Oakridge loses medical clinic.

Byline: RANDI BJORNSTAD The Register-Guard

OAKRIDGE - It may not rank up there on the turmoil scale with the relocation of PeaceHealth operations from Eugene to Springfield, but closing the Oakridge Medical Clinic will create a noticeable void in this small eastern Lane County community.

Springfield-based McKenzie-Willamette Hospital has kept the clinic on Highway 58 functioning years after abandoning the rest of its community satellite clinics. But earlier this month, the hospital informed its Oakridge area patients that Feb. 15 will be the last day they can seek medical attention there.

The Oakridge clinic "is a vestige of the days when the hospital had numerous primary care clinics throughout the area," said Kathleen Deacon, chief operating officer at McKenzie-Willamette.

"The decision to close the clinic has been very difficult, but in the past year we've just been patching together the staff to keep it open, and it's not

something we can continue to do," Deacon said.

The town still will have Dr. Warren Griffith's Green Mountain Medical Clinic as well as the Five Rivers Family Practice operated by Edwin Weigh, a physician's assistant. Beyond that, the hospital has been trying to find a new doctor to establish a practice in Oakridge and take over the clinic's clientele, she said.

Weigh said he's been inundated with calls from people receiving care at the Oakridge Medical Clinic, but that he and Griffith together wouldn't be able to accommodate all of McKenzie-Willamette's patients.

"This really is a three-practice town," Weigh said. "The rest of us can take some of the patients, but we can't absorb all that will be out there looking."

A particularly difficult problem will be the fact that the Oakridge Medical Clinic treated many lower-income people whose care costs are managed through the Oregon Health Plan, Weigh said.

"I know they've had to absorb a lot of costs because of that, and while I'm willing to do as much of that as I can, my practice isn't large enough to be able to do as much as will be needed."

Mitch Boriskin, an emergency room and family nurse practitioner who has provided much of the care at the clinic for the past 17 years, said he also hates to see the facility close, but has known for years it eventually would happen.

"We serve a lot of poor people at this clinic - we have about 250 patients on the Oregon Health Plan, and that's the thing I'm most upset about," Boriskin said. "Those people will have a hard time finding alternative care."

Boriskin credits McKenzie-Willamette with keeping the clinic open longer than most other hospitals might have.

"They've been trying to keep this thing afloat for a long time," he said. "I'm certainly not upset with the hospital, I'm just sad about the state of affairs. People who are mobile will be OK, but those who are poor won't be OK."

Oakridge resident Sharon O'Brien said she and her husband, Richard, definitely will feel the effects.

"We both have chronic (conditions) that require a doctor every month to month and a half," O'Brien said.

"We really hope another doctor will move in here and take over the clinic."

If that doesn't happen, the O'Briens will face the prospect of driving nearly an hour to get to a doctor, probably in the Thurston area on Springfield's east side, she said.

"That's what we're facing, I guess - this is not good," she said.

Deacon said McKenzie-Willamette will do all it can between now and mid-February to help its patients establish themselves with new physicians.

Clients at the clinic will need to choose a new primary care physician right away and notify the clinic to have medical records transferred.

FOR HELP

People who need help in rearranging their medical services should call the Oakridge Medical Clinic at 782-2221.

CAPTION(S):

Nurse practitioner Mitch Boriskin (left) and patient Richard O'Brien are troubled by Oakridge Medical Clinic's impending closure.