Arbor Health | Arbor Health and Life | Summer 2020

Anticipating the challenges or triumphs of the future Morton Medical Center joins the Arbor Health family Many people in East Lewis County have always assumed Morton Medical Center was a part of Morton Hospital, possibly because the clinic facility is located on hospital property. However, Morton Medical Center had always been a privately owned business. While the doctors always had medical privileges at the hospital, the two organizations were separate entities. Until now, that is. As of April 13, all of the Morton Medi- cal staff became employees of Lewis County Hospital District No. 1. With that, the facility is undergoing a name change. It will be known as Arbor Health, Morton Clinic—in keeping with the Randle Clinic and Mossyrock Clinic names. “We are pleased to welcome the entire clinic staff to our team,” says Leianne Everett, Arbor Health CEO. “This idea has been discussed several times through the years and was always some- thing the hospital district leadership From left: Kay Brooks, physician assistant; Char Hancock, office manager; Kathy Dean, LPN; Merrell Cooper, DO; Shelly Cheney, medical assistant; Mark Hansen, MD; Rosa Battrick, LPN; and Julie Hansen, biller. Not pictured are Stacey Dotson, referral coordinator, and Brooke Mays, receptionist. >> health NEWS Leianne Everett, CEO Hospital administrators are continually challenged to make decisions today based on an anticipated tomorrow. Health care is forever changing, so this is nothing new. However, as I write this column—a full six weeks before this publication will arrive in your mailbox (allowing time for production, printing and mailing), there is no way I can predict the situation we will be living in. In the third week of May, will our medi- cal providers still be swabbing people for COVID-19? Will we all know someone who was affected by this virus? Will our hospitals still be swollen with gravely ill patients? Will our area businesses be struggling financially, and therefore our commu- nity members’ incomes be threatened or even lost? Or will we be on the upswing? Will the virus be on the way out? Or better yet, will it be a memory? Will we be talk- ing about what we went through when the virus was making its way through our country? It’s impossible to predict— which makes it pretty challenging to write an article that feels timely when this publication arrives in your mail. We made the decision to prepare articles in this edition of Health & Life as if we are healing and moving on to much brighter days. I hope and pray that is the case. I wrote the following to our staff in the days we were gearing up for the predicted surge of patients—but I think it’s equally fitting for our community: When this is over, may we never take each other for granted. When this is over, may we find that we have become better spouses, better parents, better sisters/brothers, better friends. When this is over, may we be better to each other because we have been through the worst together. No matter what the circumstances of COVID-19, Arbor Health is strong, it is united and it is staffed by extraordinary people. We are here for you. Leianne Everett, CEO wanted to see happen. This year, every- thing finally fell into place. We believe it’s a good move for all of us.” The Morton Clinic staff, too, is glad to have made the transition. “We are pleased to be joining Arbor Health,” Mark Hansen, MD, says. “This will provide more seamless patient care between test results, specialty care, hospital and ER, and our clinic.” The clinic’s existing patients will see some advantages from the change: ●   ● Morton Clinic medical records are now available to Morton Hospital emer- gency department physicians. ●   ● The clinic is now a part of the Arbor Health website, myarborhealth.org , which includes online bill pay. ●   ● Beginning in June, clinic patients will have access to the Arbor Health Patient Portal, enabling them to request and manage appointments, send secure messages to their care team, and view lab results, among other actions. 2 MYARBORHEALTH.ORG