As summer came to a close I was looking forward to an orderly unfolding of legislative work related to my committees and early preparation of bills for the next session which will be February, 2024. That did not come to pass. Major catastrophic events have dominated news and my thoughts. And there was the announcement that PeaceHealth would be closing the University District hospital. Within days I found myself organizing a meeting, and for the weeks since then I’ve led conversations about “What next?” I’ll write about that below. I'm also including info about events and meetings, preview of work for 2024, and some "good news" stories.

This photo: getting a preview of LCC's new Health Professions Building II which will house programs for Medical Assisting, Emergency Medical Technician, Dental Hygiene, and Dental Assisting.

If you missed my latest e-news, here's the link to Summer 2023 & Summer 2023 legislative wrap-up

Health care, hospitals, and urgent care

Closing the University District E.D.

I'll write this assuming you all have already heard or read about the PeaceHealth announcement to discontinue an ED (Emergency Department, or ER Emergency Room) at the University District hospital, the only hospital in Eugene. When we heard about this in late August I ramped up into high gear to ferret out what the closure would mean, and what we could do to mitigate the problem. When you find that the only ED in Eugene will close in 90 days, it's a crisis. After an initial meeting with key stakeholders I quickly determined that the best course of action is to advocate to change the delivery of "urgent care" and not pour money into maintaining a system that isn't working well for people who need care, and costs more than it needs to. I'm working with several savvy constituents, Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and the Governor's Office, Lane County Public Health, local legislators, Eugene's Mayor and city officials, coordinated care organizations, the University of Oregon, and Fire/EMS.

Our discussion is focusing now on an alarming wait time at the hospital ED and a lack of urgent care facilities. Impacting those problems are workforce shortages, federal and state rules that get in the way of using best practices and "right-sizing" response to match the patient's need, and antiquated rules about what the federal government will pay for. Some of our findings include long wait times to discharge a patient from the ambulance to the hospital ED (a half hour to two or more hours), a significant portion of ED visits identified as non-life-threatening situations, and lack of access to medications after local pharmacies close in the evening and on holidays. I'm looking to tackle each of those with a request for help to get us through a (temporary?) crisis and launch some innovative ideas coming from our emergency responders (Fire/EMS) and key public health and health policy officials. Ideas like "nurse navigation" at the 9-1-1 call center, and for non-life-threatening situations, providing health care at the caller's home or doctor's office or urgent care rather than the hospital ED.

By the way, did you know that emergency responders already take people with life-threatening symptoms (like heart attack and stroke) to Riverbend and not to the University District (UD) ED even if it's closer? Riverbend has advanced equipment, more staffing, and surgery not available at UD.

Cancer treatment, infusion, and PBMs

I visited Willamette Valley Cancer Institute to see their pharmacy and learn about new challenges imposed by Pharmacy Benefit Managers (see my previous newsletters). Those practices are hamstringing health care providers like WVCI and causing increased costs, inconvenience, and some reduced health care choice for patients.

Close-up look at a clinic pharmacy

Cancer treatment drugs: a "million dollar shelf"

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity continues to attract more and more local and national attention. It comes up at all sorts of meetings for various reasons, like how much more it costs business now to buy cybersecurity insurance, if they can find it. I spoke recently at a statewide conference of local officials, and at an annual summit. Lots of people "get it" now, and see why I worked so hard to establish a Cybersecurity Center of Excellence for Oregon to fill 7,000 job openings and help schools, small districts, and local governments.

Speaking to state and local technology professionals and cybersecurity leaders meeting in Salem.

Gov. Kotek signing bill creating the CCOE, with reps from UO, PSU, OSU, OIT, Technology Association of Oregon, and more.

Getting a look at Lane County's data center, and their continuous threat-assessment monitoring.

Cyber Resilience Summit: Annual summit hosted by University of Oregon, attended by about 300 public and private sector professionals and vendors, K-12 and higher ed employees and students, financial, power and electric, and others using IT (who doesn't?!). One of the important points at the annual Summit: know the adversaries! Photo on right: Checking out cybersecurity vendors at with Becky Gladstone, LWV.

Where the rubber meets the road

Here are two examples of UO research yielding practical application ... where the rubber meets the road.



Earthquakes

The Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center (CRESCENT) is a large-scale collaborative effort funded by the National Science Foundation and will be led by the University of Oregon. CRESCENT will conduct shoreline-crossing earthquake hazards research focused on the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ), diversify the geoscience workforce, provide skills training, and improve connections across the geohazards community. Scientists are participating from UO, Central Washington University, Oregon State University, University of Washington, Cal Poly Humboldt, Cedar Lake Research Group, Portland State University, Purdue University, Smith College, Stanford University, UC San Diego, Earthscope Consortium, University of North Carolina-Wilmington, U.S. Geological Survey, Virginia Tech, Washington State University, and Western Washington University.

Provided by UO: “CRESCENT will conduct research that is directly relevant to earthquake and tsunami hazards but too ambitious for any one scientist to take on individually,” said Amanda Thomas, the Chief Technical Officer for CRESCENT. The research involves analysis of large datasets using machine learning, earthquake and tsunami simulations using high-performance computing, and bringing a community of experts together to achieve common goals.

Biomechanics and footwear

From UO: One of the big stories that came out of the World Cup this year was the prevalence of ACL tears, which are estimated to have kept over 25 of the world’s top female soccer players on the sidelines. In fact, ACL tears disproportionately affect female athletes – at a rate three times higher than male soccer players.

Emily Karolidis is a Ph.D. student studying footwear biomechanics at the Bowerman Sports Science Center. In affiliation with the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance at Oregon, Karolidis is attempting to address this injury plaguing female soccer athletes and looking at performance footwear as a potential avenue to reduce injury risk. Her dissertation, “Changes in knee mechanics with systemic fatigue and soccer cleat stud shape appear to differ by sex” suggests that soccer cleat stud shape could moderate the risk of torsional injury in female athletes. See the full article.

Local Events

UO Jazz Ensemble performing "Down Low" (orig. 1966, Thad Jones Mel Lewis Orchestra at the Village Vanguard)

One of the fantastical sculptures at BRING Recycling. Check out their garden when you're there to get materials for home and garden.

Local Legislators Town Hall with Fahey, Holvey, Conrad, Manning and me. Audience questions included behavioral health care and treatment, state Kicker, forest fire management, & changing the quorum required to conduct legislative business.

Lantern Floating Ceremony at Peace Park, Alton Baker Park. The Hiroshima Commemoration is organized by a community group of concerned citizens for peace and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. It commemorates the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in 1945. My remarks.

With Terry Parker, League of Women Voters of Lane County. The LWVLC topic right now is Dark Money. "Dark money" refers to spending that is meant to influence political outcomes where the source of the money is not disclosed. See their November Argus newsletter.

Rep.Kim Miae, member of Korean National Assembly, visits Eugene with an invitation from Congresswoman Val Hoyle. Rep. Kim is a single mom with a unique and impressive life history, overcoming diversity to being one of the most powerful members of the National Assembly.

North Eugene High School grand opening

I took these photos at the North Eugene High School Open House, celebrating the opening of School District 4J's first new high school in over 50 years. I saw great spaces for construction and metal shops and CTE classes, the main and auxiliary gyms, a few of the 52 classrooms, the 425-seat auditorium, and the library/media center where I talked with the high school newspaper staff. A really fun evening! (Photo on right: looking into the courtyard from an art studio.)

Forestry and Forests

Legislators get invited to tours and site visits, many more than I can fit in. I put first priority on topics most important to my district. Then as time allows I go "out of district" to broaden my understanding of topics on our plate. It's really useful to go see things where they are – beyond hearings and reading reports.

Portland Metro Area: roads and bridges

Portland Metro Area projects for safety, modernization, and neighborhood improvements

The Speaker appointed me to co-chair a new joint committee with Senator Lew Frederick: the Joint Special Subcommittee on Transportation Planning. We'll spend the next few months, and at least 10 meetings, reviewing plans for bridge and highway projects for I-5 and I-205 in the Portland metro area, funded by tolling. See the committee webpage and and overview of the SSTP purpose and workplan.

Sen. Lew Frederick and I took a walking tour of the proposed project in Portland's Rose Quarter. Here's my social media post with photos and descriptions.

This is where the "lid" over I-5 would be, not far from Moda Center, creating new developable space and reconnecting the neighborhood.

On a river barge for a close-up look at improvements for the Abernethy Bridge. (more photos in social media post )

State news

State audits: financial, program performance, and IT

The Office of Secretary of State includes the Audits Division. Click here to read about their work and for access to audit reports, and here for their plan for audits this biennium.

Recent audit of prescription drugs and Pharmacy Benefits Managers: Poor Accountability and Transparency Harm Medicaid Patients and Independent Pharmacies.

Here's my press release: Drug Pricing Reform Champions Release Statements on Staggering PBM Audit

Looking at addictions, homelessness, and Measure 110

There has been growing frustration that the citizen initiative Measure 110 doesn’t seem to do be achieving the hoped-for results, getting people treatment they need, and that addiction and homelessness are not decreasing. As a reminder, in a very abbreviated summary, the measure decriminalized some drug possession, created a new tax to fund additional programs, and created a new formula for distributing treatment money to new programs. A bipartisan, bicameral committee has been appointed to work on the addiction crisis. News release announcing the committee and its work. Called by some the “Measure 110 Committee," the Joint Interim Committee On Addiction and Community Safety Response includes three members of the senate and three from the House. Legislators agree that something needs fixing; let’s see if we can get agreement on just what should be fixed. Committee homepage with meeting info and materials.