical care, involving surgery. My story is not unique it is one of a million, literally. I actually find it offensive when people say I don’t have the right to be upset. If I get food poisoning at a restaurant I quit going there and that hospital has no shortages of horror stories.

Behavioral
Guest
Behavioral
5 years ago

The redwoods rural health ad on this site has a spelling error.

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
Ernie Branscomb
5 years ago
Reply to  Behavioral

Your sense of humor was lost on 99% of the people that read this blog, but I enjoyed it. Thanks for the break in the tension!

NO $0.34/DAY FOR SHCHD! NOT THIS TIME...
Guest
NO $0.34/DAY FOR SHCHD! NOT THIS TIME...
5 years ago
Reply to  ?

This is a load of poop. Maybe in Alabama… Arkansas. Kansas. Or somewhere nice, like, Iowa.

Soon-to-be Former County Supervisor Ryan Dumberg
Guest
Soon-to-be Former County Supervisor Ryan Dumberg
5 years ago

Iowa? Have you ever spent any time in Iowa? I guess Iowa’s nice, if you like corn 🌽 and snow ⛄️. — a lot of corn🌽 and a lot of snow⛄️!

Hello?
Guest
Hello?
5 years ago

Why did they take all the measure S money up to Eureka to spend on the tweaker crack heads? Meanwhile closing the only hospital down here? The roads are so bad they write tickets instead of fixing them when 101 gets blocked? The schools have to raise enough money to hire their teachers? The police literally will not come when you call them, and Eureka has already heavily benefited from the money generated down here.
So you vote yes on an obscene and unlawful tax (measure S) to send more money out of our community (for crackheads and bureaucrats in Eureka) when cannabis is the only industry down here bringing any money into the pool, and vote no on a existing tax that keeps your ass alive when you need emergency help? Good thinking people.
Vote yes! spend a little less on candy and potato chips if you have to.

Joe
Guest
Joe
5 years ago

I am sick of people who trash this town and everything in it. This hospital is a good thing. It may have some issues, but we would suffer so much more if it were to close. Those of you shouting to deny the funding are cutting off your noses to spite your faces. I can only imagine what this town would be like if people offered support instead of insult.

Wise up. Vote yes on F.

NO $0.34/DAY FOR SHCHD! NOT THIS TIME...
Guest
NO $0.34/DAY FOR SHCHD! NOT THIS TIME...
5 years ago

From my point of view, the people who say that:
-the folks opposed to Measure F are “haters” and
-they are “disaffected former employees” who want “to destroy” the hospital,
-property values will plummet
-“the hospital will close”
-“the ER will close”
-the opposer is “lying about everything”
-you should volunteer to be on the board
-you should go to a board meeting

The “pro-measure F crowd”, are very emotional, rather over-wrought, and full of the half-truths that SHCHD circulates before each election.

SHCHD threatens to close, but, in fact, if it was in bankruptcy, management companies would appear wanting to take over, and the hospital would continue, under new management or new owners.

Look around, this is currently happening in Colusa, Cedarville, Tulare, and in Lone Pine.

It could be that outside management would be an improvement, but, THE HOSPITAL WILL NOT CLOSE. THE ER WILL NOT CLOSE, regardless of the outcome of Measure F.

Property Values are NOT linked to available services. There is no peer-reviewed study indicating that this will happen in Northern California. And especially not in Humboldt County.

The property value argument is all smoke. Don’t buy it.

You can go to a board meeting, but bored is what you will be. Take some No-Doze. The Board does not want your input. You can’t just be on the Board by volunteering! If they don’t know you or like you, you will never be on the board. You would have to be in their church, in their club, a relative, or the child of a prominent donor. Or you would have to BE a big donor.

They don’t ELECT the Board, the Board appoints persons they like! Period.

If you previously worked there, at SHCHD, no one in Garberville EVER wants to see you again. You are poison. Especially if you worked under Harry Jasper, or made a decent salary. POISON.

EVERYONE will blame you for EVERYTHING bad that EVER happened at SHCHD. You. can’t. ever. work. here. again. The End.

They are very afraid of competent people who “might change something”.

It’s very amusing.

The pernicious, paranoid, particularly provincial, parochial, puerile and persnickety folks at SHCHD LOVE their silly little hospital. They will tell you to “join the family”, but they don’t tell you how dysfunctional the family really is…

Which brings us to the haters…

The REAL haters are the ones who call everyone opposed to Measure F, a “hater”, and the REAL liars
are the SHCHD crowd trying to sell YOU this mess.

The Mess that was assembled at the last minute, just like Measure W.

And they are selling it with the same disingenuous tactics.

The REAL “disaffected” are the ones who want no changes, and who want you to “just pay for it”!

WHY WOULD YOU VOTE FOR THIS? THE PRO-MEASURE F FOLKS ARE FULL OF NONSENSE!

KEEP YOUR MONEY! VOTE NO ON F!!

tisk tisk
Guest
tisk tisk
5 years ago

Speak for yourself!😂

Groba dude trustafarian osnt
Guest
Groba dude trustafarian osnt
5 years ago
Reply to  tisk tisk

Whoops, forgot “pretentious”…

😅
Guest
😅
5 years ago

Your best trait!

Concerned Business Owner and Resident
Guest
Concerned Business Owner and Resident
5 years ago

For a town that is lacking in emergency services of all kinds, I think it would be a grave mistake to have the only available hospital for miles, close it’s doors.

Consider being in Garberville, Redway, Alderpoint, Shelter Cove or any rural road and in dire need of an ambulance with no one to call. Critical patients need to be treated and stabilized in under an hour generally if they are to survive.

I certainly don’t support the hospital being used as a revolving door for drug addicts or vagrants but to cut down on that, businesses and residents should be clearing these types aggressively off of their roads, freeways, storefronts and properties — so that the key services can continue to be of value for productive community members.

I was stuck up on hill in Benbow in serious need of emergency medical help about three years ago. I was alone, was to sick to drive and my only option was to call 911. I’ve never had to call for an ambulance before in my life. Ambulance arrived in minutes and the matter was resolved at Garberville Hospital. My only complaint was that the nurse was rude, as many nurses can be, but I’m thankful services were available in a pinch!

Mike
Guest
Mike
5 years ago

It would be a good deal if it taxed all residents of southern Humboldt the same but it doesn’t. I don’t think the hospital should be closed but I do think that all the residents of southern Humboldt should be taxed evenly for the services provided. NO ONE is saying close the hospital, we are just saying that a parcel tax is not the right way.

What the F
Guest
What the F
5 years ago

It’s a shame JPH cannot have a civil debate about this issue, in public. People allowed questions and receive quantified answers in a respectful and meaningful way. That people can see you, look into your eyes as you answer their questions.

It just seems to me, since owning our home here for over 40 years, JPH needs more than fear mongering and deception to sell itself. I used google, tried to obtain any information I could about JPH. And maybe I’m naive, but it seems this information below provides the most unbiased (third party) financial information I could locate, even though its 6 years old. If the only way you have to sell a product is by fear mongering and deception, then you don’t have a very good product. It’s too bad JPH has not updated this report or used it on their own website, please enjoy.

http://humboldtlafco.org/wp-content/uploads/SHCHD-Adopted-MSR_11.14.12.pdf

Groba dude trustafarian osnt
Guest
Groba dude trustafarian osnt
5 years ago

Word.

Thanks bro…