Saturday Thumbs
Saturday, November 22, 2008 12:36 AM PST
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E-mail this articleNov. 22 Daily News editorial
We’re in good hands
Thumbs up: It was a good week for St. John Medical Center in Longview. PeaceHealth, which operates St. John, was ranked first in the Western U.S. and fourth in the nation for quality of patient care in a recent survey.
The independent survey by the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety reviewed 73 hospital systems nationwide for quality data in four clinical areas. That St. John was part of such a high ranking speaks well for the care Cowlitz County residents receive at the hospital.
In addition, a Daily News story this week highlighted St. John’s new breast MRI service that allows doctors to better treat difficult breast cancer cases that otherwise would be sent out of town.
The hospital’s $400,000 investment in the machine showed again its commitment to maintaining state-of-the-art facilities and providing more local options for health care.
All park, no bark
Thumbs down: Longview apparently is reluctant to take advantage of a great opportunity to draw visitors off Interstate 5 by advertising its new dog park at Gerhart Gardens.
Parks Director Rich Bemm was quoted in The Daily News on Monday as saying he doesn’t think advertising the park on Interstate 5 is a good idea.
“The facility does cost money to operate, and I’m not sure I’m excited about advertising it off the freeway to bring non-residents in who don’t support the facility,” Bemm said. “I don’t mind them using it; I’m not sure I want to advertise.”
That seems to contradict a statement by Councilman Don Jensen in June as the city was preparing to allocate funding for the park.
“I think it’s another amenity our city can advertise,” Jensen said.
Jensen is right. The dog park could prove to be a big attraction to freeway travelers who then might take the opportunity to see more of the city. The city could even add signs pointing people into town and stock a kiosk with tourism brochures.
The council seems to have recognized how important such efforts are when it authorized spending $10,000 for a branding evaluation to learn how to market the city to visitors.
We’re no longer No. 1
Thumbs up: A recent report on cases of sexually transmitted diseases offered some promising news.
Gonorrhea cases in Cowlitz County dropped 67 percent from a year ago. Thankfully, the county no longer has the state’s highest gonorrhea rate, a dubious distinction that has hung over our heads the past three years.
Health officials project the county will drop to fourth place, as measured by the number of gonorrhea cases per capita. Pierce, King and Spokane counties likely will have higher rates than Cowlitz County, said Dr. Megan Guffey of the county health department.
Last year’s county rate of 131 cases per 100,000 people was dramatically higher than the state average of 56 cases per 100,000.
County Commissioner George Raiter was right to praise the work of the health department in educating the public about this problem, including screening inmates at the jail for STD’s.
That innovative thinking appears to have paid off and we look forward to even further progress in the year ahead.
A message worth ignoring
Thumbs down: Members of the Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church may show up in Longview on Dec. 5 to picket the college’s production of “The Laramie Project.”
The so-called church loves to draw attention to itself with such anti-gay protests throughout the country that even include picketing at the funerals of Americans killed in service.
As despicable as their motives and methods may be, what they do is nothing more than a circus act. Longview in the past has shown its disdain for such divisive types and it is unlikely the group will find a receptive audience here. Instead of picketing, this group should get some therapy.
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