Patients honor Quaempts MISSION – About 60 people, including many members of the community, gathered Feb. 5 at a farewell reception for Dr. Matt “Rex” Quaempts, who is leaving Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center on the Umatilla Indian Reservation. An honor song on the big drum and a Washat song honored Quaempts, and Raphael Bill sang him a song at the end of the two-hour event in the Laxsimwit Conference Room. Gary Burke, Chair of the CTUIR Board of Trustees, said he was saddened to see Quaempts go. Burke was a patient of Dr. Quaempts. “Umatilla will always be the right spot for you,” Burke said, noting that Yakama didn’t want Quaempts to leave five years ago. Burke, Quaempts’ brother-in-law, called him an Indian doctor – “both spiritually and physically.” Quaempts worked as the Medical Department Director and as a family physician for four and a half years at Yellowhawk. He is taking time off and said he likely will return to Yakama where he worked for Indian Health Service for 25 years.
Members of the community took turns praising the doctor and a video with several people, including many youth, also saying they will miss him. Mildred Quaempts, who spoke first in Indian, probably summed it for everyone when she said, “Your heart is good, so anywhere you go this is your home. Thank you for being there for me. I know you aren’t really leaving because your heart and mind are here … Your heart is here and you know it … You light up this place with your heart and mind.” Sandy Sampson, a Yellowhawk employee, carried the microphone to speakers. Among others commenting on Quaempts’ departure were Kathryn Burke, Quaempts’ sister; cousin Dave Franklin; Health Commission members Susan Sheoships and Martina Gordon; former Health Commissioner Bob Shippentower; Rita “Tweetie” Morgan, who recently moved back to the Reservation; Angie Dearing and Rae Ann Oatman from Yellowhawk; Julie Taylor, director of the Department of Children and Family Services; and community members Mari Mills, Irma Spino, Kelly George and Kyle McGuire.
Dr. Matt “Rex” Quaempts shares a moment with Marlene Taylor after she presented him with a gift at a reception in his honor at Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center. About 50 people gathered to pay tribute to Quaempts, whose last day was Feb. 6.
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body tests positive for illicit substances, they don’t get opioids. We’ve cut 10,000 pills a month.” The biggest problem among the patients he sees is still alcohol. “We’ve had one opioid death in five years. I’m not saying it’s not a problem, but cardio vascular is number one, heart and attack and stroke are two, and cancer is three.” QUAEMPTS SAID HE’S BEEN THINKING about leaving for a year now. Although reports are that administration is pushing him out, Quaempts said the leadership is only a “small percent” of why he’s leaving. In fact, he said he wonders if he’s part of the problem. He describes himself as “abrasive” and “egocentric” and acknowledges that his “management style is different than the CEO.” But, he isn’t afraid to say that he has not been satisfied with the response from the administration. Up to the point of the interview Jan. 14, only patients had asked him why he’s leaving. Quaempts said his resignation was accepted in “short order” after he submitted it, but it was several days before the administration sat down to talk. During the interview, Quaempts said the Yellowhawk administration and the Tribes’ Health Commission have not been as supportive as he’d like. But he said in a Jan. 30 email, “I have enjoyed my work at Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center and I am leaving for professional reasons, not due to management.” Shawna Gavin, Health Commission Chair, fashioned a statement Feb. 5 after the Commission met. The statement reads: “Since Dr. Quaempts tendered his resignation, the Health Commission directed CEO Lisa Guzman to pursue avenues of ensuring medical coverage for the Health Center. Ms. Guzman, since her hire as YTHC CEO, has demonstrated her commitment to the health of CTUIR tribal members and community. We are confident in her
February 2019
expertise and fully support her through this transition.” HE SAID HE REALLY DOESN’T LIKE being an administrator in charge of the medical section at Yellowhawk. “Can I just be a doctor? I want to get ugly again, 60 hour weeks,” Quaempts said. “The trenches are where you see change.” The professional challenges for him as a doctor, he said, are lacking at Yellowhawk. “Here there’s a little bit of everything, but just a little bit,” he said. “The broad spectrum of cases, it’s been narrowed down here.” He said, “The numbers of patients [with disease] are few and far between. There’s a lot of stuff I’ve learned before but I’m not using it here.” QUAEMPTS IS WORRIED about Yellowhawk and the medical program’s immediate future. “My only reason for losing sleep is how the transition will go after my departure,” he said in an email Jan. 30. Quaempts said in another Jan. 30 email, “… there are many pieces that must fit together for a smooth transition. The pieces are falling together slowly; we will not really know for another month how the transition is going.” Quaempts said he has provided his recommendations to leadership and they are working out the details. “If the pieces do not fit well together, then the sky will fall (again only in the medical department, not Yellowhawk as a whole).” Quaempts continued in the email: “Like any organization, we have our troubles. My main concern is how the medical department can continue providing continuity of care to our patients. The rest of the organization is fully operational.” In an email Feb. 5, Yellowhawk CEO Lisa Guzman said the number one priority of Yellowhawk is to provide continuity of care to patients. “This healthcare organization like many others experience medical providers leaving a clinic system and community … Dr. Quaempts has chosen to move on; he has
been a valued part of the Yellowhawk team for the past four years,” Guzman wrote. “Change is not always easy,” Guzman continued. “However, our Yellowhawk Team developed a plan for the transition. The Yellowhawk Team has identified both temporary and long-term solutions to assist in providing care for the community.”
town … all the programs – prevention, the garden, health coaches, suicide prevention … but they complain because they can’t get in today. They complain on Facebook and go to the Health Commission … Community members need to respect and appreciate what they have. This is a topnotch clinic.”
TO DATE, QUAEMPTS SAID, “I don’t know if they’ve found a new provider.” He noted that during his four and a half years, three nurses and a psychiatrist have left Yellowhawk. “We’ve been trying to hire for two years, recruiting everywhere,” Quaempts said. “We’ve been hitting up every potential doctor, everywhere.” Quaempts said hiring a new provider won’t be quick. He said it takes two months “to credential” a new doctor. Quaempts said he thinks the St. Anthony emergency room is going to be busy and should be notified for potential visits. “I’ve told patients to look in the Yellow Pages for a doctor,” he said. Currently, Yellowhawk’s providers consist of Physicians, Family Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants and other specialty providers. Guzman said patients will continue to receive referrals to outside specialty care providers as needed. “Our team is committed to providing quality care to individuals, families and the community. Please be reassured that the Yellowhawk Team is here to ensure your patient needs are met,” Guzman said in the email. Quaempts said he told Guzman to protect the two Physician Assistants left at Yellowhawk. “I told her to build a wall around them and don’t let them get overwhelmed or you’ll lose them,” Quaempts said, noting that he has agreed to supervise the PA’s. (Supervision does not require him to be at Yellowhawk.)
QUAEMPTS SAID HE PLANS to work about five years until he is 62. “But I’ll probably work until I’m 67 and I’ll work in medicine in some form until I die.” He’s a clinical assistant professor at the University of Washington and he’s on the Advisory Board for the School of Medicine at Washington State University. He also advises on Native American health issues at Oregon Health Science University in Portland. Quaempts said he plans to be working again by April 1. “I could stay with Yakama or Umatilla until the end of my career. It would be ideal to work one week at Yakama and one week here,” he said. He said he has applied to Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, but wants to stay in Indian Country where he’s worked for the last 25 years.
SOME PEOPLE IN THE community, Quaempts said, haven’t been as supportive of Yellowhawk as they should be. “You hear bad things,” Quaempts said. “Patients have access to medical, labs, Xray, a full pharmacy. It beats anything in
Confederated Umatilla Journal
IN THE MEANTIME, Quaempts said he’ll be spending a couple of months in the mountains. And then decide what he’s going to do. “I want to work. Not everybody can work as a physician in this culture,” he said But for now “I plan to fish, hunt, play in the mountains.” Quaempts said, “I’m not bashing the community. People say why don’t you get more involved in the community, but with 12 hour days I’m usually the last out of building … I’ve been thinking about this for a year. As a physician, with the lifestyle now, I’m working six days a week. Sometimes the community doesn’t realize that.” There’s still a chance he could come back to Yellowhawk, although that chance seems slim. “I’ve been losing sleep,” he said at the interview. “I need to get out before the remorse sets in.”
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