BY SARAH ROSS

SALEM- With hot weather comes more danger of heat related illnesses, so the Oregon Department of Human Services released their set of “hot weather safety tips” in preparation for the coming weekend.

“Prevention is the best defense,” said Dr. Mel Kohn, Director of Oregon Public Health. “Drinking plenty of water, staying out of the sun during the hottest part of the day, and knowing the warming signs of heat related illness are a few important steps people can take.”

Symptoms for heat related problems include headaches, dizziness, and weakness. In extreme cases, convulsions and a sudden loss of consciousness can result from high temperatures and can be fatal.

Those most at risk illnesses like heat exhaustion, dehydration, and heat stroke are children, those over the age of 65, those that work outside, people with certain illnesses, and those who are overweight.

Below is the ODHS’s list of tips for avoiding a heat condition:

- Never leave children in a parked car, even if the windows are cracked

- Use the buddy system if you are working outside

- If you are over 65, have a friend or relative call to check on you twice a day during a heat wave

- Avoid hot foods and heavy meets, which add heat to your body

- Avoid exercising outdoors during the heat of the day

- Dress infants and children in cool, loose clothing and shade their heads and faces with hats or an umbrella

- Limit sun exposure during mid-day hours

- Draw all shades, blinds, and curtains in rooms when exposed to direct sunlight

BY RACHEL CHEESEMAN

SALEM- As of July 6, the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program may no longer require Oregon residency as a part of the medical marijuana permit application process.

Formerly, applicants needed to supply proof of residency as well as Oregon identification as part of their application materials. However, the OMMP was informed by the Department of Justice that such a requirement was inconsistent with the language of the bill.

Tawana Nichols, manager of the OMMP, said that while the program was created with the intent of benefitting Oregonians specifically, there was no requirement of Oregon residency written into the bill, so they could not lawfully require it.

While residency will, for the time being, not be a requirement, patients still must be prescribed medical marijuana by a licensed Oregon physician holding either an MD or a DO – Doctor of Osteopathy – and purchase their product within state lines; and the protection afforded by the program does not extend beyond Oregon’s borders.

Nichols said she could not speak to the possibility of Oregon residency becoming a formal requirement within the statute in a later legislative session.

BY RACHEL CHEESEMAN

SALEM - The allotment reduction strategies of Oregon’s state agencies were made available on the Department of Administrative Services website Wednesday.

The Department of Corrections reduced its budget by $52 million and will close three correctional facilities – the Mill Creek Correctional Facility and the Santiam Correctional Institution in Salem and the Powder River Correctional Facility in Baker City. In addition to layoffs, the cuts will result in the release of 966 minimum-custody inmates and the elimination of “a substantial component of the Alternative Incarceration Program.”

Nathan Allen, the Planning and Budget Administrator for the Department of Corrections, said the inmates to be released would pose very little to no risk to public safety.

“These are folks who are, in all reality, not that far from their normal release date,” he said, adding that they would go through all of the standard post-release processes.

Allen said the department began setting aside money early in the biennium, so some of those were included in the savings. Other cuts were made by restricting administrative travel and training. Allen said they wanted to preserve programs like vocational programs and drug and alcohol programs as much as possible.

“We consciously did not make reductions in those programs,” Allen said. “It’s very difficult to restore those at a later date, so we tried to preserve that infrastructure in this process.”

The Department of Education, which was asked to reduce its budget by $259 million, reduced the State School Fund allotment by about $238 million. Due to Oregon’s system of local control, the department does not have information as to how different school districts will manage this reduction in funds. That information will be made available later.

Suzanne Smith, Communications Manager for the Department of Education, said the formula for reductions is based on enrollment, so larger school districts will have larger cuts. The Portland School District, for example, will have to reduce its budget by about $19 million, while the Tillamook School District will have to reduce its budget by $821,000.

Matt Shelby, spokesperson for Portland Public Schools, said a variety of options were on the table from tapping reserve funds to layoffs and reducing the number of instructional days.

“I think when you’re talking almost $19 million, that’s a big hole to fill,” he said. “You don’t get there by simply belt-tightening at the central office. It’s going to have to take some pretty significant measures.”

Shelby also said that the fundraising activity of different schools varied widely, with more affluent districts tending to raise more money. However, one-third of the money raised went into an equity fund that could be tapped by other schools with less fundraising capacity.

Additional cuts in the Department of Education included $5 million in Pre-Kindergarten grants. The funds for the Oregon School for the Deaf were reduced by $500,000. The Blind and Visually Impaired student fund was reduced by $138,000.

To cut costs in the Department of Human Services by the necessary $158 million, various salary freezes were implemented. Benefits were increased five percent instead of nine for many employees. In addition, the Department of Human Services no longer will cover healthcare-acquired infections.

The Oregon State Hospital’s budget has been reduced by $4.8 million, and the Community Mental Health Program was reduced by $4.9 million. The department plans to limit the employment-related daycare program to save $17 million. The allotment reduction detail says that this reduces the number of families with access to the program by 4,685.

The Department of Human Services could not be reached by deadline.

BY RACHEL CHEESEMAN

SALEM- A recent report prepared by the Office for Oregon Health Policy Research, a branch of the Oregon Health Authority, showed that Oregon hospitals have a statistically lower incidence of healthcare acquired infections than the national average.

The report indicates that healthcare acquired infections (HAI’s) complicate 5-10% of hospital admissions. Of those affected, 100,000 die annually, making HAI’s one of the top ten leading causes of death in the country, along with heart disease and lung cancer.

The report called the financial burdens caused by HAI’s “substantial and increasing,” costing the state of Oregon $15 million in excess healthcare expenses in 2005.

The average HAI in Oregon results in an additional $32,000 in hospital expenses, six times the cost of delivering a child.

Currently, Oregon is one of 10 states with a statewide HAI reporting program, but many hospitals submit this information voluntarily to the National Healthcare Security Network. Information from this database was used as a yardstick to compare Oregon hospitals to their peers across the country.

The report is the first of its kind to be released since the creation of the Oregon Health Care Acquired Infection Reporting Program, a result of House Bill 2524, spearheaded by Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D- Portland, and passed with broad bipartisan support.

The reporting program requires hospitals to report all incidents of three of the most common HAI’s (central line blood stream infections, coronary bypass graft infections and knee replacement infections) through a secure Web-based interface. Sean Kolmer, deputy administrator of the OHPR, said that while the reporting process is “very labor-intensive,” the 50 hospitals involved had “really stepped up to the plate.”

“Most facilities that we’ve talked to have really effectively built this into their workflows, and they see this as a valuable tool for them,” he said.

According to the report, Oregon has incident rates of central line bloodstream infections and coronary bypass graft infections that are approximately 40% and 30% below the national average respectively and knee replacement infection rates comparable to the national average.

“I think Oregon can take some pride in the results. At the same time, these reports demonstrate that there’s still work for us to do,” said Dr. Steve Gordon, chief quality officer of PeaceHealth Oregon.

Greenlick said he feels that the results are not nearly as important as the fact that this information is now available to the public, adding that he wants to see more types of infections reported.

“I really believe that public disclosure is really instrumental in getting hospitals to do what they need to do to prevent hospital acquired infections,” he said “I want a lot more things reported, and I want them reported fast.”

Kolmer said that “the vision of the reporting program is to slowly grow” in future years, to expand the scope of reported HAI’s, specifically to pediatric conditions and those affecting women.

While Gordon also feels that there are plenty more HAI’s that could be reported, he wants there to be a balance so that focus remains on prevention.

By 2011, the practice of annual reports on HAI’s in hospitals will give way to a process of quarterly updates, which will continue indefinitely.

“We have more work to do, and we’re going to continue to do that work,” Gordon said.

BY SARAH ROSS

SALEM- In a Thursday press release, the Oregon Department of Human Services, announced that cigarette sales in Oregon have declined since 2008.

The data found that 183 million packs of cigarettes were sold during 2009 which is down from 189 million packs sold the year before.

DHS credited this to their Oregon Tobacco Prevention and Education Program which launched in 1996. Tobacco sales have decline 46 percent since that time.

“We’ve helped create a state where 83% of adults don’t smoke, all workers are protected from secondhand smoke and young people have less access to tobacco. More than a quarter of Oregon smokers have broken their deadly addiction since our work began,” said Katrina Hedberg who studies factors affecting health and illness for the Oregon Public Health Division.