New entrance garden complete for Samaritan Health Sciences Campus
Thanks to $600,000 in donations, the Samaritan Health Sciences Campus — in the early phases of construction across Highway 20 from the hospital — now has a beautiful entrance garden, created by internationally renowned landscape designer Hoichi Kurisu.
Running 400 feet along Highway 20 and encompassing nearly an acre, the garden features mature Japanese maple trees, large boulders and two waterfalls. It is the first completed feature of the health sciences campus, which will eventually hold the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (COMP) Northwest – the first new medical school in Oregon in more than 100 years.
Included in the donations to the garden project were 700 tons of large rock given by Cascade Timber Consulting in Sweet Home and a $113,000 in-kind donation of services and materials from Kurisu’s design firm – Kurisu International.
“This garden is conceived not only as entry beautification for the Samaritan campus and the city of Lebanon, but also encompasses the wider reaches of humanity’s need to experience nature on a day-to-day basis,” Kurisu said. “Our intention was to design a garden that manifests this inherent connection between ourselves and the healing natural environment.”
Foundation purchases needed equipment for hospital and clinics
Lebanon Community Hospital Foundation donors recently helped fund $124,053 in equipment for the hospital and its affiliated clinics in east Linn County. Examples include:
- Glidescope and bariatric stretcher for the Emergency and Urgent Care Department Datascope for the Emenhiser Infusion Center
- Hysteroscope and supporting equipment for Mid-Valley OB/GYN
- Wheelchair scale for the Same Day Care Department
- Infant warmer for the Girod Birth Center
- Endoscopic surgery monitor for the Surgery Department
Foundation scholarships enhance local health care workforce
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there will be a “surging demand” for registered nurses in Oregon during the next 20 years. Oregon Health & Science University also reports that “nearly half of Oregon’s hospitals cannot provide on-call specialist treatment around the clock to emergency patients in at least one specialty.”
While the solution to Oregon’s looming health care workforce shortage is complicated, the Lebanon Community Hospital Foundation is helping to encourage qualified physicians and nurses to work in east Linn County. The foundation offers three different annual scholarships to students each year: the Frank Girod, MD, Medical Scholarship; the Rachel Easton, RN, Scholarship; and the John and Carol Dinges Medical Scholarship.
Established in 1998, the Girod Scholarship assists students from east Linn County who are pursuing careers in medicine. The scholarship is named in honor of Dr. Girod who died in 2001 at the age of 92, after an outstanding life of dedication to the community. As a primary care physician, he provided pediatric, obstetric, surgical and geriatric care in Linn County for almost 50 years.
Since 1998, the foundation has given $137,000 in Girod scholarships to 14 medical students.Ross Wopat of Lebanon and Nicholas Blake of Sweet were named the 2010 Girod Scholars. Both received $6,000 toward their medical school tuition during the 2010-11 academic year. Wopat, the son of Ellen and Rick Wopat, MD, is a student at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Blake, the son of Zsuzsa and Alan Blake, MD, is a student at Oregon Health & Science University.
The Easton Scholarship was established in December 2006 in memory of Rachel Easton, a longtime nurse at Samaritan’s Park Street Clinic in Lebanon, to assist east Linn County students who are seeking nursing education. The foundation coordinates the scholarship on behalf of a scholarship committee, which awards one $1,000 scholarship each year to a nursing student with a primary residence in either Brownsville, Cascadia, Crabtree, Crawfordsville, Foster, Halsey, Lacomb, Lebanon, Scio, Shedd, Sweet Home, Tangent or Waterloo. All applicants must currently be attending college and accepted into a nursing program, working toward a registered nursing degree, and they must provide a written statement of his/her goals and any community service involvement and an official transcript including Fall term grades.
Kerry Wooley of Sweet Home, a student in the Linn-Benton Community College (LBCC) registered nursing program, has been named the 2010 Easton Scholar. She received a $1,000 scholarship toward her nursing studies at LBCC. Wooley is currently working as a certified nursing assistant at the Twin Oaks Rehabilitation facility in Sweet Home.
The John and Carol Dinges Medical Scholarship is intended to provide financial support for students beginning an entry-level health care program at LBCC for the first time. Examples of entry-level programs include certified medical assistant, certified nursing assistant, medical office specialist and dental assistant. First preference is given to seniors and graduates of Lebanon High School, but seniors and graduates at all high schools in east Linn County are invited to apply.
Tyler Henry of Lebanon received the very first Dinges Scholarship in 2010. Henry is beginning the certified nursing assistant program at LBCC.