Potter & McKean County Community Source 1/25/22

25 2022

community

JANUARY

p o t t e r m c k e a n

county

Austin • Coudersport • Crosby • Eldred • Gifford • Kane • Lewis Run • Mt. Jewett • Otto Eldred • Port Allegany Ridgway • Roulette • Smethport • Turtlepoint

Pa. House committee hears problems impacting rural health of patients on Medicare or Medicaid.

“It is going to be important in the future to get surgeons trained in rural surgery,” he said, explaining rural surgeons have to perform quality work in a larger number and variety of procedures — all without other specialists nearby to help if a problem is encountered.

“I’ve had one student come out for a residency,” Graham said. “We need to see more of that.”

He mentioned, too, that people aren’t getting routine medical care.

“Nationwide there’s a 53% decrease in cancer screenings. People are waiting to get checked.”

Graham said he is now performing procedures in Warren since Bradford closed its operating rooms last year when services were moved to Olean, N.Y. “I understand the pressure that hospitals like Bradford have been under,” he said. “For me, that hospital is closed, functionally.”

Anne Hardy, former director of the emergency room at Bradford Regional Medical Center, said she retired in 2020 because services were closing at BRMC. “Rural communities have declining and aging populations, and limited local health care services,” she said.

Consequences include insufficient beds, poorly

BY MARCIE SCHELLHAMMER

Pennsylvania lawmakers learned during a virtual hearing Jan. 19 that rural health care officials are used to doing more with less, but the pandemic has taken more resources, decimated rosters and left behind exhausted workers.

Participants in the state House Majority Policy Committee virtual hearing — State Rep. Martin Causer, R-Turtlepoint, the committee chairman, and state Rep. Kathy Rapp, R-Warren, who chairs the House Health Committee, co-hosted the event — not only outlined problems in rural healthcare, but also offered ways the legislature could make things better.

During his testimony, Dr. Nate Graham, a Bradford-based surgeon who is now operating in Warren, said surgeons don’t move to rural areas.

“Surgeons were hard to find when I came here,” he said, explaining he’s been in the area 33 years. “The percentage of surgeons in rural practice was 2%; now it’s zero percent. It’s very hard to recruit surgeons in rural areas.

“We’re going to be facing a global problem in Pennsylvania,” he said.

“Half of the surgeons in the state are over 55. Of the ones who show interest in rural practice, they wanted to be in a bigger city.”

Graham mentioned that in his private practice, he’s been impacted by reduced reimbursements, especially in an area with a majority Rural Health continued on ....... page 2

Cameron, Potter, McKean among counties with cleanest waterways Cameron, Potter and McKean counties are among those in the state with the cleanest streams and rivers, according to a new state study, while Elk County was among counties with the most “impaired” waterways.

Overall, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection documented 2,418 more miles of polluted and impaired streams across Pennsylvania in a

2022 report than it did in a similar report in 2020.

According to the report, Cameron County, with 712 miles of stream, was found to have 29 miles impaired — at 2.9%, that was the lowest percentage of any county in the state.

In McKean County, with 1,942 miles of stream — and 1,910 miles assessed — 365 miles were cited as impaired, or 18.8%.

In Potter County, with 2,216 stream miles, 274

miles were cited as impaired, or 12.4%.

In Elk County, with 1,645 stream miles — many of them bearing the legacy of strip mining for coal resulting in acid mine runoff — 1,126 miles are listed as impaired, or 68.4%.

Only Lancaster County (89.4% of all county streams), Montgomery County (74.7%), Northumberland County (72.4%) and Chester County (71.9%) had higher

percentages of pollution in its streams of the 67 total counties in the state.

The top sources of water-quality impairment identified in the 2022 report are abandoned mine runoff, 7,356 miles, up from 5,550 miles in the 2020 report; agricultural runoff, 6,430 miles, up from 5,765 miles; and stormwater runoff, 3,502 miles, up from 3,206 miles.

Cleanest Waterways cont’d on .page 4

Wallace sworn in as Commonwealth Court judge in Pennhills ceremony BRADFORD — Judge Stacy Wallace was welcomed onto Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court during a swearing-in ceremony Saturday at the Pennhills Club.

After opening remarks from state Sen. Cris Dush, Wallace’s two children, Cora and Lucas, led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance before their father took the microphone to praise his wife and her supporters throughout the campaign process.

Wallace, a local attorney, won election to the court in November and will serve a 10-year term on the state bench.

State Treasurer Stacy Garrity then took the podium for the reading of the commission.

Following Garrity’s remarks, Wallace took the oath and received her robe from Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer, president judge, Curt Wallace, Alma Sorokes and Gary Peter Poleto, in front of a packed building of officials and supporters. “(Jubelirer) exemplifies the best qualities of a judge, and it was my great honor to have her administer my oath in my hometown,” Wallace said in her remarks.

She later reflected on the evening by saying, “It brought me so much joy to see people who helped me in different corners of the state get to meet and fellowship. … The night was filled with nothing but goodness and the most memorable moment of the night was when my husband referenced the biblical immaculate conception, the Steelers ‘immaculate reception’ and then my ‘immaculate election.’”

Also present for the ceremony were U.S. Rep.

Glenn Thompson, R-Centre Snyder County and Judge

County, Judge Steven Meyer of Potter County, Judge Christopher Hauser of McKean County, Judge Laurie Hackenberg of

Bill Todd and Judge Rich Luther, both of the McKean County Magisterial District Court, to welcome Wallace to the bench.

Garrity

noted

that Wallace made history being the the first from McKean County to be elected to the appellate bench, as well as the first McKean County woman to be elected judge.

Each judge took turns at the microphone speaking about their knowledge and faith in the good works that Wallace will exemplify on the bench. It was also said that retired Judge John

Cleland wanted to be there, but was unable to attend due to health reasons.

“I am so honored to be here today to witness the swearing in of such an amazing judge and amazing person,” Hackenberg said. “We as the citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania should relish in the fact that we have such a wonderful person coming on the bench in the Commonwealth Court.

Photo provided “I met Stacy Wallace and we became kindred State Treasurer Stacy spirits,” Hackenberg conGarrity (left) swears in tinued. “Her heart is a serCommonwealth Court Judge vant’s heart, she wants to Stacy Wallace, with her serve her constituents to husband and children by her the best of her ability and side, during a ceremony held she is going to do that and Saturday at the Pennhills she is wonderful at being Club. true to herself.”v

2

Rural Health continued from 1 staffed leadership roles, and no intensive care unit.

Hardy added that there have been challenges transporting patients elsewhere due to lack of beds from COVID overwhelming hospitals “which results in the emergency room being used as a CCU.” The pandemic has “already exacerbated known challenges,” she said.

Had the state Department of Health known that satisfaction levels with Olean General Hospital were so low, perhaps it would have been a “red flag … for reducing services” in Bradford, she said.

She asked the legislators if there was anything they could do to fill the gap in filling public health needs.

Those needs extend into transportation, explained Sally Scrivo, longtime volunteer emergency medical technician and owner of Bradford Area Transport Service, a transportation ambulance for non-urgent needs.

“Our patients are to go to another campus 23 miles away,” she said, explaining patients go from BRMC to Olean General Hospital, which are two campuses of the same facility. “We’re actually seeing patients going 130 miles away for dialysis. This patient is probably paying for

JANUARY 25, 2022

their own transport back to Bradford.”

With Medicare, there’s a $285 deductible for ambulance transport. “Quite often our sister hospital (Olean) does not have bed space, or the doctor refuses the patient. They require ambulance transport in to Bradford and then to another facility.”

Each leg of the journey means another deductible for the patient.

“The doctor at the other hospital refuses them if they don’t come by ambulance.

Insurance won’t pay for an ambulance because (they determine) it wasn’t medically necessary,” Scrivo said.

The cost of any medications given on her ambulance are not reimbursed to the ambulance service, either, she said.

“We’re sending a lot of patients to other hospitals,” she said. “Between the pandemic and transfers, we’re overwhelming the larger hospitals.”

This isn’t just a Bradford problem, but a national one.

She recounted taking a patient to an out-of-state hospital and being told to “leave the patient in any bed you can find, take your equipment and put the papers under the mattress.”

“We have seen patients lay in our hospital beds in the ER for up to 60 hours,” she said.

Scrivo added, “Many citizens are not seeking health care until it is too late. Many are elderly and cannot drive out of town to seek care.”

Rep. Tim Bonner, R-Grove City, asked about whether ambulance services

are in financial trouble.

“A lot of the rural ambulance services are volunteers,” Scrivo said, and volunteers are hard to find.

“The service is expensive to keep up. We don’t know what the answer is. We’re losing so much money in reimbursement.”

Bonner asked about a fire tax. Scrivo said volunteer fire departments have approached municipalities about it in the past, to no avail.

Nursing homes are in the same sort of situation, explained Charlotte Floravit of The Lutheran Home at Kane.

“We face severe compounding issues,” she said, “decreased reimbursements, severe workforce shortages and staff burnout.”

She explained long-term care providers need an advocate, a voice at the table when policies are being crafted.

“The long-term care industry is a driver for rural economic impact. In McKean County, it’s the fifth largest employment sector. In Kane Borough, we’re the town’s third largest employer.”

Floravit said vaccine hesitancy is a major issue, too.

“The vaccine mandate is

a hardship,” she said. “We have been told to improve (staff vaccination rates).

Our voluntary vaccine rate is above 97%. With the mandate looming, I would lose three employees I cannot afford to lose.”

The hesitancy leaves rural counties a “breeding ground for variants,” she said. To fill in the critical shortages, Floravit and her leadership team got emergency certifications to be nursing aides. “This is the only way we’ve been able to continue operating. It simply is not sustainable.”

She said it would be impossible for The Lutheran Home to meet the pending mandate for lower ratios of patients to staff.

Causer said, “There’s no one riding to the rescue.

There are some ideas about things that could help. The challenges are great.”

Janice Walters, a Potter County native who is the head of the Pennsylvania Rural Redesign Center and Rural Health Model, said the idea of the redesign is to “address financial challenges by changing how healthcare is paid for, to a value-based payment system under a global budget.”

The goal is to “allow hospitals to meet the needs (of a community) while minimizing the financial impact,” she said. Eighteen

hospitals, including BRMC and UPMC Kane, are in the system, as are six insurance carriers.

“One-point-three million Pennsylvania residents are impacted through the model,” she said. “We’re dedicated to supporting the organizations to help them keep the doors open.”

This is a test plan, she explained, and they are looking to expand in the future.”

Also speaking during the hearing were Mary LaRowe, interim head of Upper Allegheny Health System, and Don Boyd, president and CEO of Kaleida Health. Kaleida is the parent company of Upper Allegheny and its member hospitals, BRMC and OGH. Both said the issues facing local hospitals are the same all over the country — staffing shortages, the

pandemic, the high cost of traveling nurse agencies and fatigue of staff who have been dealing with COVID since the beginning of the pandemic.

“We’re not perfect, but we’re taking the community’s healthcare needs into consideration,” LaRowe said.

Boyd said he felt those who testified “represented the challenges well.” He added some other areas of struggle: “recruitment, lack of alignment in payment, declining population, labor force and work force.”

Explaining the process of integrating BRMC and OGH, he said the plan was to “leverage the strengths of Olean and Bradford for creation of Centers of Excellence with the recognition that the two are stronger together.”

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Cleanest Waterways continued from 1

In its draft 2022 Integrated Water Quality Monitoring Report, DEP found 27,886 miles of streams with impaired water quality, compared to 25,468 miles in the 2020 report.

That increased the percentage of Pennsylvania streams determined to be impaired to 33%, up 3% from 2020. One-third of assessed stream miles in the state now are deemed unsafe for aquatic life, recreation, fish consumption or water supply.

DEP noted that the miles of streams it assessed for the report increased by 5,844.

For the 2022 report, DEP expanded assessment of waterways, with 5,844 stream miles and 25,742 public lake acres newly assessed for a use. DEP reassessed 5,334 stream miles and 14,262 public lake acres.

The 2022 report also showcases water quality restoration, noting that since 2004, approximately 920 miles of streams and 28,000 acres of public lakes have been restored. While Elk County remains high on the list of polluted waters, gains have been made in mitigating and even canceling many effects of

JANUARY 25, 2022

acid main drainage in West Branch of the Susquehanna River tributaries.

To underscore the connections between water quality and climate change and nonpoint source pollution, the report also includes information on DEP’s 2021 state Climate Action Plan and the “Healthy Waters, Healthy Communities” effort in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

DEP said Pennsylvania is a national leader in the extent of its water quality assessment. The 2022 Integrated Water Quality Report reflects the cumulative assessment of 99% (84,977 miles) of stream miles and 97% (109,819 acres) of lake acres statewide since Pennsylvania began reporting for the Clean Water Act. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the federal Clean Water Act, which established the structure for regulating discharges of pollutants and regulating quality standards for surface waters in the U.S. An interactive version of the report is available on DEP’s Integrated Water Quality Report webpage. It allows users to zoom into their addresses to determine if local streams are impaired.

Public comments on the report will be accepted through March 1.

Kane’s Jenny Crowley competes for PA Fair Queen Jenny Crowley, Miss Kane High 2021 and Miss McKean County 2021, attended the Pennsylvania State Fair Queen competition Jan. 20-23 at the Hershey Lodge in Hershey.

She competed for the coveted title of PA Fair Queen with 58 contestants from counties in Pennsylvania.

The contestant selected as the 2022 PA Fair Queen will have earned a $2,500 scholarship and will spend the remainder of the year representing the PA State Association of County Fairs and the PA Department of Agriculture to promote Pennsylvania’s top industries of agriculture and tourism.

Contestants were judged on a 3- to 5-minute memorized speech, a 300-word written essay, stage introduction and personal interview. Points are awarded for public speaking ability, poise, stage presence, essay content, appearance, conversational ability and fair knowledge, just to name a few.

The PA Fair Queen Program’s mission is to provide educational opportunities for young women in Pennsylvania through our scholarship program for the selected Queen and Alternate, and to also provide a representative who can promote greater public understanding, awareness and interest in Pennsylvania’s top industries — agriculture and tourism.

Photo provided Crowley will attend Penn State University at State College to pur- The newly crowned 2021 McKean County Fair Queen, Jenny Crowley, seated, with sue a bachelor’s degree in hospitality the outgoing Miss McKean County Fair Queen, Emma Barr. management.

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