Free flu vaccinations will be offered at Plumas County Public Health Agency (in Quincy) Tuesday, January 22nd from 2:00 pm – 4:30 pm and Wednesday, January 23rd from 8:30 am – 11:00 am. No appointment necessary. If you did not get your flu vaccine, it’s not too late! The United States is experiencing an early influenza season, with activity elevated nationally. Plumas County Public Health has conducted local surveillance showing the flu season has begun in Plumas County which is much earlier than past years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that anyone over the...

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Starting Aug. 1 2012, new group and individual private insurance plans and non-grandfathered* renewing plans (plans purchased after March 2010) will cover eight new preventive services for women. These services will be added to fourteen women’s preventive services that have been covered since Sept. 2010. All services, in effect, will be free to women (no deductible or co-pay) with qualifying insurance plans. Further, women have direct access to obstetrics and gynecological services without a referral from a primary care provider. New insurance policies will see the changes right away; others will see them when their policies renew—so it could be...

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Eastern Plumas Health Care has a lot to thank its Auxiliary for once again. The hospital is about to purchase a new 16 slice CT scanner. The new equipment will provide a significant increase in image quality and a substantial decrease in radiation and exam times for patients. Further, the high quality 3-D images make for a more accurate diagnosis of structures such as aneurysms, tumors, infections, and much more. The new CT equipment and room remodeling will cost the hospital close to $400,000, a portion of which will be financed. The Auxiliary raises money, primarily through its thriving Nifty...

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The Rotary Club of Portola has joined with Eastern Plumas Health Care once more, this time to provide CPR and First Aid training to Portola High School seniors. Rotary has a student group that meets at lunchtime at the high school, according to Josie Bastian. That’s where she first heard about the training. She and eight other seniors took part in the four hour course, held at EPHC’s Education Center. The CPR course was the brainchild of Rotary’s Rachelle Ramelli, who contacted the hospital with the idea. Steve Waldeck, EPHC’s Director of Ambulance Services, agreed to teach the class. He...

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Physicians have just begun utilizing the Clinical portion of our Electronic Health Record (EHR), called Physician Practice Documentation (PPD). Trainers from Healthland (our EHR provider), were on campus last week to help our physicians and nurse practitioners get used to using it during patient visits. Our practitioners have already participated in extensive hands on training with the program; now they've begun entering patient records during appointments. You can expect your health care provider to spend some time sitting at the computer--there is a station in each patient room. Your care provider will be able to show you x-rays, labs, ultrasounds,...

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Eastern Plumas Health Care will host a town hall meeting on Nov. 15 from 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. at their Portola Campus Education Center. Dinner will be served. EPHC wants to understand the needs of their Eastern Plumas community and to be proactive in their plans to provide the services this community needs the most. Please take this opportunity to discuss your health care needs with EPHC’s Chief Executive Officer, Tom Hayes and Plumas County Public Health Director, Mimi Hall. Also, EPHC is working with the Plumas County Public Health Agency and other area health and community organizations...

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Often a joint creative vision gifts us with something that is greater than the sum of its parts. EPHC’s Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) in Portola and Loyalton recently received two standing frames for patients at the cost of $3,300 each—both gifts, and both the result of a combination of hard work and caring on the part of hospital employees, community members, and a grant from the Rotary Foundation.* Jeanne Harper, an occupational and hand therapist who works with EPHC’s SNF patients came up with the idea of raising money to purchase a standing frame for her wheelchair bound patients. Standing...

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Eastern Plumas Health Care has recently purchased a new ultrasound machine—the GE Logic S8--which is several hundred pounds lighter and easier to move than the older unit it replaced. For Darlene Aikey, Ultrasound Technologist, the differences are much more profound. Replacing a ten year old machine means “light years in advancement.” Image quality on the new machine is much better thanks to “image harmonics,” which “puts together a set of ultrasound information and uses it to create a crisper image.” In layperson’s terms, it allows Aikey to see more in the image. It also allows for the same clear imaging no...

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Dr. Carolina Blanco, EPHC’s new dentist is a native of El Salvador. She’s most recently moved to Portola from her private practice in San Francisco. She’s a long way from home, but Blanco has a unique perspective on countries and borders: “For me, life is a country,” she said. Indeed, Blanco is more full of life than most anyone you’ll meet. She’s also very happy with the change of scenery and with the types of patients she gets to see here in Plumas County, as well. Dr. Blanco came to the United States from El Salvador in 1997, and had...

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If it’s possible for a year end hospital audit to be exciting, this one was, according to Eastern Plumas Health Care’s Board member, Jay Skutt. The Sept. 27 Board of Directors meeting heard the Auditor’s Report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012. EPHC showed such positive financial improvements, even Auditor Jerrel Tucker of TCA Partners LLP was excited. “For a hospital this size in the middle of nowhere, that’s a very good year. I was very surprised.” Tucker said that he chose to compare EPHC to “peer hospitals” that are “the best small hospitals in the state--to very profitable...

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