Hospital District seeks public input

We are “East Adams Rural Healthcare”.

To the great majority of people, “healthcare” means being healed when sick or injured. That is very certainly a key part of what we do, but it is by no means our full mission.

We are also deeply concerned with getting everyone in our community fully healthy, and keeping them fully healthy.

That second part of our mission operates on several levels: on an individual basis, we want to see you for periodic checkups to assure that you are healthy and, if not, to help you to get there.

On a community basis, we want to sponsor programs aimed at helping people do the things needful to maintain health, from quitting smoking to losing weight to participating in healthy exercise.

On a social basis, we participate in local and regional coalitions, such as Rural East Adams Coalition for Health (REACH), to try to better what are called nowadays the “social determinants of health”: affordable housing, available, well-paying jobs, crime reduction, and the whole spectrum of factors outside hospital walls that nonetheless affect community health.

But even just within the healthcare arena, there are obstacles. I am always dismayed when I find that many of the capabilities we have to help people with health are largely unknown in the community.

Not so long ago, it was pointed out to me that a local resident was looking online for a dentist, and got numerous suggestions for practices located anywhere from Moses Lake to Spokane; it came as a surprise to the posters that we have an excellent dentist right here in Ritzville, Dr. Davis, who is in the EARH Ritzville facility every other Wednesday, and can perform any dental service short of major surgery right here.

Another capability EARH offers is Therapy. Many people think of physical therapy as just something to do after some major accident or surgery, but the reality is that PT can help reduce or eliminate many nagging aches and pains that are not the result of a specific injury.

Moreover, we offer not just Physical Therapy, but Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy.

Then there are our other visiting specialists, covering a range of specialized practices from podiatry to cardiology. I urge you to ask us what different services we can offer you to help you get and stay healthy.

What else does the community want from its District?

We want to know. If there are healthcare services we are not currently offering that you think we might or should, tell us.

You can send us written letters to EARH Community Input; 903 South Adams Street; Ritzville WA, 99169. Or you can shoot us an email to [email protected].

And you need not limit comments to suggestions for new services; tell us what you think we are doing now that we should be doing better or differently, or what do you think we do especially well.

This is a Public Hospital District: you own it.

Help us to help you.