Eastern Plumas Health Care’s Behavioral Health Program is based on a collaborative care model, which utilizes a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and a counselor who both work in collaboration with their patients’ primary care providers. Trish Foley, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, provides counseling services for those who are referred for, or request counseling. Irene Wojek, PMHNP, a Prim
ary Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, joined the program in May. She provides medication management and counseling services.
EPHC’s program is based on that of the AIMS (Advancing Integrated Mental Health Solutions) Center out of Washington State, explained Foley. They...
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Bringing It All Together: EPHC’s New Behavioral Health Program May 16, 2018
Eastern Plumas Health Care’s new Behavioral Health Program, jump-started by funding through a federal grant aimed at improving “the way care is delivered through California’s safety net hospital system,” has taken a big step forward recently. The grant has allowed EPHC to begin caring for the mental and emotional health of their patients in conjunction with the medical care they’ve already been receiving. Clinic Director, Rhonda Grandi, who wrote the grant, felt this was the project most needed by EPHC’s patients, given the high number of patients with a behavioral health diagnosis.
“Previously,” said Grandi, “the...
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EPHC Focuses on Improving Patient Care May 1, 2018
At the March 29 meeting of the Eastern Plumas Health Care (EPHC) District Board of Directors, discussion centered on the updates made to the 2017-18 Operating Plan (OP), along with talks regarding improving customer service and gaining employees.
In regards to employees at EPHC, much loved Portola dentist, Mario Garibotti, who joined the EPHC team last year, will be leaving at the end of June. Garibotti plans to move back to Southern California.
EPHC recently hired Katherine Pairish, who will replace outgoing CFO, Jeri Nelson, this summer. Nelson has seen EPHC through good financial times and bad, and is adept at finding...
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Putting the “Loyal” in Loyalton March 30, 2018
Teri Palmer, a long time Eastern Plumas Health Care employee, has worn many hats since she started at the hospital in 1985. Currently, she serves as Registration Clerk at Loyalton Medical Clinic, where she is updating the look of the Clinic’s interior by reaching into Loyalton’s past. Palmer’s family has lived in the Sierra Valley for eight generations, counting her grandchildren. At one point in the late 1980s – early 1990s Palmer says her “entire family worked here. Myself as CNA, Toni CNA/lab, Tami secretary to the Director of Nursing, my mom in the kitchen and dad in the maintenance...
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EPHC’s New/Old Ambulance March 26, 2018
Eastern Plumas Health Care has a new/old ambulance. Getting creative in order to give patients the best, and possibly most important, ride of their lives, Ambulance Manager, Steve Waldeck, recommended the hospital purchase a new Dodge chassis with a state of the art refurbished “box.” Waldeck said EPHC saved over $50,000, still coming through will all the important safety features, a vastly more comfortable ride, more visible LED lights, and a lower emissions vehicle. In short, the new rig is “more efficient, more reliable, and more responsible,” said Waldeck.
