DEVOTED TO HEALTHFUL LIVING COMPASS LATE SUMMER 2025 See us in Seaside, too Take advantage of off-campus services Photo: The team from our Seaside Pharmacy is ready to serve you.
2 HEALTH COMPASS Late Summer 2025 Campus construction updates Erik Thorsen, CEO Over the past year, we’ve completed many prerequisites to officially start work on the new hospital structure. We’ve worked with the City of Astoria, Pacific Power, Spectrum and other companies to remove electric and cable lines, as well as power poles, from Exchange Street. They are burying new lines underground to offer an improved view from our campus. We added a new, temporary helipad on the east side of our campus, and we closed the Health & Wellness Park and labyrinth. We also rerouted water and sewer pipes, preparing and upgrading the infrastructure beneath the construction site to support the future hospital for many years. This month, the construction on our campus will get even more exciting! You’ll see more fencing going up, and the construction of the foundation of the new hospital will begin. Patients will be routed to a new parking area and will enter through a new “main entrance” while we build our new facility. We can’t wait to see the building start to take shape. As we wait, we encourage you to explore off-campus services if you want to avoid the construction work. Some of those services include online bill pay or bill pay over the phone; walk-in labs and imaging at our Seaside and Warrenton Clinics; and specialty services like Cardiology, Foot and Ankle, and Pediatrics in Seaside. Be sure to take a look at pages 4 and 5 of the Health Compass for more information on our off-campus services and a map of campus showing the main entrance we’ll use during the two-year construction period. State of Oregon budgets $6 million for CMH Funding reflects commitment to resilience in hospital expansion Columbia Memorial Hospital is thrilled to receive a state budget allocation of $6 million to help fund resiliency goals in its hospital expansion. “We are deeply grateful to Rep. Cyrus Javadi, Sen. Suzanne Weber, Governor Tina Kotek, the Oregon Legislature, CFM Advocates and everyone who supported this budget allocation for health care in Clatsop County,” says Erik Thorsen, CEO. “This investment will help us get closer to 100% funding for the project and ensure uninterrupted, lifesaving care in critical moments.” Thorsen says the state support demonstrates a shared commitment to the health and well-being of the region. “CMH’s mission is ‘We help people live their healthiest lives.’ We are proud to partner with the state to build a stronger, healthier future for the North Oregon Coast,” Thorsen says. “We thank our state leaders for believing in the vision of the BuildCMH Expansion Project and investing in the resiliency measures to keep rural Oregonians safe in natural disasters.”
COLUMBIAMEMORIAL.ORG Late Summer 2025 3 Exploring the safety measures Phase I of the expansion is set to be completed in 2027. The resiliency measures included in the design go beyond regulation requirements and will allow the hospital to provide vital services to the Astoria community in case of an earthquake or tsunami. Those measures include: ● Strengthened foundations to survive earthquake-induced liquefaction and tsunami-induced scouring effects. ● All critical patient care spaces and support systems elevated above the extreme event site-specific inundation zone. ● A tsunami-safe refuge space that can accommodate up to 1,898 people in the aftermath of a Cascadia event. ● An external, vertical staircase to allow evacuation to the safe refuge space from the surrounding community. ● A helipad, located on the roof of the structure, to facilitate posttsunami evacuation and supply delivery. ● Additional storage for food, water and supplies to support people seeking refuge prior to evacuation. ● An elevated Emergency Operations Center to maintain communication with the region and response teams during an event. ● Elevated electrical generators, with mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems hardened for patient support and maintained through the intended refuge period. Expanding needed services The expansion will include total new construction of approximately 180,000 square feet, incorporating a critically needed expansion of the Emergency Department. Other expanded areas include additional operating rooms, advanced imaging equipment, additional and larger patient rooms, and expanded lab services. The expansion will help CMH continue to grow, bringing new services and state-of-the-art technology and equipment to the community, including robotic surgery.
4 HEALTH COMPASS Late Summer 2025 New main entrance Many of you are familiar with our West Lobby, considered our main entrance to the hospital, which is typically reached off of Exchange and 20th streets. Later this summer, 20th Street, between Exchange and Franklin, and the West Lobby parking lot will be closed — to make way for the new hospital! Instead of entering the front doors off of the West Lobby, patients will park in the lots south of the hospital and enter through back doors leading to our Gift Shop Atrium. That’s the door between Professional Office Building 1 and Professional Office Building 2. We’ll have signs directing you where to park and how to enter the building. This will be the new “main entrance” to CMH for the majority of the two-year construction period, so please help us spread the word. PoB 2 PoB 1 Exchange St. Frank Exit to Exchange 18th Street 19th Street New Main Construction Zone Patient and Visitor Parking Emergency Department Patient Parking Construction Zone Walking Path Cancer Center *Additional parking may be available along Exchange St. Emergency Room access Patients and ambulances going to the Emergency Room will continue to use the driveway off of Exchange Street to reach the Emergency Room entrance. THIS MONTH Enter CMH through new main entrance off of 22nd Street and Franklin Avenue This month, you’ll see exciting changes on the CMH campus in Astoria as our general contractor team begins working on the foundation of the BuildCMH Expansion Project. After officially breaking ground on the project in October 2024, it will be great to see the building’s footprint as we look toward its opening in just a couple of years. Before that can happen, we want to make you aware of how the changes on campus will affect you, our patients and our community. CAMPUS CONSTRUCTION
COLUMBIAMEMORIAL.ORG Late Summer 2025 5 Exchange St. Marine Dr. anklin Ave. 22nd Street Main Hospital n Entrance Park Medical Center Emergency Department Health and Wellness Pavilion Watch the project’s progress View live webcams, read project updates and hear more about what the expansion is bringing to Astoria at columbiamemorial.org/buildcmh. Route to new main entrance Remember: 20th Street between Exchange and Franklin will be closed later this month. To drive to CMH for in-hospital appointments, you can turn onto 22nd Street from Exchange Street. From there, you’ll drive along Franklin Avenue, which goes behind the hospital, to the new patient parking lots south of the hospital. See the map for the route. Services off-site Want to avoid the construction? Depending on your needs, you may be able to visit other CMH locations for services, rather than visiting the main hospital campus in Astoria. In addition to our locations in Astoria, we have: ● Urgent Care Clinics in Seaside and Warrenton ● A pharmacy in Seaside ● Walk-in labs in Seaside and Warrenton, with extended hours in the Astoria Health & Wellness Pavilion ● Walk-in imaging in Seaside and Warrenton ● Specialty appointments in Seaside (Cardiology, Foot and Ankle, and Pediatrics) ● Bill pay online (columbiamemorial.org/ billpay) or over the phone (503-338-7530) Questions If you have questions, comments or suggestions about these changes, please visit columbiamemorial.org/buildcmh and fill out the form. We respond to most submissions within 24 hours and would welcome your feedback.
6 HEALTH COMPASS Late Summer 2025 Introducing palliative care at CMH CMH is excited to announce the start of a palliative care program this fall in conjunction with its services at Lower Columbia Hospice (now Lower Columbia Hospice & Palliative Care). When we share this news with people, the first question we are asked is usually, “How is palliative care different from hospice?” The confusion is easy to understand, and even many health care professionals aren’t sure how the two programs are different. Palliative care vs. hospice There are shared goals between hospice and palliative care. They both seek to minimize symptoms and help improve quality of life for as long as possible. The main difference is that to qualify for hospice care, a person has stopped seeking treatment for their medical condition and has an estimated life expectancy of six months or less. Many people struggle with symptoms from their illness or the side effects caused by treating that illness, but they don’t qualify for hospice, and they want to continue with their current treatment plan. Our palliative care program seeks to help that group of people. How palliative care works Palliative care providers work in close collaboration with a person’s referring provider to target their specific needs. The program will consist of a nurse practitioner, Amanda Shields, MSN, ANP-C; a social worker; and spiritual support from the CMH chaplain. Registered nurses will also help as needed for additional support. Like hospice, the program will be community-based. This means that we will go to each person’s home for visits. In addition to routine visits made at the agreedupon time, a nurse will be available after-hours, by phone, for emergent needs. The team will also be able to assist people with advance care planning, helping people understand available options and making sure individual goals align with their treatment plan. The pilot palliative care program began in mid-August, and the goal is to begin expanding services throughout Clatsop County next year. Interested in palliative care? Visit columbiamemorial.org/palliative-care to learn more about the services offered by our team.
COLUMBIAMEMORIAL.ORG Late Summer 2025 7 M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust awards CMH $400,000 grant The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust recently awarded CMH $400,000 for the BuildCMH capital campaign — one of the larger contributions awarded during its current grant cycle. The gift furthers a 20-year partnership with the trust that started with a $50,000 grant to upgrade the trauma system in the Emergency Department in 2005. The relationship deepened with a $300,000 grant to the CMH-OHSU Knight Cancer Collaborative in 2018. Now, with this $400,000 grant toward CMH’s expansion, the Murdock Trust has donated a total of $750,000 to CMH over the past two decades and has solidified itself as one of the top capital contributors to the organization. “We want to thank the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and their Board of Trustees for recognizing the value of this project,” says Mark Kujala, executive director of the CMH Foundation, “and continuing our strong partnership focused on bringing quality health care to the North Coast community.” Behind the process Beginning in 2024, Junia Stephens, donor specialist for the CMH Foundation, coordinated the grant request to fund resiliency measures in the hospital expansion. The application relied on detailed information supplied by the BuildCMH project team, CMH executive leadership, the Finance and Marketing departments, and directors throughout the organization to produce a comprehensive proposal. An on-site presentation outlining the request followed early this year. Several members of the CMH executive team, the Board of Trustees and the Foundation Board of Directors participated in an interview and tour of the campus with the Murdock Trust Senior Program Officer before CMH was notified of the award in early May. The Murdock Trust partners with nonprofit organizations across the Pacific Northwest. Founded by Jack Murdock, co-founder of Tektronix, with a $91 million investment in 1975, the trust has grown to help fund more than $1.5 billion in grants to nonprofits over the last half century. The trust believes in developing strategic relationships with their nonprofit partners, and CMH has been the beneficiary of the growing relationship, Kujala says. FOUNDATION FEATURE We want to thank the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and their Board of Trustees for recognizing the value of this project,” says Mark Kujala, executive director of the CMH Foundation, “and continuing our strong partnership focused on bringing quality health care to the North Coast community.”
COLUMBIA MEMORIAL HOSPITAL 2111 Exchange St. Astoria, OR 97103 Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Salem, OR Permit No. 86 Cover photo by Sarah Bello, director of communications. CMH HEALTH COMPASS is published as a community service by COLUMBIA MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, a Planetree Gold-Certified Person-Centered Care Facility. 2111 Exchange St., Astoria, OR 97103, telephone 503-325-4321, website: columbiamemorial.org For information about CMH HEALTH COMPASS: Sarah Bello, MBA, Director of Communications CAPT. Doug Kaup President, Board of Trustees Erik Thorsen, MBA, CPA, FACHE Chief Executive Officer Nicole Williams, MPA, FACHE Chief Operating Officer/ Assistant CEO Jimmy Heilman, MD, MBA Chief Medical Officer Information in CMH HEALTH COMPASS comes from a wide range of medical experts. If you have any concerns or questions about specific content that may affect your health, please contact your health care provider. Models may be used in photos and illustrations. 2025 © Coffey Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Jennifer Peach-Guzman, RN, BSN, MBA Vice President, Patient Care Services Jarrod Karnofski, DPT, ATC, MSHCA Vice President, Ancillary and Support Services Christopher Laman, PharmD, MBA Vice President, Strategy Brandon Parker, MBA, CPA Vice President, Finance Nicole Perez, BSHA, MSITM Vice President, Health Information Services Meet Amanda Shields, ANP-C Amanda Shields, ANP-C, is a palliative care nurse practitioner at Lower Columbia Hospice & Palliative Care in Astoria. QWhat does person-centered care mean to you? “All my patients are individuals. They come to me with many life experiences that have a huge impact on their health. My role is to listen to them and try to understand who they are as a person and what is most important to them in respect to their health care. I respect their choices while being an advocate and guide to help them achieve what is most important to them in their health and life.” QWhy have you chosen to work in palliative care? “Palliative care is an area in the medical field where I can truly practice holistic medicine and help my patients live the best life they can at a time in their life where they are likely facing many challenges and life can be overwhelming. I feel I have the ability to truly help my patients live a better life. Even though I may not be able to ‘cure their disease,’ I feel I can always find a way to have some positive impact on their life, comfort and well-being. That brings me great joy and professional satisfaction.” QWhat do you do to connect with your patients? “I offer a warm smile, being truly present for my patients and promoting a sense that, for the time I am with them, I am truly with them. They are my focus, and what they say to me truly matters. “I love to know about who my patients are outside of the medical diagnoses, so within the boundaries of professionalism, I like to ask about their family, hobbies, work and what brings them joy, and I will also share tidbits about my own life that I feel may be appropriate.” Learn more about Lower Columbia Hospice & Palliative Care at columbiamemorial.org/palliative-care. Looking for a new pharmacy? CMH’s Outpatient Pharmacies in Seaside and Astoria are open daily. They offer free weekday delivery from Knappa to Cannon Beach. You do not need to be a CMH patient to use the pharmacy. Give us a call today! Astoria: 503-338-4560 Seaside: 503-738-3006
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