Scott Swanson
Wiley Creek is staying put.
That was the message from Samaritan Health officials, who ate crow and ‘fessed up to a mollified crowd Saturday morning, pledging to keep Wiley Creek’s assisted senior living facility open and work with the community to ensure it stays that way.
“We’re here,” Marty Cahill, chief executive officer of Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital told the crowd Saturday. “Uncle. We got it.”
The Saturday meeting followed three others, the first two on Tuesday, Jan. 12, in which Samaritan made what Wiley Creek resident Emmy Dimick, 87, described as a “bombshell” announcement that it was planning to convert the assisted living program into a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility, forcing elderly, infirm residents to seek other housing.
“I was quite upset,” Dimick said of the manner and contents of the announcement.
In a follow-up meeting Thursday evening and during a protest held outside the Wiley Creek Main Lodge, which houses the assisted living program, 200-plus local residents delivered a barrage of outrage to Cahill and Samaritan Corvallis CEO Doug Boysen.
Meanwhile, local residents amassed 1,580 signatures on a change.org petition and vociferously chastised Samaritan for the decision via social media channels.
Friday morning, Samaritan announced it was reversing course and would keep the assisted living program open.
“It’s open. I don’t want to go through this again,” Cahill told the crowd Saturday morning, to loud cheers and applause.
Several audience members thanked the two for showing up to hear Sweet Home’s concerns and for making the decision quickly.
“I appreciate you guys bringing this to a positive, decisive conclusion,” said Mike Garber, whose father is a resident in the assisted living lodge.
Ron King suggested that there were some “lessons” for Samaritan that may prove valuable as the process of figuring out Wiley Creek’s future and the planned substance abuse rehab facility move forward.
He offered a list: “You’ve learned that people like this place, maybe more than you thought. You’ve learned that the community cares and will defend Wiley Creek Community. You’ve learned that elders and patients want to stay in their communities. You’ve learned that it’s traumatic to relocate elders in a facility like this. You’ve learned that hospital buildings and rooms are not … interchangeable. You’ve learned the value of consulting local residents and including local residents in planning. You’ve learned that you’ve used the wrong approach in planning this move.”
Residents, Employees Relieved
Marsha Blankenship, who’s been manager of Wiley Creek for seven months leading up to last week’s sequence of events, said it caused “a lot of stress and anxiety for residents and employees.”
Betty Morrill, who’s “going on 92,” sat outside her door, which faced the area where Saturday’s meeting took place.
“We were shocked,” she said of Tuesday’s announcement. “Moving isn’t a real good thing right now when you get to be my age. I need to be settled. I thought I was going to live and die here.”
Dorothy Potter, who will turn 98 next week, moved to Wiley Creek in 2000 from Alaska and into assisted living care in 2010. Her daughter, Janey Smith, was one of two children of the assisted living residents who happened to be at the initial meeting on Jan. 12 when the announcement was made that the seniors would have to move.
“It was a fluke,” Smith said. “I happened to show up.”
She said her mother was “uprooted and downsized” in the move to Wiley Creek, “then downsized again to move into assisted care.”
“She wasn’t looking forward to moving again,” Smith said following Saturday’s meeting. “It’s been pretty upsetting, the last couple of days.”
Potter, resting in her room, said she was “real happy” with the outcome.
“I came down from Alaska, knowing this place was here,” she said.
Gene Patterson, 87, a two-year resident of Wiley Creek, said he was also relieved.
“I think it’s great to finally get it settled,” he said, noting that he’d put money down “on a place in Lebanon.”
“Praise the Lord, I don’t have to take it. I’ll be happy to lose that deposit.”
Karla Hammond, who has worked for the facility two years as a resident associate who cares for the elderly occupants in her section, said the experience has been “overwhelming.”
“I’m amazed at how the community came together. It was just amazing.”
Mending Fences
Boysen said in Saturday morning’s meeting that Thursday was “rough” for both CEOs, but “it was good for us to hear it,” apologizing for “all the anxiety that we put” residents and employees through.
“The tough decision that we reached was the wrong decision, and we’re here humbly admitting that.
“What I heard Thursday night is people love this place and they like how it’s being operated, and they like the employees here. After 20 years we had a hiccup. And I apologize for the hiccup. But I’m hoping for at least another 20 years, going forward, if not 100 years,” he said to loud applause.
He emphasized that Samaritan wants to work with local residents, citing “power and energy we saw in this room on Thursday (that) was amazing.
“We want to be part of Sweet Home,” he said. “That positive energy, let’s take that and make this place better than ever, and we need your help to do that.”
The atmosphere at Saturday’s meeting was distinctly tempered compared to Thursday’s meeting, which waxed a bit chaotic at times.
Rachel Kittson-Maqatish, a local attorney and community leader, said it’s become evident that, to many Sweet Home residents, “this is not just a building.
“We have beautiful people from our community that we cherish and love here. That’s a huge part of our community.”
Others emphasized that clarity and honesty will be necessary.
“As long as communications are open, this community will back you,” said Jim Morris, who moved to the area two years ago from California and who noted that he’s been employed by large corporations “like eBay and Lucas Films,” where mistakes happen. “We all make mistakes.”
Substance Abuse Treatment Center Plans
Morris and others voiced support for locating a drug and alcohol treatment center in Sweet Home.
Boysen and Cahill said a treatment center would provide “30 to 50” jobs, which would include positions other than clinical personnel.
“Hopefully, many could be employed from this community,” Cahill said.
Samaritan would be seeking “the right type of facility that we don’t have to invest a huge amount of money into, because there’s not a lot of money in that business to begin with,” Boysen said. To serve 15 inpatients, which is the size the corporation has in mind to start, 15 bedrooms, 15 bathrooms and showers, meeting rooms and other facilities would be required.
“We would have to be very careful about the location and site that we choose and we have to make sure there is community support behind it,” he said.
Cahill told The New Era Friday that regardless of where a substance abuse facility might be located, it would take “four to six months, with licensing, credentialing, and all of those things, to get it up and running.” The 15-bed minimum is the minimum necessary to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid funding and Samaritan is looking into other options, he said.
The two said they have received a number of tips and suggestions about possible sites and financial resources since the news broke last week about Samaritan’s plans and those ideas are being researched.
“We’re committed to staying here, but we have more vetting to do,” Boysen said. “That’s one of the positives that came out of Thursday – people had a lot of good ideas and we’re trying to vet those ideas right now.
He emphasized that “this is not a Sweet Home issue. It’s an issue. I don’t want to leave here making you think that Sweet Home is any worse on that issue than other areas.”
He and Cahill also emphasized that, though Samaritan has been discussing the rehab center since last summer, the decision to put it at Wiley Creek was made “recently.” Cahill told The New Era on Friday that the actual decision was made late in the previous week, before Tuesday’s announcement.
The possibility of local employment opportunities clearly resonated with some Saturday.
“This community does need jobs,” Morris said. “We do need alcohol and drug treatment centers. We don’t want anything that is going to ruin it for the community of Sweet Home.
Garber said that the “honesty and integrity that you’re showing right now in working with the community” made it imperative that the community support the facility.
“There’s no way Sweet Home can walk away from the opportunity for the number of jobs and the help that you guys would be providing for the other part of society and working within your structure.”
Will Garrett, whose family lives near Wiley Creek and who owns a radiator supply business in Sweet Home, said he’s seen the need among young people.
“I’ve seen young employees throw their lives away on little pills,” he said. “I see the need for making sure these kids get help. It’s a problem I face as an employer. It’s a very big problem, very close to home for me. We should not look at that with a negative eye.”
One audience member expressed concerns that patients in a rehab facility would “just be able to walk out the door.”
Cahill said the facility will be “for people who want to get better.
“This would be a voluntary program where we have beds for people who want to come and get clean and be well.”
Profitability
One audience member on Saturday noted that the complex is built on 42 acres, much of which is empty land and asked why it could not be expanded.
Cahill acknowledged that building new facilities might be an option.
He told The New Era Friday that the question is whether there would be sufficient demand to make it worth adding more.
“The space is there,” he said. “If you make it bigger, will they come? You can create volume, but does it meet up? That scalability for us, it hasn’t made money. Should we make it bigger to the point that we get the economies of scale and if it’s not making money, how much more should be invest in it?”
Others on Saturday offered a variety of suggestions as to how Wiley Creek could increase its profits.
They included providing memory care, stroke rehabilitation and physical therapy services.
Cahill said other options include increasing the number of beds, more independent housing, or providing office space for medical practitioners “so people can receive care on this end of town.”
“There are a number of things and properties we have that we can look at,” he said.
Rebecca Baxter, herself an in-home care provider, noted that Sunshine Industries recently built a new facility to serve individuals with developmental disabilities.
“This community will do anything that needs to be done,” she said. “There is an incredible group of human beings that just happens to live in Sweet Home.”
Moving Forward
Responding to criticism from audience members about the process – or lack of one, as some put it – that Samaritan used to notify residents and the community about its plans, Boysen said Samaritan leaders learned “that the right people didn’t know about this soon enough in the right fashion. I think we learned from that.”
Audience members appeared interested in learning how the community could contribute to the next steps.
Kittson-Maqatish told the crowd that Samaritan is interested in partnering with Sweet Home residents.
“What does that mean and what does a good partner do?” she asked, rhetorically. “A good partner brings things to the table as well, and as we move forward, what I hear them saying is that they are extending the hand of partnership and we need to be part of that.
“Good partners extend grace and they move forward and they look to the positive. When we speak respectfully and get our message across in a respectful way and treat them with respect and they treat us with respect, we can do amazing things.”
Garrett suggested Sweet Home has “an opportunity to show our maturity” and “move on.”
“A mistake was made. Let’s move forward. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut. I think, as a community, we’ll remember this for a few days, but moving on and seeing how we can build this stronger is very important.”
Sitting in front of her room, Betty Morrill said she was relieved.
“It’s costly to move, if you can even find a place.
“I’m very happy. I can sleep now.”