The Closure of Urgent Care in Scotts Valley, by Bonnie Burns • Urgent

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SCCAS Featured Pet LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The Closure of Urgent Care in Scotts Valley

The imminent closure of PAMF’s Urgent Care Center in Scotts Valley is where he fell. They quickly got his blood pressure and blood sugar stabilized while evidence of the growing power of health care organizations. Santa Cruz Medical Foundation, the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and Sutter Health, all nonprofits of varying types, have each entered into interlocking, overlapping contracts for medical care. Each of these medical systems is run by highly paid administrators contracting with each other’s organization and with the payers of health care coverage like Medicare and Meet The Adorable Whiskers! MediCal, and employers small and large

Howdy, I’m Whiskers (A283024), a black and white male kitty that was like the UC employees health care system. transferred here from the Hitchcock Individuals who get their health care road animal shelter down in Salinas! through these interlocking health care attack. We were very lucky that urgent care was so close. We were grateful they I’m so excited to be in front of new faces, and contracts have no voice in the decisions take full advantage of this second chance for a by these health care owners and adminfurever home. So if you’re looking for a cuddly, istrator. They alone determine what and playful, fun-loving kitty, read on! where we will receive health care in our

As you can see from my photos, I am just communities. As taxpayers, we subsidize as cute as I am inquisitive. I weigh just under these foundations and the networks they 9 lbs, which means I can be picked up and create through their tax-exempt status, cuddled with ease. I turn into a total purr- but we have no part in the decisions they machine when I’m being held, and love to be make about our health care services. carried around everywhere! The Legislature should consider

But don’t worry, I also love being on all- holding hearings to determine if the tax fours; whether that means entertaining myself status of these organizations as not-foror playing with you! I do have to admit, from profit continues to be a justified expense time to time I can get a little overwhelmed and need a break. You can count on me for taxpayers. If as some allege, they to tell you, gently, when I’m ready for some me-time. are losing money keeping the urgent

“Overall, you couldn’t ask for a better kitty,” and that’s coming from the care center in Scotts Valley open, maybe shelter staff themselves! scrutiny of the salaries of high paid

So what are you waiting for? executives and administrators in each

Adoptions are first come, first served! Please view available animals on our of these overlapping networks is a line website and then visit the Shelter to turn in your application. All adoptions require item for potential cost savings and not proof of home ownership or landlord approval. Please have this information pre- the elimination of urgent care services pared. If an animal is in Foster Care, please bring in your adoption application for thousands of Scotts Valley and San and schedule an appointment to meet the animal. Call 831-454-7200 x0 during Lorenzo Valley residents. business hours or visit www.scanimalshelter.org for more information! n The closure of the Scotts Valley urgent ••• care will require rural residents in the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter’s full-service, open-admission shelter: San Lorenzo Valley, and rural residents Santa Cruz Location (Public Entrance): 1001 Rodriguez St., Santa Cruz, 95062 of Scotts Valley and the North County, to Hours: Daily 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. travel many more miles for urgent care Watsonville Location: CURRENTLY CLOSED 580 Airport Blvd, Watson- services, sometime during peak traffic ville, CA 95076 hours that can take 40 minutes or more. SCCAS Main line: 831-454-7200. Animal Control: 831-454-7227. After-Hours Emergency: 831-471-1182 • After Hours: jillian.ganley@santacruzcounty.us More miles and longer travel times can have serious consequences for people seeking urgent medical attention, and is particularly dangerous for older people with serious health care conditions. Some people seeking urgent medical attention and unable to quickly get an assessment of their medical condition may call 911, call an ambulance, or go to Dominican to get care. At a recent meeting on this topic I heard people relate each of these actions they would have taken if urgent care had not been available. Early this year, my elderly husband had a fall in the hills above Scotts Valley High School and ripped the skin off of both his arms as he rolled down the hillside. He was bleeding profusely, is diabetic and was in shock. Fortunately urgent care was close to they were treating his wounds. It took them more than 3 hours of medical care before he was able to go home, bandaged from his wrists to above his elbows on each arm. Had urgent care not been there I would have driven him to Dominican that during afternoon commute hours would have taken at least 45 minutes, during which he could have passed out from a low blood sugar and shock, or because of his age and health condition had a heart were there, and we sincerely hope that PAMF will keep that resource in our community. — Bonnie Burns, Scotts Valley •••

Urgent care: 20-minute drive without traffic

The question is: What would they need for them to change their decision?! Or from a different perspective: why are they making this decision?! Clearly it’s not because there aren’t enough urgent events nor people who have them. So what do they say is their reason?! I have lived in Scotts Valley for over 30 years and the urgent care facility has been an important part of my and my family’s health care. And still is. One of my daughters now lives in Boulder Creek...20 minutes away on a day without traffic. As it is, I worry about if she needs to see a doctor urgently...add another 20 minutes for her to get over to...where?? And then last Wednesday there was the major traffic backup heading south mid-afternoon (not even “rush hour”)... no movement on Highway 17, barely movement on Glen Canyon. What if there was an urgent medical need for anyone from Scotts Valley or the San Lorenzo Valley? Over the 30 years I”ve watched Sutter/PAMF take over Scotts Valley Medical and Santa Cruz Medical. We used to have an independent hospital on Frederick Street in Santa Cruz, now part of Dignity Health. Can the county supervisors mandate that if a major medical company operates within the county borders they MUST provide an urgent care facility in each community? (ie Scotts Valley, San Lorenzo Valley, Santa Cruz, Aptos, Capitola, Soquel, Watsonville). Of course then, that said...we already know how the insurance companies manipulate the medical practices in California, and Sutter might just say screw you Santa Cruz and split. n — Suzy Hunt